By Louis Brown
At 67, SiTerra Wallace says she is not slowing down.
For the Tallahassee-based transformational coach, speaker, and author, this stage of life is about purpose, legacy, and continuing to serve others. Through coaching, mentorship, speaking, and writing, Wallace uses lessons from her own life to encourage others to heal, forgive, and move forward.
“Well, at 67, I’m not winding down by any means. I’m walking fully into my purpose,” Wallace said. “I believe that God has called me to serve others.”
Wallace’s work is closely connected to her own experiences with pain, trauma, betrayal, and recovery. Those experiences helped shape the way she understands forgiveness and healing and, over time, became the foundation of the work she now shares with others.
Today, her message has grown beyond just individual coaching. Through her program, 28Love, Wallace hopes to help people and families have honest conversations, address difficult experiences, and break unhealthy patterns that continue from one generation to the next.
“I believe that what one generation refuses to discuss, the next generation may be forced to repeat,” Wallace said. “Honest conversations can interrupt generational trauma.”
For Wallace, that desire to help others started long before she became a coach or mentor. Around four or five years old, young Wallace noticed a couple arguing at her parents’ home. As the adults talked, young Wallace walked over, placed their hands together, and walked away. Her parents watched the moment unfold and joked that she might one day become a counselor.
“As a young child, I went over to them, and they were standing in a corner talking, and I went over to them and literally put their hands on one another’s,” Wallace recalled. “And just looked at them, and walked away.”
Decades later, that same instinct to bring people together has become a part of Wallace’s life’s work, both as a mentor and transformational coach. She believes meaningful conversations require people to listen without immediately becoming defensive. Families, she said, can often avoid difficult subjects because of shame, fear, pride, or judgment, and it’s from that silence that can allow unhealthy patterns to continue.
However, Wallace believes there is something truly powerful that happens when different generations sit down and honestly listen to one another. Older adults can offer wisdom from their experiences, while younger adults can bring fresh perspectives. For her, that exchange can help create healthier relationships and stronger communities.
What many people don’t know is that Wallace’s approach to mentorship is primarily shaped by her own experiences.
“People say, ‘Siterra, you never meet a stranger,’ but more importantly, I never intend to meet people from a pedestal,” Wallace said. “More purposely, I meet them at a place where healing can begin.”
As a mentor, Wallace prefers not to meet people from a place of superiority or assume she already knows what they need. Instead, she tries to meet them where they are.
She goes on to say that her experiences have taught her to lead with empathy rather than assumptions. She listens to what people say, as well as what they may leave unsaid, understanding that behavior can sometimes hide deeper pain.
At the heart of that work is one word: forgiveness.
She believes forgiveness does not mean approving of harmful behavior, forgetting what happened, or immediately rebuilding a relationship with someone who caused harm. Instead, she sees forgiveness as a process that allows people to regain control over how much power their past has over their present.
“Forgiveness doesn’t just, again, it doesn’t just change what happened, but it changes how much power I allow the past to hold or retain,” Wallace said.
From her sessions of transformation, she encourages people not to rush the process or pretend they have forgiven when they have not. Pain can resurface, she said, meaning forgiveness may need to happen more than once, emphasizing that healing can coexist with healthy boundaries. Forgiving someone does not mean allowing them to cross those boundaries again.
“That’s very key, boundaries are very important,” Wallace said. “Just because I told you I forgive you and I move forward, I still have to maintain a healthy boundary from you because you’ve already shown me that you can cross lines. You don’t want this to affect your every move, as it can affect so many places in life.”
Her own journey through therapy helped her understand this personally. Wallace revealed that she once struggled to forgive because of the pain she had experienced, placing strain on what once were meaningful relationships around her. Over time, she would realize from her therapy sessions and her own experiences that the lessons she gained through healing could become a way to help others.
That realization continues through her upcoming book, Forgiveness Uncovered: Reveal the Pain, Release the Past, and Reclaim Your Peace. Wallace believes her personal story lends the book authenticity, allowing readers to see how her experiences can serve as lessons for their own lives.
“My story gives the book authenticity, my personal story, with the goal of the reader obtaining healing on purpose,” Wallace said. “I want readers to experience transformation, not merely inspiration.”
The book will include reflection questions, declarations, exercises, and other practical tools designed to help readers take what they learn beyond the page.
Forgiveness Uncovered builds on Wallace’s previous book, Show Love Now, and is part of what she describes as a larger series and movement centered on love, healing, forgiveness, and leadership.
Through 28Love, Wallace wants to take those ideas even further, with a goal not to simply create another program, but to build something that encourages families, communities, and organizations to communicate more honestly and safely. For Wallace, the work doesn’t end when the conversation does. It’s about what people choose to do with what they’ve confronted, and how they move forward from it.
“I encourage people to choose freedom one honest step at a time,” Wallace said.
For Wallace, that freedom is also part of the legacy she hopes to leave behind, not just simply through her work, but through the lives she touches along the way.
“Some people think they’re losing something by making this move to forgive such, sometimes, really tough stuff. So I don’t want them to merely just talk about love, but I want to demonstrate it through action.” Wallace said.
She hopes her work will help individuals and families break unhealthy cycles while learning that forgiveness does not require them to abandon themselves.
At 67, Wallace sees the years ahead not as a time to slow down, but as another opportunity to build. Her next chapter includes expanding 28Love, continuing her work as a coach and mentor, developing younger leaders, and bringing her message of healing to more people.
Her story is a reminder that purpose has no expiration date, as there’s always time to help someone else find theirs.
