Rev. Dr. Tami Coyne

"I first met Tami after my fiancee and college sweetheart was killed. I was on the road to recovery from grieving, but it was Tami who first opened my eyes to so many important facets of the spiritual life.

Of all the people in my life it was Tami who helped me the most. She allowed me to realize this was just the beginning of the journey and to release my fears and become one within myself again. For anyone this is a daunting task, but Tami instilled the Power of Love in me again in a whole new way.

When YOUR LIFE'S WORK was published, I was searching for the proper roads to make my dreams come true. Through her words I gained extraordinary guidance. She is a masterful teacher because she listens, truly cares and never judges and, through her own spirit and multi-dimensional knowledge, she has the ability to bring you into the light on your own terms.

Now, many years later, I have found my dreams in ways I could never have imagined and have long realized Tami was integral to the process. As a gifted counselor, she gave me the will and strength to clean out the pipes and look under every rock to examine and exorcise remnants of darkness with joy in my heart."

--Peter Moon,
Writer/Musician/Composer/Producer

"When Tami's book YOUR LIFE'S WORK was published, I was at a career impasse and experiencing an early-onset midlife crisis. After I read it, I knew I had to work with her.

Years later I am still reaping the results of plumbing the inner depths with Tami. I have found my "life's work" as an author and counselor. A bonus was that I became more reality-based in my approach to spirituality, and this led me to an amazing teacher and the practice that I now embrace and teach.

Tami has an amazing gift for helping people discover that center, and to find the courage to live from it."

--Carol L. Skolnick, Author, Facilitator: The Work of Byron Katie

I was born in 1960 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a hard-working steel town that was still in the process of transforming itself from an immigrant-dominated, working class city to its current status as a well-respected corporate headquarters.

There's something about Pittsburgh that has stayed with me long after I left to go to college in Massachusetts. Maybe it’s the location. Before St. Louis, Pittsburgh was the "Gateway to the West." Only 300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, Pittsburgh’s three rivers made travel and transport possible between the East Coast and further west. However, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Allegheny Mountains made getting people and goods to Pittsburgh from the East Coast difficult, so Pittsburghers created their own goods to sell which led to the city’s evolution into an industrial “smokey old town.” In some ways, Pittsburgh is similar to other industrial cities like Chicago and Detroit, but as a sort of dividing line between the East and the Midwest—Pittsburgh is unique.

I've now lived in New York City longer than I lived in Pittsburgh and while I am one of those New Yorkers who is deeply in love with the wild energy that is NYC, in my heart I am and always will be a Pittsburgher. I went to my first protest march in Pittsburgh, saw my first opera, heard my first symphony, and got my driver's license there too. I got my resourcefulness and stick-to-it-iveness from the values that emerged from the 'burgh’s industrial history and the keen sense that we're all in this together—no matter what kind of job we're doing, level of education we've received, or salary we're pulling down—from its role as a true ethnic melting pot.

It’s hard to imagine now, but for many years, Pittsburgh didn’t appeal to me. After living in Paris and New York, the city seemed too self-conscious and not nearly sophisticated enough for me. It symbolized everything about my past that I wanted to forget—especially my struggles with my father. My dad was a powerhouse of a man, and to me Pittsburgh belonged to him. In order for me to carve out my own life, we needed to live in different cities. And since New York is a hell of a town, I didn’t think I’d ever need Pittsburgh again. After my dad’s death, however, I felt the need to reclaim Pittsburgh as my own and now I know why.

Like the city of my birth, I am a gateway—not to the west like Pittsburgh—but to the Soul. And after all these years I know how to get there. Come with me and let’s ride the river together. A new frontier beckons.

Rev. Dr. Tami Coyne is a spiritual counselor and spiritually oriented career and life coach. An ordained interfaith minister and a graduate of Smith College, Tami has her Master's Degree in Divinity from All Faiths Seminary and her Doctorate in Philosophy from All Faiths Seminary and Commonwealth Open University.

Tami is also a writer. She is the co-author with Karen Weissman of THE SPIRITUAL CHICKS QUESTION EVERYTHING: LEARN TO RISK, RELEASE, AND SOAR (Red Wheel/Weiser, 2002) and the author of YOUR LIFE’S WORK: A GUIDE TO CREATING A SPIRITUAL AND SUCCESSFUL WORK LIFE (Berkley, 1998). Her essays can be found at SpiritualChicks.com, ManagementGeneral.com, and in the anthology IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD: HOW TO CREATE THE WORLD WE WANT TO LIVE IN, edited by Sheila Ellison (Inner Ocean, 2004). Tami has presented seminars based on her books, has appeared on numerous radio and internet shows, and had hosted on-line chats for iVillage.com.

A passionate “spiritual activist,” Tami's essays on this topic have been featured in the Mindshift Institute’s eJournal (www.mindshiftinstitute.org) and in InnerSelf Magazine (www.innerself.com).

Tami lives in NYC's Greenwich Village with her husband, Giuseppe Scorcia, and their daughter, Sophia.