ABOUT PEGGY

A life that should feel fulfilling

I’m Peggy Popielarz, and I help women who feel disconnected, unsettled, and who are secretly unhappy in the life they’ve worked so hard to build begin understanding what’s happening inside, so they can feel more at ease within themselves and in their lives.

ABOUT PEGGY

A life that should feel fulfilling

Many of the women I work with are thoughtful, capable, and deeply caring. They are often the ones others rely on. They’ve spent years trying to do life “right,” showing up for relationships, family, responsibilities, and the expectations placed upon them.

From the outside, much of their life may appear good, maybe even great.

They may have built a life that looks good on paper, yet still feel as though they are standing on the sidelines looking in, unsure why they don’t fully feel like they belong in the life they’ve worked so hard to create.

For capable women who feel quietly exhausted.

Internally, many feel emotionally exhausted, disconnected from themselves, or quietly unsettled in ways they cannot fully explain.

Some have spent years reading books, attending workshops and retreats, exploring holistic therapies, supplements, and different approaches to personal growth and healing, hoping something would finally help them feel more connected, fulfilled, or at peace within themselves.

Often, they understand themselves intellectually far more than they actually feel connected to themselves internally.

How I came to this work

I understand that experience at a personal level.

For many years, I immersed myself in health, wellness, and personal development because I wanted to understand what actually helped people create meaningful change in their lives. I owned a health food store and, alongside that, became a body practitioner, working with clients through several holistic modalities.

But underneath that desire to help others was also my own quiet search for relief.

I had people who loved me. I had people I loved deeply. I had work that felt meaningful to me. From the outside, there was so much I could point to and say, “I should be happy.”

And that was part of what made it so hard to admit.

Because even with all of that, I still carried a private sense of emptiness and unhappiness I didn’t fully understand. I didn’t feel the way I thought I should feel in the life I had built. For a long time, I kept searching for what would finally bring me a deeper sense of ease within myself.

One of the things that often left me puzzled was why some people seemed to experience meaningful change while others continued to struggle despite trying so many things. Over time, that question became deeply personal for me.

If I could just find the key that unlocked it all, maybe I could finally understand why so many people struggled to create lasting change, including myself.

Over time, I began to realize that lasting change was not only about what someone did on the outside. It was also about what was happening underneath: the beliefs we carry, the identity we live from, the emotions we push down, manage, or try to rise above, and the deeper patterns that quietly shape how we move through life.

Eyeglasses on an open book by the window

Discovering Internal Family Systems

Discovering Internal Family Systems changed the way I understood myself and others. It opened my eyes to the fact that there was a whole world happening inside me. I had my own internal family of parts that I had been living with my entire life without truly realizing they were there.

Instead of seeing my emotional reactions, protective behaviors, or inner conflict as something wrong with me, I began to understand them as parts of me that had been trying to help me get through life in the only ways they knew how.

Many of those ways of coping developed when I was young. They made sense then. They helped me adapt, protect myself, keep going, stay connected, or avoid pain. But years later, those same parts were still trying to help me through outdated beliefs and old survival strategies.

What once protected me was now interfering with my ability to feel at ease within myself, shaping how I related, what I allowed, what I avoided, and unknowingly creating pain in the life I was living.

That understanding became the foundation of the work I do today.

My work is grounded in Internal Family Systems and parts work, helping women relate to their inner world with more understanding and compassion while bringing awareness to the deeper patterns, emotional protections, and internal dynamics that continue to shape how they move through life.

The Wanderer Quilt

The wanderer, a quilt made by Peggy showing an elephant

Long before coaching became my work, quilting was one of the ways I expressed myself creatively. I loved taking separate pieces and stitching them together into something whole.

One of my quilts, The Wanderer, is now featured on the cover of The Parts Work Guidebook, a collaborative work created by Bill Tierney and other contributors within the Parts Work Practice community

That connection feels especially meaningful to me because quilting reflects so much of the work itself. Different experiences, emotions, and parts of ourselves that once felt disconnected begin to make more sense within the larger picture of who we are.

Parts Work Practice Community

Alongside my private coaching work, I am also one of the leaders helping carry forward Parts Work Practice, a community devoted to helping people learn and practice the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model for their own personal growth within supportive group spaces.

Women’s Practice Group

I also facilitate a separate women’s Parts Work Practice group as an extension of the larger community, offering women a more intimate place to practice parts work, deepen self-understanding, and explore their inner world alongside others doing similar work.

Join the Practice Group

A little more about me

Outside of my work, I enjoy time with my family, being in the Alberta Rocky Mountains.

Reading, continuing my own learning and inner work.

Attempting to master the ongoing mystery of homemade sourdough bread.

Father and child holding hands family moments

I care deeply about creating spaces where women feel safe enough to slow down, become more honest with themselves, and understand themselves more clearly.

For me, this work has never been only about the individual. When a woman begins to understand herself differently, it ripples outward into how she relates, loves, chooses, speaks, and shows up in the life around her.