Welcome to Self Made
👋🏽 Hi! 👋🏽
I’m Dani Cirignano: Certified Integral Coach, holistic recovery guide, + writer
Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter where I write as a creative and spiritual practice, a way to build community, and to light lanterns on the path of transformation for us all.
While many paths to “self-improvement” focus on conforming to cultural defaults or rely on rigid structures, I founded Self Made to swim in different waters. (After all, why fight to transform your life while staying within constructs that don’t work—maybe never worked—for you?)
For a long time, I stumbled my own way through all the shoulds and supposed tos, until I woke up to just. how. much. time I’d spent putting off my life “until tomorrow.”
And now, as an Integral Coach, I partner with creative, rebellious, and bold people like you to help you live into an on-purpose life of your own design.
Together, we nurture supportive practices to sustain ourselves through the long game of healing, self-discovery, deprogramming social constructs, dismantling harmful systems, choosing things that make us feel better rather than worse, navigating all the things life will inevitably throw our way, and, most important of all, cultivating a world that works for all of us.
In the Self Made archive, you can delve into writing about self-development, recovery, creativity, and community (with not-infrequent mentions of my beloved canine companion, Tater).
What Subscribers Are Saying
“I wanted to send a note of gratitude for your work. Your writing feels like a bridge out of quicksand. You name and place my experiences in a known territory. You're calling out, ‘YOU ARE HERE, it's OK, other humans have been where you are and they've made it out and they are VERY ALIVE.’”
-Jane A.“I am *always* so appreciative of your writing and sharing. You capture so much and put words to what feels too big, too vast and too hard at times to express. I am so incredibly grateful for your continued work and being in this mucked up world”
-Ara G.“You are veritable force of nature. Even just brief time in the spaces you curate has been nourishing to me. You inspire me deeply!"
-Rayleen C.
Join Self Made
Let’s live into a new way of being—together.
Self Made is where self-knowledge meets steady practice for a meaningfully rebellious, fully aligned life. The readers of this newsletter are the oddballs and misfits, the dreamers and the big feelers, the creatives and the curious, the ones who just can’t stand to continue their numbed-out slog amidst the mainstream any longer.
I founded Self Made as a place of intention and belonging, a call to deeply connect with your self—self-knowledge, self-trust, self-development—and then to make, small step by step, a life that you savor.
Choosing to design a on-purpose life and free yourself from the default is both a rebellious act and a personal renaissance, and I’m here to support you in all of it.
What’s included in a paid subscription?
🪐 1-2 essays/month.
I write about holistic recovery, self-development, and creativity, and I’m excited to include additional themes exploring the subject of midlife (hi I just turned 40 😳), lessons of self-employment, and tools, resources, and teachings from my expertise as someone who has coached hundreds (!) of people over the past three years.
In the spirit of 🪐 transparency🪐 :
This newsletter is also one of the ways I share what I do and what I’m up to.
As a subscriber, you will also receive regular invitations to 1:1 and group coaching, as well as other Self Made offerings, including workshops, in-person events, and retreats.
✨ HOW WE CAN WORK TOGETHER ✨
Please book an ALIGNMENT SESSION with me if you’d like to discuss coaching prior to making the time, financial, and soul commitment. We’ll spend an hour together and discern mutual fit for an ongoing coaching engagement. I DON’T DO HARD SELLS. Let’s be together and if it’s a good fit, great! You might also leave our conversation with a handful of resources and suggestions for stuff you can get started on on your own. I’m on your team either way <3
How much does a paid subscription cost?
Subscriptions are $5/month, or $55/year, or $313 to become a sustaining member.
What’s included in a free subscription?
All of the above - for now!
About Dani
Dani Cirignano (MFA) is a writer, Certified Integral Coach, and Holistic Recovery Guide located in San Francisco, CA.
She helps fellow 🌺late bloomers🌺 learn how to work with—not against—their innate talents and gifts so they can design a bold, on-purpose life that aligns with their values.
She writes about recovery, creativity, community, and her beloved San Francisco, and holds that it’s an expanded sense of joy, pleasure and play that is the ultimate aim of personal growth and self development.
She prefers the margins over the middle every damn time.
Other things:
Certified Integral Coach (2023)
Master of Fine Arts in Writing, 2018
Yoga instructor (2010 - present)
CrossFit level 1 instructor (2018 - present)
Tempest trained Recovery Coach (2021 - present)
Sober from Bullshit Recovery Club facilitator (2018 - present)
Hella other certifications
Ex-SF tour guide
One cool dog
If you made it this far…say hi!
Hit reply and let me know what you’re hoping to get from this newsletter. Are you on your own path of self discovery and transformation? Are you considering ditching booze and looking for an alternative to traditional 12-step recovery? Do you also have an excruciatingly cute rescue animal?? I’d love to know more about you and I always love hearing from you.
