About Life Coaching
What is a life coach?
A life coach is a wellness professional who helps you improve your life by drawing on tools from many fields. These include:
- the human potential movement
- holistic health and wellness
- leadership training
- adult education
- personal development
- the spiritual traditions
- the study of human behavior and the mind
The coaching, healing, consulting and transformational industries have the power to change the world for the better. But not all life coaches are created equally.
Because the life coaching industry is new enough to not require credentialing, anyone can hang his / her shingle and call herself a coach. And lately, it seems that the coach training industries have focused more on teaching its coaches how to market their services than on becoming better and better at the art and science of transformational coaching.
Read on to learn how I’m different.
What makes me different?
Creating Deep Connections
For one, creating deep and lasting connections with my clients and being known as a masterful practitioner in the transformation industry are more valuable to me than earning lots of money. Many of my clients stay in touch and reach out again –even ten years later– when they run into a bumpy part of their life or want a little support from a professional to get them through their current challenge.
A Passion for life-long learning
Secondly, I believe in life-long learning. I earned my:
- Master’s degree in Business, Leadership and Social Responsibility from Seattle University.
- Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a Creative Writing emphasis from the University of Washington.
I have also trained with:
- National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM)
- Greater Good Science Center
- Center for Compassion and Altruism
- Learning and the Brain
- International Association of Expressive Arts Therapy
- Center for Creative Leadership
- And more.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit and all our lives were thrown into disarray by powers outside our control, I decided to enroll in Sacred Depths Transformational Practitioner Certification. This is a 10-month, advanced & fully comprehensive training for seasoned coaches, facilitators and healers who want to deepen master-level transformational skills. I chose to join this program to gain more mastery in both basic and advanced level skills. I believe this will help my clients:
- Have bigger breakthroughs
- Create longer-lasting change
- And feel more seen, heard, and honored as they navigate the sometimes messy, stressful, and awkward forward motion it takes to transform their lives in the ways they desire.
Through this program, and Advanced Depths (year two) which dives even more deeply into mastery level coaching skills on the cognitive, emotional, spirit, and somatic levels, I am continuously increasing my ability to create deeper connections, lasting change and holistic transformation with my clients.
Certification
Self Belief is a powerful piece of any transformation. In fact, it’s at the heart of everything you do (or don’t) create in your life. So to complement the deep somatic, emotional and spiritual work in Sacred Depths, in the summer of 2021 I enrolled in Self-Belief Coaching Academy. Here I learned tried-and-tested cognitive evidence-based strategies to help my clients navigate through self-doubt. Self Belief Coaching Academy is fully accredited by the International Coaching Federation.
I chose these two programs on top of my other qualifications intentionally. Becoming masterful at deep transformational coaching aligns with my value of continuing my own deep personal growth and transformation.
You say you go deep, and are “trauma-informed”, so what’s the difference between coaching with you and seeing a therapist?
As a trauma-informed practitioner, I understand that 70% of people in the world have experienced at least one trauma. And 30% of those have more than one. I know that trauma triggers can show up in people in unexpected ways and unexpected times. I am trained to notice when this might be happening, and how to guide you back to your healthy adult self who has –since the day you experienced your first trauma– been masterfully protecting you.
I am trained to help your healthy adult self recognize this unique-to-you skillset, and I am trained in how to gently bring these protective beliefs and behaviors to the awareness of your healthy adult self so she can decide whether the time is right to cultivate new beliefs and behaviors (or if these protective beliefs and behaviors are still serving you.)
Additionally, I do not diagnose, treat, mitigate or cure any medical or psychological condition.
Do you take insurance?
Unfortunately, no; I am not a licensed therapist and am not “treating” you for anything. Your health insurance will not usually pay for coaching.
How much does it cost to work with you?
It varies. I offer several coaching packages from a single 90-minute session with a 30-minute follow up to a full year-long program. I also offer low cost alternatives to one-on-one coaching, and offer free access to my “grimoire” of Practical-Magick through my newsletter.
But I also want you to consider how much it costs you NOT to get professional help. What is your self-doubt keeping you from? Are you already finding beauty, joy & meaning in your ordinary life? Do you have access to your soul’s wisdom, or are you following society’s norms to the detriment of your health and well-being? What about success? How do YOU define success? Is your ladder against the right wall? Or are you following a definition of success that isn’t aligned with your personal values?
If you can’t answer these questions in a way that leaves you with a positive sense of self, NOT taking action is costing you much more than you’ll pay me.
Schedule your free 45-minute discovery session to find out if coaching with me is right for you.
Where are you located? Do you meet your clients in-person?
I am located just west of Port Angeles, WA –gateway to Olympic National Park.
Currently, I meet with my one-on-one clients virtually, either over the phone or (if requested) via Zoom. When I first began my practice, in 2012, I had an office and saw all my clients in-person. However, some of them left town and still wanted to meet with me, so I began coaching over the phone. Many of them still call me when they feel stuck! They say that the flexibility of coaching with me over the phone is just as good as meeting with me in person. I answered crisis calls for eight years as a King County Crisis Intervention caller, and became really good at listening in between a caller’s words.
I may go back to some in-person sessions –and for sure in-person retreats– when the world gets back to normal, but for now I’m excited to be able to work with clients all over North America.
I always thought coaching was only for the elite. Who are your clients?
Some people think that only executive level leaders, athletes, musicians & the like might hire a coach.
But my clients have been women of all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds between the ages of 18 & 82. One thing they have in common when they hire me is that they want the support of a professional. And they choose me so they can learn tools that help them handle life with more courage, grace and an intact sense of humor.
I have worked with:
- a street poet
- a single mom enrolled in college
- an artist losing her eyesight
- professionals, teachers and other leaders whose life is requiring them to stretch out of their comfort zone into new ways of being
- grandmothers looking for tools to handle stress both at home and in their jobs
- women looking for help to improve their relationships, etc.
You can learn more about how I can help you here.
Learn about one-on-one coaching here.