Chrissy Marie is a trauma-informed Embodiment Practitioner, Inner Child Liberator, Breathwork Facilitator, founder of the Art of Aliveness Podcast, and lover of crude humor and steering wheel dance parties. She's spent the last decade studying the art and science of behavior change, creativity, energy medicine, and how to calm your nervous system. Chrissy specializes in helping high-achieving practitioners slow down, grow up their inner people-pleaser, take themselves way less seriously, and increase their productivity and fulfillment by making Play and Simplicity a Priority. Her clients say they're drawn to her for her authenticity and naturalness, and stay with her because they unlock their own.
Christina Tucciarone, Embodiment and Playfulness Coach
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
Well, my full name is Christina Marie Tucciarone (pronounced Tooch-aroni, like “Macaroni”), and to pronounce it correctly you must use the appropriate Italian hand gesture; fingers pursed towards the sky with a light bounce in the wrist. Most know me by Chrissy Marie from my website and my socials though, so if the last name makes you sweat, you’re off the hook on remembering it. A friend recently called me a Pioneer of Play, and I loved that, so you can use that too if you get off on alliteration like me.
Truthfully, I always struggle a bit with introductions because I never know what to lead with. There’s so much to who we are! If I HAD to describe myself in a sentence, I’m something of a cross between Anne of Green Gables, and Mazikeen from the Netflix show Lucifer. Right now, I live with my husband and our four-legged friends, cats Daphne and Lincoln, and our new puppy, Penny. We are BIG on silliness and snuggling in this house, which is usually covered in hair. Mostly mine. I’m also a huge fan of steering wheel dance parties, roller skating, sending weird and unflattering selfies to people, and buying more plants.
If not obvious, I come from a big Italian-Irish family where I’m the oldest of five kids. That was both chaotic and the best thing ever because my siblings and I are all really close now and I’m especially grateful for that. It’s nice to have people that share inside jokes with you from childhood, and our brand of humor is absolutely ridiculous. We have a thing for laughing at the most inappropriate stuff. I have a strong social filter with my humor in the public eye, but it instantly dissolves around my siblings.
I also grew up with a deep affinity for exploring nature, and as much as I’m a people person, I LOVE having space and solitude. You could leave me alone for days on end and I’d keep myself thoroughly entertained. I’m big on quality time too. I prefer having friends over for a potluck, fire, and deep chats vs. going out (though I DO love getting dressed up and working a room from time to time!).
Like most people, there was dysfunction in my household, and in response to that I developed a curiosity for the ins and outs of human nature. When I was little, I knew that there were better ways to communicate and connect than that which I saw growing up, and I wanted to learn. I especially wanted to embody how to be with, and de-escalate conflict in an effective, non-violent way. So, I ended up throwing myself into leadership programs in high school and college, studied psychology and philosophy, and eventually got a master’s in clinical social work.
With the social work degree, I was working first as a behavior specialist and then as a clinician doing something called enhanced outpatient work. I’d go to the homes of parents whose children were at risk of hospitalization for aggression and dysregulation and I’d support the family in creating clear communication, connection, and structure. I’d be in someone’s home for 3-9 hours every week, so I got really intimate with these families and it taught me SO much about myself and human nature.
While doing this, I was also investing in my own personal development work. Around maybe 6 years ago I started connecting with the concept of the inner child. And that really changed everything for me. The more I re-connected with this younger part of me, the more compassionate and creative I became. I started playing more through re-engaging with things I naturally gravitated towards as a kid like dancing, singing, and painting. Eventually, I started bringing inner child work to the parents I was working with and saw that it was having a profound effect on those who were open to it.
Then after about 3 years in that field, I moved into the coaching industry because I wanted to work solely with people who craved a connection with their inner child. And I’ve been dancing in the wild west of entrepreneurship for around 4 years now! It’s not a breeze, but what delights me the most about carving my own service path is that I get to weave all the things I loved in childhood into my work; singing, dancing, poetry, storytelling…I use all of it in my marketing and in the way I guide clients.
This is of course, the extremely watered-down version of the journey, so if you’re into irreverent, raw, living room couch ramblings, I happily invite you over to my podcast, The Art of Aliveness, on Spotify or Itunes to get a more personal peek into my world and personality.
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
My business name is The Art of Aliveness. I chose that name because I believe that the more creativity we bring to the process of healing and human-ing, the more alive we feel. So, I tend to attract people who struggle to be fully in their bodies and feel creatively inspired by their lives and work. A lot of my clients are high achievers that struggle with patterns of over-thinking, perfectionism, and taking themselves too seriously. These are people who DO have a sense of humor and a craving for creativity, it’s just gotten buried under a desire to be seen as competent and to feel understood. They’re also most comfortable in caregiving roles. Usually, they’re the ones working as therapists, coaches and other wellness practitioners. A pattern I see in these industries is a tendency to put the feelings of others before one’s personal needs and boundaries. And while that can be a beautiful trait, it can also lead to a sense of feeling burned out, resentful, and under-expressed.
Ironically, there’s a level of safety my clients develop in being overwhelmed. While it might not feel that way, our brains are wired to seek safety through familiarity. So, if you spend enough time in a stressed and under-expressed state, that becomes your “status quo.” It’s what you know and can predict, so your survival system just gravitates towards maintaining it. I then come in and work with you to rewire your nervous system to feel safe in desired states like play, joy and peace.
