Kristin Madl

A long and winding road

Movement has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up swimming and playing tennis, eventually finding my way into triathlon, running, and a love of outdoor adventure. Along the way, I discovered how much skilled guidance and therapeutic bodywork could influence the way we move, feel, and function.

That curiosity led me to study athletic training, physical education, and health at the University of Virginia. My early career included working as an athletic trainer, physical therapy aide, and personal trainer—roles that deepened my appreciation for the human body and the satisfaction of helping people move with greater confidence and less pain.

My professional journey eventually took me into clinical support and customer education for sports medicine products, graduate studies in biomechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, and work in motion analysis and medical device development. Throughout those experiences, I discovered something important about myself: I love helping people understand complex things (including their bodies!), especially when that understanding empowers them to take meaningful action.

But I missed working directly with people. I became a licensed massage therapist, later moved to Colorado, and eventually pursued nursing after personal experiences inspired me to care for mothers and their newborns. Today, I continue that work as a registered nurse while bringing together my experience in movement and therapeutic bodywork through Confluence.

My path has also included challenges that no classroom or professional training could have prepared me for. Living with metastatic breast cancer has profoundly shaped my understanding of uncertainty, resilience, and what it means to reclaim a meaningful, active life when the path forward isn't clear.

That experience doesn't give me all the answers. But it has deepened my compassion for people navigating pain, illness, and significant life changes—and reinforced my belief in the importance of being heard, supported, and equipped to move forward.

Over time, I've become increasingly drawn to helping people do more than feel better in the moment. I want to help them regain confidence in what their bodies can do, develop the capacity to pursue what matters to them, and move beyond the limitations they may have come to accept. Returning to movement coaching—and pursuing my training as an Active Life Professional—felt like a natural next step, bringing together my earliest professional passions with everything I've learned since. The Active Life approach emphasizes individualized assessment, progressive development of physical capacity, and helping people become increasingly capable and independent in pursuing the activities that matter to them.

Confluence is where these experiences come together: a practice grounded in professional expertise, individualized care, and the belief that even when the way forward is uncertain, there is often more possibility ahead than we can see from where we stand.