Hi, I’m dr. Naomi watkins

A woman outdoors wearing a gray hat, a blue denim jacket, and a tan vest, smiling with her hand on her chest.

Rerooting the Individual. Reimagining the Collective.

I guide leaders and practitioners through periods of upheaval to intentionally root, rebuild, and rewrite their stories. My mission is to ensure that transition—whether personal, professional, or systemic—does not lead to burnout, but instead transforms into the most grounded and effective era of your life.

The Sequoia Circle is built on one core truth: Change is not a crisis, but life's only constant. Since upheaval is inevitable, our work focuses on the internal architecture required to meet every shift with resilience. I guide you to access ancient wisdom and develop embodied practices rooted in the natural world.

A group of people sitting outdoors in a wooded area, engaging in a social activity, with one person's arm extended holding a phone to take a selfie.

The Methodology: Beyond the Hustle

Most leadership and instructional models teach us to hustle through change. In the office, this looks like frantic rebuilding using the same rigid tools that led to the organizational collapse. When a system feels unsteady, poor leaders default to an instinct of standardization.

We see this in the workplace as a reach for enforcement—measuring output while ignoring the exhaustion of the human. In the classroom, it manifests as a transaction of time for compliance, treating students as passive vessels to be filled. We find ourselves in weary cycles of complaining about 'behavior' while students remain bored and disengaged—finding no relevance in a system that ignores their internal compass. This is the hallmark of a leadership failure: one that values uniformity over human agency.

I offer a different path by blending rigorous academic structure with somatic intelligence. As a PhD in Teaching & Learning with a Literacy focus and a former organizational co-founder, I architect systems that prioritize human agency over compliance. I translate complex systemic friction into clear, actionable cycles of change.

In my work, we use the biological wisdom of the nervous system and the structural integrity of the natural world as our primary guides. We use narrative reauthoring to bridge the gap between internal transformation and systemic impact. My commitment is rooted in a history of building high-capacity leadership environments—facilitating significant leaps in professional and personal sovereignty without sacrificing the integrity of the human being.

Tall giant redwood trees in a forest with green foliage and clear blue sky.

The Source of Wisdom: The Ocean, The Sequoia, and The Circle

Years after leaving my tenure-track academic position and organized religion—and following a period of deep personal trauma—I finally confessed to my therapist: I am utterly exhausted. The pain was too much to carry alone, but I couldn't bear to hold it any longer.

She asked me: "What can you do with this pain right now?"

I closed my eyes, and the answer arrived as a vision. I let the ocean hold me and scream all that pain into its dark, deep abyss, visualizing the earth absorbing every bit of it. A wave then carried me to a giant sequoia—a scar on its trunk, an opening. Enveloped by that great tree, I felt safe and warm. As the water nourished its roots, I merged with its trunk, becoming part of its enduring strength.

I then saw myself standing tall in a large circle of sequoias. Our branches swayed, nodding in recognition of our similar journeys. We stood in counsel, in solidarity. Collectively strong.

A person walking in a grassy field surrounded by yellow autumn trees with mountains in the distance under a clear blue sky, sunlight shining from the left.

the institutional gaP

My healing has not been linear. Community supports me; therapy delivers me; myth and story reveal possibilities. But it is nature that holds and guides me. She reminds me that this world—which has endured its own share of violence—knows how to let old things die, how to rebuild, and how to thrive.

I carried this realization with me into the professional landscape, where the disconnect became glaring. At an educator conference, I attended a session on "wellness" and realized we were failing. The room was filled with cognitive fixes, checklist supports, and "mindset" shifts—all while totally ignoring the body. We were attempting to solve systemic exhaustion with intellectual work alone.

It was my "Aha" moment: How can we talk about wellness, health, and growth while bypassing our bodies and souls? If our leadership and instructional models don't account for the nervous system and our connection to the living world, they are simply more "rigid tools" applied to a collapsing structure.

This is why I founded The Sequoia Circle. I blend rigorous academic structure with the biological intelligence of the natural world to move leaders from bored compliance to rooted sovereignty.

An individual standing near a campfire at night, with sparse bushes and trees around and a starry sky overhead.

Core Values

These principles define the culture and commitment of the The Sequoia Circle:

  • Radical Authenticity: We commit to dropping the masks of perfection. We seek honesty over comfort, believing your messy, true self is your most valuable tool.

  • Grounded Presence: This is the practice of anchoring your attention in your body and breath, which is the core source of your resilience against chaos.

  • The Power of the Collective: We believe in shared authority. The wisdom in this work is shared, ensuring you never feel isolated or reliant on a single source of truth in your change.

  • Ethical Container: We approach all work from a trauma-informed perspective. Our work is a vital companion to—but not a replacement for—clinical therapeutic support.

A woman standing upright on a hillside with sparse bushes, looking into the distance, in a black-and-white photograph.

Honoring place

My own deep rooting is in Salt Lake City, Utah, on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Shoshone, Goshute, and Ute Tribes. This connection to the land and its history informs the wisdom I bring to my practice and every teaching I share. We recognize that the ground we stand on is part of the story we are rewriting. We honor the indigenous stewards who have long understood the resilience of this ecosystem.

the invitation

One lone sequoia is a wonder. But a circle of sequoias? That’s a miracle worth investing in. I invite you to stand and grow with me and others in The Sequoia Circle, spreading our branches and wisdom into the possibilities of the future.

Credentials and Qualifications

Logo for The Forest Therapy School with the words 'Certified Guide' on a green background.
Open book titled "Champions of Change" showing illustrated women, with one woman featured in a portrait on the right page. The woman in the portrait is identified as Fanny Brooks.