Some people discover their purpose.
Others survive long enough to become it.
Cristhel Just belongs to the second category. Raised in Costa Rica by a single mother, she learned early that resilience wasn’t a choice—it was a necessity. After spending more than two decades climbing the corporate ladder, earning her MBA, and achieving everything society defines as success, she realized that external accomplishments could never heal internal wounds.
Her breaking point became her awakening.
Today, as a Board-Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, Trauma-Informed Coach, Feminine Embodiment Mentor, and one of the Top 10 Wellness Coaches of 2025, Cristhel has dedicated her life to helping women reconnect with the power they never truly lost.
DOLCE: Cristhel, you’ve said you didn’t find your purpose—you were forged by it. What does that mean?
Cristhel Just: Purpose wasn’t something I discovered while searching for happiness. It was born from surviving everything that tried to break me. Abuse, emotional suppression, years of performing and constantly proving myself… all of it eventually demanded to be felt instead of ignored. My purpose emerged the moment I stopped asking, “How do I keep going?” and started asking, “Who am I beneath all this?”
DOLCE: From corporate executive to holistic transformation coach is a remarkable shift. What finally made you change direction?
Cristhel: On paper, I had everything people strive for—an MBA, professional success, financial stability. But internally, I was exhausted. I had spent years overriding my body, disconnecting from my emotions, and believing productivity was the same as worthiness. Eventually, life gave me what I now call my cosmic wake-up call. Everything fell apart because it had to. Sometimes life dismantles what no longer serves you so you can finally build what does.
DOLCE: Many women spend years living for everyone except themselves. Why do you think this happens?
Cristhel:
Because that’s how many of us were conditioned. We learned to be the good daughter, the good wife, the good employee, the good mother. Somewhere along the way, we forgot to ask ourselves whether we were being good to ourselves. Women aren’t broken—they’re disconnected from their own truth.
DOLCE: You often speak about the nerDOLCE system rather than willpower. Why is that distinction so important?
Cristhel: Because healing isn’t about trying harder. You cannot out-discipline unresolved trauma. Your nerDOLCE system remembers everything your mind tries to forget. That’s why I focus on somatic work, trauma integration, and embodiment. Lasting transformation happens when the body finally feels safe enough to let go.
DOLCE: What does feminine embodiment actually mean to you?
Cristhel: It means coming home to yourself. It’s allowing yourself to feel instead of constantly performing. It means understanding that softness and strength are not opposites—they’re partners. A woman becomes truly powerful the moment she stops apologizing for taking up space.
DOLCE: You’ve become a mirror for thousands of women. What is the most common thing they forget about themselves?
Cristhel: Their own power. Every woman I meet already carries everything she’s searching for. The confidence, the wisdom, the intuition—they’re already there. My work isn’t about giving women something new. It’s about helping them remember what was buried beneath years of conditioning.
DOLCE: Your three sons are a huge part of your “why.” How have they influenced your journey?
Cristhel: They remind me every day that children don’t learn from what we say—they learn from who we become. I don’t want my sons to grow up watching a woman who abandoned herself for everyone else. I want them to know what healthy love, emotional intelligence, and authenticity look like.
DOLCE: You’ve turned your deepest pain into your life’s mission. Was forgiveness part of that process?
Cristhel: Absolutely—but forgiveness isn’t about excusing what happened. It’s about refusing to let the past continue writing your future. Healing gave me freedom. Forgiveness gave me peace.
DOLCE: What would you say to the woman who feels completely lost today?
Cristhel: You are not lost. You’ve simply spent too long living according to someone else’s expectations. Everything you’re searching for is already inside you. Be still long enough to hear your own voice again. That’s where healing begins.
DOLCE: If this interview is read twenty years from now, what do you hope people remember about Cristhel Just?
Cristhel: That I reminded women who they truly were.
Not stronger.
Not better.
Simply… themselves.
If one woman chose herself because she saw herself reflected in my story, then my life had meaning.
Cristhel Just doesn’t teach women how to become someone new.
She teaches them how to remember the woman they were before fear, trauma, expectation, and survival convinced them otherwise.
In a culture obsessed with fixing women, Cristhel offers something radically different:
Permission.
Permission to feel.
Permission to heal.
Permission to take up space.
Permission to become whole.
Because beneath every woman’s silence lives something extraordinary—a fire that never disappeared.
It only waited for someone to remind her that it was always there.
BUY PRINT:
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3358620
MODEL: CRISTHEL JUST @cristhalito
PHOTOGRAPHER: PABLO SANCHO @photo_by_pablo , @silkandlacebypablo