I’m as much right-brained as I am left-brained, so I believe that cultivating aliveness is both an art and a science. I like to weave each element into the way I guide. I use a lot of evidenced-based somatic practices, humor, creative exercises, breathwork, and energy clearings to bring a more holistic and lighthearted flavor to the growth process. I firmly believe healing does NOT have to be so serious and so scary, and that’s one of the pillars of my practice. I have a way of giving people permission to both laugh and cry within an hour of sitting with me. In my experience, people are just craving permission to be fully human, to know that they’re OK in what they’re going through, and to release the habit of editing themselves in order to avoid triggering others. Of course, developing a relationship with our inner child (children, really) is a core part of all this – learning how to nurture and guide the younger parts of us that feel scared and small, and then, letting our wild, innocent, and imaginative parts guide US into more artful living.
My clients often share that after journeying with me, they feel “like themselves again.” They’ll say they have a deep sense of being at home in their bodies, a confidence and clarity around setting boundaries, and a renewed ability to prioritize fun and their lives. Because we focus on burning the boxes around “play” and “work,” many of the people I serve feel a renewed sense of inspiration and groundedness in their work again, which leads to an increase in aligned productivity. Play ends up becoming more of a lifestyle for them rather than something to earn or do after work. My clients will often say that they come to me for my sense of playfulness and expressive freedom and stay with me because we unlock their own.
What’s really delightful for me to see is how this then ripples into their relationships, both personal and professional. When clients develop deeper intimacy with themselves, they inevitably start noticing their external relationships align with this depth. This can look like more fulfilling connections with their kids, partners, and clients, and it also looks like connecting to NEW people who can fully embrace the nuances of their nature.
I recently interviewed one of my clients on her experience with me so if people are curious for a first-hand peek they can tune in here.
What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?
Well like I mentioned before, I’m a depth over distance gal. I REALLY love creating containers and experiences for people to connect to themselves and others in playful, intimate ways. I would LOVE to eventually buy a big piece of land where I can host workshops, events and retreats, and collaborate with other facilitators. I have the landscape vision all laid out: Wide open meadow, forest trails, water nearby, a weeping willow tree, and lots of spaciousness. Ever since I was little, I’ve adored designing cozy and magical spaces, and I want people to walk into my home and just deeply exhale. I want my space to evoke Wonder and nourishment. I’m talking lava lamps, prisms in the windows, plants EVERYWHERE, and natural materials that make you go “aahhhhh.”
I also created a little mini course called SPACIOUS, which is basically my blueprint for slowing down, decluttering your environment and nervous system, and connecting to intuitive clarity. I’d love to get that course out to more people and continue creating little evergreen offerings that serve as permission slips to soften into the wisdom of our nature. People can check it out here if they’re interested.
And lastly, back in 2019 I had an incredible vocal awakening where I experienced the power of my singing voice in a way that recalibrated my whole relationship to sound and healing. I’ve been singing since I could speak and was in choir for much of my youth as well as an alt. rock band in college, but I never really found a way to use my voice that felt as natural as it did when things unlocked that year. Shortly after I got an inner nudge to create an album called Lullabies to Little Me. So far, I’ve done a bit of songwriting and experimenting with toning and creating vocal landscapes. I feel like vocal alchemy is a huge part of my medicine and I’m excited to see how that evolves. My intention is to stay open to receiving the muse as it wants to play with me and creating space to play with it!
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
Really it was the moment that I decided to invest in my first spiritual leadership community. After a pretty challenging breakup in my early twenties, it became so clear to me that I’d neglected an intentional social life in order to focus all my energy on that partner. And while I was a self-described “personal development enthusiast,” I wasn’t REALLY putting my money where I said my values lied. I was always a bit of a lone wolf growing up and definitely didn’t love the thought of public vulnerability, so I did a lot of my development in private where I was the only one judging myself (ha!). One day, a coach I’d been following called me out on it unknowingly when she sent an email inviting people to this new community offering she created. Financially it felt like a stretch for me (and I laugh because since then I’ve spent 20 times that on support), but it also felt like one of those, “take the leap or stay stuck indefinitely” moments.
BEST decision I’ve ever made. I don’t think I’d be carving my own path right now if I hadn’t been plugged into a community whose mission was sovereign, soulful leadership. Seeing other people leaving their conventional jobs and leaping into their visions was the social proof I needed to do it for myself. Since then, I’ve invested in so many other coaches and programs to support me in staying the course but that first decision to invest was what got the ball rolling. And I don’t know if I would’ve done it had I NOT experienced that painful breakup. So full circle, the pain opened me up to new possibilities. Thanks old lover!
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
I’d want people to feel more permission to be HUMAN and less shiny “in the know.” There’s a lot of emphasis out there on feeling better and having answers, but it’s easy to forget that to feel better, we must feel FULLY, and that can look messy and confusing. In my experience, that which we reject and judge within ourselves bangs on the door of our hearts until we burn out or brave up. So instead of working against our nature, I’d love to see more examples of leaders really embodying what it looks like to hold themselves in the chaos of their humanity with a compassion so strong it breaks generational wounds and transforms hearts. I’d also love to see less call-out marketing that focuses on what other coaches are doing “wrong” and more marketing that speaks to what’s possible for each other when we cooperate with curiosity. In a similar vein, it’d be great if more of us facilitators and guides would focus on fostering an energy of collaboration. And of course, to not take ourselves SO SERIOUSLY! Humor goes a long way in learning, healing, and thriving. I think that “edutainment” and leaders who embrace their quirks and humor will really revolutionize the way we support ourselves and each other.
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