About Us

After 20 years in corporate roles, I started to experience burnout, pain, and chronic fatigue. Years of travel and compounding stress had taken their toll and I couldn’t keep up with the ailments I was experiencing. There were simply not enough hours in the day. 

It was while racing between appointments that the idea for Grit City Wellness was born. I dreamt of a singular environment that could provide the variety of services I required in half of the time. 

Inspired by the beauty of commencement bay and all the area has to offer, I began designing a first-rate wellness club that would allow me to self-direct my care based on the needs of my body, mind, and schedule. Grit City Wellness would be the ideal place to support busy professionals or those simply overwhelmed by life. 

I’m grateful to share the experiences that led me here and consider it a privilege to serve my community in this way. I’m most proud of our dedicated and dynamic team that makes “never giving up on yourself” obtainable and central to our mission. Each day we are gifted a new opportunity to support one another, build upon our passions, and reach relentlessly for our goals.  

Join us. 

Theresa is a Cali transplant, after moving up and down the West Coast, her little family decided to call the PNW home. She’s had a love for exercise and fitness, playing sports and challenging her body at a young age, so it was only fitting to follow her passion. After graduation from Cal State Monterey Bay with a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science, she began sharing her knowledge and love for strength training with the Tacoma Community. When she’s not in the gym, you might find her skating around with her daughter, chilling in a hammock, or perfecting her BBQ’n skills. Come gain some strength with her!

B.S Kinesiology: Exercise Science

Certificates: ACSM CPT (American College of Sports Medicine: Certified Personal Trainer)

PPSC (Pain-Free Performance Specialist)

Hannah is a yoga teacher, adventurer, a believer in holistic health and lover of food!

Cultivating health and wellness has always been at the forefront of her professional and personal endeavors. After studying medical anthropology and public health, she spent most of her career working in programs serving marginalized communities. It wasn't until she started her yoga journey over ten years ago that she found her true passion in holding space for others to heal, explore and connect. She believes that everyone deserves to feel empowered in their health whether that's in the studio or out in their community. 

Outside of Grit, Hannah enjoys hiking around the PNW, traveling, cooking with friends and snuggling with her pup. Come stop in and say hi! 

Find Hannah's Upcoming Classes

Find Hannah's Upcoming Series/Workshops

Kalli is a Tacoma native with a strong passion for fitness, nature, and helping others achieve optimal health and happiness. Growing up as an athlete, fitness has always been a huge part of her life, but within the last few years she has started diving into the mental and spiritual aspects of health as well. She has seen the profound impact that yoga and meditation have had in her life and is passionate about helping others discover the benefits of these as well. Kalli is a certified personal trainer through NASM and has a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science. She is also currently working towards a health coaching certification with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

During her free time, you can usually find Kalli off on an outdoor adventure or pushing her body’s capabilities in some way. Yoga, running, lifting, reading and painting are a few of her favorite hobbies.

Courtney Letcher is a seasoned and highly skilled therapist who discovered therapeutic bodywork after a severe car accident when she was 17. Realizing this treatment helped her more than any other she was inspired to become an LMT in 2007 and has been supporting others with her variety of specialized techniques ever since. Whether you suffer from back pain, a recent injury or you are an athlete looking to enhance performance Courtney can customize a treatment session to your specific needs.

Her specialties include Ashiatsu, Deep Tissue Repair, Cupping, and Reflexology. Something that sets Courtney apart is her specialization in Ashiatsu which uses the barefoot massage technique delivering a broad consistent pressure utilizing her feet and body weight.

Among her accomplishments, Courtney has had the opportunity to train under Ruthie Hardie, the founder of Ashiatsu, work with a Rugby team in New Zealand and treat a local well-known (and loved) Women's Professional Soccer team. She has also worked extensively with Chiropractors and Physical Therapists to help patients with auto and sport-related injuries. Courtney says, "The greatest reward comes from the success stories of the patients I've had the good fortune to support. Helping people is my passion".

Meet Saare (say-air) Elizabeth She/Her/Them 

Saare Elizabeth is originally from Georgia and makes a three-year pit-stop in the PNW as a military spouse and is open and ready to serve those who cross her path for discovery, exploration, and healing through movement. 

