Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole DaCosta Praino.
Hi Nicole, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My journey has been anything but linear, but looking back, there has always been a consistent thread: I have been deeply curious about people, why we do what we do, and how the environments and systems around us shape who we become.
My career has taken me through human services, education, behavioral health, leadership, and entrepreneurship. I have worked with children and families, supported individuals navigating some of the most difficult seasons of their lives, led programs and teams, and eventually became a therapist. Each experience taught me something different about people, but it also helped me recognize a larger pattern. Individual growth is incredibly important, but sometimes the person is not the problem. Sometimes the system around them needs to change.
That realization ultimately led me to pursue my doctorate in Organizational Leadership. I earned my Ed.D. in 2025, and the experience helped me connect pieces of my professional life that had previously seemed separate. My background in psychology taught me to understand people. My clinical work taught me how to listen deeply and recognize patterns. My leadership experience taught me how organizations function. Together, those experiences shaped the work I am building today.
I founded Infinite Elevation Coaching as a space for high-capacity women who have spent years achieving, leading, caring for others, and carrying tremendous responsibility, but are ready to create success that does not require constantly operating under pressure. My approach brings together behavioral insight, leadership development, and nervous-system-informed coaching to help women reconnect with themselves, gain clarity, and lead from a more grounded place.
More recently, I have also been expanding my work into health and wellness coaching and exploring how coaching can support people not only individually, but within larger organizations and systems. That evolution feels very natural to me because I have realized that the work I am most energized by lives at the intersection of people and systems.
Today, I describe myself as a healer of systems. Sometimes that means helping an individual recognize a pattern that is no longer serving her. Sometimes it means helping a leader think differently about how they lead. And sometimes it means looking at an organization and asking, “How can we make this work better for the human beings inside of it?”
I did not begin my career knowing that all of these experiences would eventually connect. But today, I can see that every chapter gave me another piece of the work I am now doing. I am still evolving, still learning, and still incredibly curious about where that work will lead next.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all, and I think some of the most meaningful parts of my journey have come from the seasons when I had no idea what was coming next.
One of the biggest challenges has been learning how to build a career while also living a life that has required frequent reinvention. As a military spouse, relocation has been a consistent part of my adult life. Every few years can mean a new community, a new professional network, different licensing requirements, and sometimes starting over professionally just as I begin to feel established. That has forced me to become incredibly adaptable, but it has also challenged the traditional idea of what career progression is supposed to look like.
There have also been periods when my credentials, interests, and abilities seemed to be moving faster than my ability to define exactly where I belonged professionally. I earned my doctorate in Organizational Leadership in 2025, which was one of my proudest accomplishments, but even that did not magically answer the question, “What am I supposed to do next?” If anything, it expanded the possibilities.
I have had to become comfortable with the space between who I have been and who I am becoming.
Building Infinite Elevation Coaching has been another lesson in that. I love the work itself. What has been harder is learning the business side, putting myself and my ideas in front of people, and trusting that I do not have to follow someone else’s blueprint for what entrepreneurship should look like. I have had to learn how to build something that reflects both my expertise and the way I actually want to live.
There have also been plenty of professional disappointments along the way. Opportunities I thought were perfect for me did not work out. Doors I expected to open stayed closed. There have been moments when I questioned whether I was moving in the right direction at all.
But one of the biggest lessons I have learned is that uncertainty does not always mean something is going wrong. Sometimes it means something is still taking shape.
I used to believe that if I planned carefully enough, I could control the outcome. Now I am learning to trust myself even when I cannot see the entire path ahead. That has probably been one of the hardest lessons of my life, but also one of the most freeing.
The road has definitely not been smooth, but it has made me more adaptable, more curious, and much less interested in forcing myself into spaces that no longer fit. At this stage of my life, I am less focused on having the perfect plan and more focused on recognizing the opportunities that allow me to do meaningful work, contribute what I do best, and continue growing.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Infinite Elevation Coaching was created around a simple belief: success should not require you to lose yourself in the process.
I work primarily with high-capacity women who are accomplished, capable, and often the people everyone else depends on. From the outside, they may appear to have everything together, but internally they may be navigating a transition, questioning what they want next, or realizing that the way they have always achieved is no longer sustainable.
My work focuses on helping women move from pressure-driven achievement to more intentional, grounded leadership. Through nervous-system-informed coaching, behavioral insight, and leadership development, I help clients slow down enough to recognize the patterns driving their decisions, reconnect with what they actually want, and make choices from clarity rather than obligation, fear, or external expectations.
What sets Infinite Elevation apart is the intersection of psychology, leadership, and coaching behind the work. My background includes behavioral health, human services, organizational leadership, and clinical practice, and I hold a doctorate in Organizational Leadership. That combination allows me to look beyond the immediate goal a client brings into the room. I am interested in the person, the patterns, and the systems surrounding her.
One of the things I am most proud of is that Infinite Elevation is not built around the idea that women need to become more productive, more disciplined, or more impressive. Many of the women I work with already know how to achieve. They do not need another person telling them how to push harder. Sometimes the most transformative question is, “What would you choose if you didn’t have to prove anything?”
My private coaching experiences include the Inner Leadership Reset, an intensive coaching experience for women ready to examine how they lead themselves and move into their next chapter with greater clarity, and the Next Chapter Strategy Session for women who need focused space to work through a decision, transition, or direction.
As Infinite Elevation continues to evolve, I am also expanding the work beyond individual coaching. My larger vision includes partnering with leaders and organizations to create healthier systems where people can perform, grow, and lead without chronic pressure being treated as the price of success.
Ultimately, I want people to know that Infinite Elevation is about more than reaching the next level. It is about making sure the life you are building actually feels like the life you intended to create.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
What I love most about Virginia is how much it offers in one place. I love the food, the culture, the diversity of the people, and the fact that there is always something new to experience. You can spend one weekend exploring a festival or trying a restaurant from a culture you’ve never experienced before, and the next weekend find yourself surrounded by nature, history, or a completely different community. I especially appreciate being in a place where my family can be exposed to so many different people, traditions, foods, and experiences.
As a military family, we have lived in different places over the years, and Virginia has genuinely felt like somewhere I could see myself putting down roots. There is a sense of possibility here that I really enjoy.
What do I like least? Honestly, I think my biggest complaint is that there is so much to do that I am constantly discovering something I wish I had known about sooner! I will hear about a festival, restaurant, event, or hidden gem after it has already happened and think, “How did I miss that?” So maybe my least favorite thing about Virginia is simply that I haven’t experienced enough of it yet.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.infiniteelevationcoaching.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infiniteelevationcoaching/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-nicole-dacosta-praino-ed-d-399820168
