Ms. Sharon 615
Maria Longo
Certified Health & Life Coach
My name is Maria Longo.
Every story has a beginning. Mine started in a kitchen.
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I grew up in New York in a family of creatives. My great uncle Vincent Longo was an artist whose work hangs in the Whitney Museum. My father makes things by hand. From the time I was little, I cooked alongside my grandfather. Food was my first language and my first love.
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I also grew up with a learning disability that made me question my worth more times than I can count. But I refused to let it define me. I competed in culinary competitions in high school and earned a full scholarship through the Careers through Culinary Arts Program to the New York Restaurant School where I earned my degrees in culinary arts and restaurant management.
I worked in fine dining in Manhattan. Top kitchens. Demanding hours. The kind of world that rewards you for pushing through and punishes you for stopping. I was good at it. But by 25 I knew the pace was costing me more than it was giving me.
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That's the first part of every hero's journey. The ordinary world. The one that looks fine from the outside but feels wrong on the inside.
So I made a bold decision. I walked away from the kitchen and into healthcare, becoming a board-certified dietary manager. I went back to school, earned a degree in Integrated Nutrition from Huntington University of Health Sciences, and became a Master Certified Nutrition and Wellness Coach through Nutritious Life Studio. I founded Start Me Right Health and Wellness and spent years trying to help people live better.
But something was still missing. I had the knowledge. I had the credentials. I just didn't have the language for my own life yet.
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That's the second part of the journey. The call to something deeper that you can't quite name yet.
Then COVID hit.
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I was working in a hospital kitchen on the front lines. The weight of it brought everything I had been carrying for years to the surface. My body had been whispering for a long time. During COVID, it finally screamed.
I broke out in chronic hives that took over my body. I was still showing up every day, but I was coming completely undone. Three nervous breakdowns across my lifetime had taught me how to keep functioning through almost anything. But this time, something was different.
This time, I stopped.
And I picked up a paintbrush.
That is the moment the hero's journey calls the descent. The moment everything falls apart, so something more honest can begin.
Art Flow Design Studio was born from that moment. Four years of healing through creativity. Of finding my voice through color and movement and letting go of control.
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Then I was gifted the Clarity Catalyst program at my lowest point. For the first time, I had language for my life. For the patterns. For the pain. For the path forward.
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It changed everything. So I became a facilitator.
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This is the return. The hero is coming back from the descent with something worth sharing.
Art Flow Mind Body was born from that transformation. Every program I taught gave me something I desperately needed and couldn't find anywhere else. Practical tools for confidence, clarity, and self-love. For adults, teens, kids, and workplace teams.
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Rooted and Rising is my own signature program. Born from everything I learned, lived, and survived. It is the program I wish had existed when I needed it most.
Throughout all of it I have been committed to advocacy. Mental health awareness, conservation, human rights, and LGBTQIA+ rights. Because I know what it feels like to need support and not know where to find it. I know what it feels like to search blindly. To feel like nobody is listening.
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That is why I show up the way I do.
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Not because I have all the answers. Because I have lived the questions.
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This isn't something I stumbled into. It's something I survived my way into.
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Featured on CBS New York. Built from lived experience.
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Here for the ones still looking for the language. 🌱
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Read my weekly writing at Rooted in Creative Healing on Substack: rootedincreativehealing.substack.com
Certifications
Huntington University of Health Science
Associate degree in integrated health science
New York Restaurant School / Art Institute of NYC
Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management Degree
Nutritious Life Studio
Nutritious Life Master Certified in Nutrition and Wellness Coach
American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP)
Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner
Association of Nutrition & Foodservice Professionals (ANFP)
Certified Dietary Manager (CDM)