Prior to becoming a Kundalini Yoga Meditation, Vinyasa, and intuitive movement facilitator, Saare was a group exercise instructor and taught several exercise modalities such as P90x, Insanity, and Piyo. After moving and giving birth to her daughter in Germany, Saare took a 2-year hiatus from teaching group exercise classes to explore what was calling her to make a bigger impact on the people who took her classes.  

Saare later discovered on her healing journey that she is a healer and teacher for people who are wanting a deeper connection to themselves, the divine, and to heal childhood trauma. Whilst in Germany Saare then hosted Kundalini Yoga Meditation classes and healing workshops and self-published a book helping mothers heal and return to their True Identity. During the pandemic, Saare seized the opportunity to become a certified Yoga Teacher through the Yoga Alliance. Saare holds many certifications in spiritual life coaching, Reiki Master, and medicine women. Saare defines herself as a spiritual bag of tricks but most importantly human with a huge heart.  

Saare Elizabeth prides herself in holding space allowing the seeker to feel safe, seen, and heard. In her method of teaching Saare focuses more on connection to body and breath to access wisdom, union, and peace within while teaching from a down-to-earth perspective. 

View Saare's upcoming drop-in classes

View Saare's upcoming group series/workshops

Jered’s journey began when he started to shift his perspective. In becoming more aware of how the influences in his life were impacting him, his sensitivities to his own inner workers were becoming clearer. When the invisible world full of emotional and energetic properties started to come into focus, that was when things started to make more sense to him. Radical honesty and vulnerability created an opening and pathway for him to be open enough to create room for himself, and witness the ways in which the pain and trauma in his life had really been affecting him — mind, body, and spirit. It is his desire to share his story and perspective with others and aid them on their own embodiment journey. When Jered isn’t at Grit City, you can typically find him preparing delicious meals or outdoors reconnecting with nature.

NCCPT Personal Trainer
Precision Nutrition Coach
Certified Pain Management Specialist
Animal Flow Coach
Reiki Practitioner

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Franchesca’s story began on the island of Guam, and continued to growing up in Washington where she picked up a golf club at the age of six, and then fell in love with the game of basketball. Both in which still influence her training today. As sports were pillars to discovering her passion, she now is grateful to have found her purpose.

Franchesca is intentional about sharing the enjoyment, knowledge, and confidence one can have while improving their health, and she is keen to helping people discover their best self with consistent compassion and endless empowerment. While working at various corporate and private gyms, she loved seeing the fruition of people’s lives as they made themselves a priority to then show up for themselves and improve the world around them.

As an ISSA Certified Personal Trainer, and an ISSA Nutrition, Corrective Exercise, and Strength Coach, Franchesca continues to affirm her journey through continuing education at Pierce College and vows to never stop learning. Along her journey, movement was medicinal, and fitness was her foundation as she battled undiagnosed ADHD majority of her life. Now, more than ever she appreciates the power in being seen, heard and supported, and wants to share the positive ripple effect with others. By finally finding personalized ways to not just cope, but to thrive, Franchesca dedicates her efforts in helping people see their light and find what helps them thrive. You can especially experience that in her high energy group exercise classes such as TRX, HIIT, Bootcamp, Low-Impact Aerobics, and more. In her classes, she aims to make people smile by reminding them of their strengths, to feel comfortable being themselves, and to build pride within.

Since moving to Tacoma in 2020, the city and community has grown on her immensely. When she’s not training, you can catch Franchesca playing with her two dogs, traveling with her partner, and exploring more of what Grit City has to offer.

Jerad is originally from Southern California but has been adopted by the PNW ever since his family moved to Tacoma in '04. ⁠ ⁠ While his affinity with health and wellness only began 6 years ago, it has grown into a passion for helping others live life more buoyantly. ⁠ ⁠When he's not in the gym, you can often find him behind a drum set, reading a book, or watching sports. 

Jerad is competent in several modalities for achieving muscular strength, muscular endurance, powerlifting, corrective exercise, and mobility. He is most familiar with corrective exercise, bodybuilding, and powerlifting style training. ⁠ ⁠ Jerad has an Associate's Degree in Kinesiology from Pierce College. He is currently attending Pacific Lutheran University and is on the brink of attaining his B.A. in Kinesiology. He holds a National Academy of Sports Medicine certificate as a Certified Personal Trainer.⁠ ⁠Let Jerad be your companion on your health and wellness journey today!⁠ ⁠ 

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Carol has lived near Ruston Way and in the Proctor district since 1978. Her love for fitness began in 1989 when she started teaching high-impact aerobics at the YMCA. During her career, she has taught muscle toning, spin, senior fitness, and TRX. Currently, she teaches muscle toning, body sculpting, isometric Pilates, and is also a personal trainer. 

Carol has been an instructor of fitness and muscle toning at Tacoma Community college for over 20 years. Her passion is to help others achieve their fitness goals and fall in love with exercise. Carol loves photography and travel! Some of her favorite trips have been to Machu Picchu in Peru, Iguazu Falls in Argentina, and Istanbul. Loves chocolate and coffee. “I am most excited to work alongside the team at Grit City Wellness. 

View Carol's upcoming group series

Karen is passionate about how embodied anatomy, mindfulness, creativity and movement practices can transform pain and trauma into wisdom, love, and resiliency. She has trained for 300 hours with the Embodied Flow School of Yoga and for over 350 hours within the Body-Mind Centering Somatic Movement Educator Program. Karen is a songwriter and performer with an upcoming solo album, Of the Embers, and with her band, Her Treehouse.  

PRIVATE SESSION INFORMATION: 

Karen (she/her) offers private movement sessions that weave together practices of Yoga, Somatic Movement, Pranayama, and anatomy education. She is passionate about working with clients who want to build sustainable movement practices and deepen their relationship with themselves. Karen has a special capacity to work with people who live with injuries or chronic pain. 

Karina‘s yoga journey began as a way to create a healthy relationship with exercise after retiring as a collegiate athlete with a lot of body image issues. She learned that yoga was not only a great workout but it allowed for body acceptance. Yoga created a safe space for her on the mat and was an outlet to enjoy daily movement.

After finishing her time as a college athlete she continued her education and received a Masters's in Sports and Performance Psychology. This degree leads her into a new career. She was able to help athletes enjoy sports and develop performance while working as a Mental Performance Consultant. 

Karina moved across the country from her home state, Florida to the beautiful state of Washington to work as an Army contractor, serving service members in resiliency training and performance work in Tacoma. She now hosts hiking and yoga retreats all over North America using nature as a way to mirror our reality, embracing the lessons it teaches us when we are willing to learn. Karina sees hiking and yoga as the perfect combo to stimulate the mind-body connection and has enjoyed engaging both the physical and mental aspects of people becoming their best selves. Her desire is to help motivated individuals channel their energy into the most enjoyable aspects of their lives. 

Sign up for Karina’s Yoga for Hikers Series

Kate has called Washington home all her life. Connecting to nature has been a consistent practice for her whether it’s snowboarding in the mountains, boating in the San Juan Islands, hiking the areas surrounding the Gorge, or just sitting by a river rockhounding, growing up in the beautiful PNW is interwoven into the fabric of Kate’s soul. 

Kate has been learning and working with different forms of healing modalities since her teen years and became interested in yoga and meditation. This led to her taking a 200-hour training to be able to teach yoga herself. She has also taught paddle board yoga and is currently working on her prenatal yoga teacher training to develop her understanding and expand her offerings. 

Kate enjoys creating space where people feel seen/ heard to be their authentic selves while exploring their own journey with healing. Lover of animals, plants, and art Kate is passionate about all things mushrooms. She loves live music and volunteers doing harm reduction services at events. One of her favorite things to do is road trips with her partner and dogs to explore new places and of course, give her dogs the best life possible! 

Megan is a yoga teacher, embodiment & somatic coach. 

She received her BA in Psychology and went on to work for a world-renowned Hypnotherapy company for 11+ years. Over time she started noticing substantial gaps in the fields of psychology & hypnotherapy. Concurrently on her own personal growth journey, Megan explored many paths, however never quite satisfied with the somatic & emotional bypassing that is ingrained in much of our culture. Through a series of synchronicities, Megan discovered the world of Embodiment & Somatic work, which is actually what made Yoga come alive for her. Quickly she realized that this kind of work ‘plugged’ many of the gaps (such as integrating emotional self-awareness into actual embodied change) that plague our modern world. When she’s not working, Megan loves spending time in our lush forest hiking, practicing Flamenco, making art and slowing down.

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