Life Coaching explained…
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A Life Coach is a person who walks-the-walk of personal and professional transformation in order to co-create “impossible” futures with their clients. For me this means, I have walked through the fires of life and found, to my own surprise, that I survived, and am so excited to be alive that I want to provide structure, accountability, and acknowledgment to other people who are driven to follow their own path.
Each Life Coach has a different specialty or niche based on personal interests and life experience, mine is helping women thrive against all odds. As with any helping profession, it’s imperative to find a fit that supports empowerment, transformation, and a sense of lightness.
Although it is not a licensed profession, I am an Associate Certified Coach and therefore follow the ethical guidelines and core competencies established by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). I received 216 participant contact learning hours in support of my certification from Accomplishment Coaching through their Coaches Training Program, Washington DC from July 2020-June 2021.
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LISTEN.
My job is to listen,
really listen.
To hear you with open, curious ears, to explore through conversation what it is you genuinely want to create, provide a mirror for reflection, and ask inspired questions. All of this is in service of helping you uncover your path, map it out, and travel your unique journey to achieve tangible outcomes.
Rinse and Repeat.
BE.
Your job is to be
genuinely, unapologetically you.
When given the space to self-reflect, in partnership, with support, you’ll find your path to the unknown becomes not only a possibility but a reality… one step at a time. Being “coachable” includes creating this partnership with me, in the moment, with an open mind and heart, in service of you!
Let’s go!
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DISTINCTIONS
How is Coaching Different from Therapy, Consulting, or Medical Care you ask? Excellent question!
Therapy and Counseling are incredibly impactful helping professions utilizing the trained expertise of a mental health professional. As your Coach, I will hold you as the expert of yourself and use curiosity and reflective questioning to help you uncover what you need to create your ideal future. Then we will create action plans and practices to move yourself forward. Therapy often reflects on the past in service of the present, while coaching is usually future-focused. Many people benefit from seeing a Therapist alongside a Coach.
Consultants are experts in their fields offering advice on how to implement that expert knowledge in their client’s individual situations. Seeing you as the expert of yourself, I will not give advice or even cheerlead. As your coach, I will help you find the answers to your questions that only make sense to you, which is why they are so impactful.
Medical Providers including but not limited to: Medical Doctors, DOMs, and PTs are also highly trained experts in their fields who provide critical input, guidance, and treatment of physical health conditions. As your Coach, I am not a trained medical expert. I cannot provide medical treatment, and our coaching relationship should not be used in place of expert medical care. People with physical health conditions including long-term chronic illness are highly encouraged to seek support from an already flushed-out group of healthcare providers in addition to Coaching. The services I provide are intended to fill in gaps in that provider team by bringing attention to the Ontological approach to whole body health. Ontology is the study of Being, and how you are “being with” your illness/symptoms can highly impact how your body receives treatment from medical professionals. An example is to think of the positive impact of laughter before surgery on recovery time.
How is Coaching Different from support from My Friends and Family? Another Excellent question!
As an Ontological Coach, I look at how you are showing up in the world and provide an unbiased, unattached, external view on the projects or goals you are declaring for yourself. I offer individualized support in a professional and confidential venue, giving you access to powerful tools such as accountability, mindfulness, creative expression, and spiritual practices. I am unattached to your outcome, and there is endless freedom in that. I believe in you. I hold space for you. And, I allow you to do it your way. If that sounds refreshing, we should have a chat!
How can i support you?
Parntership.
Thank you for following the breadcrumb pieces that lead to our paths crossing at this moment. I look forward to engaging with you and learning from each other.
I am fulfilled when I advocate for your transformation. By helping you to deepen your connection with your intuition, I believe you will find what creates fulfillment in your life. Walking the path toward your highest good, with the power of partnership and support, you will live a life guided by heart-based purpose. And although it may be at times confronting, the light, love, and life that flows through you will not only have a positive impact on your experience but will generate a ripple effect in the world around you.
Empathy.
I have received gifts that came in jagged packages including divorce, homelessness, chronic pelvic pain, and the grief of losing a parent to suicide. There were also those which came in shiny boxes with a bow on top, including motherhood, life-giving friendships, a healthy romantic partnership, recovery from codependency, and physical health.
Although my life experiences are unique from your life experiences, I am empathetic to your journey. I embrace your pain and shame just as I do your joy and triumph. No topic is off-limits or outside of my breadth of understanding. I embrace you in your humanity, and I welcome the growth that comes when light and movement are brought to stagnant spaces in your mind and heart.
Mindfulness.
My coaching is unique in that I incorporate meditation and other mindfulness practices into the structure of our sessions. Any tool that helps you to get in touch with your inner guidance is a gift that will keep on giving. I recognize that I am but a conduit for a wisdom greater than myself to find its voice. Therefore, my life’s purpose is to teach the spiritual fisher-person to nourish their souls for a lifetime by “fishing” for the truths that lie within themselves.
Bravery.
Living your life’s purpose isn’t for the faint of heart. It stimulates brutal honesty, radical generosity, and fearless self-reflection. It renders your patterns meaningless as you forge new versions of yourself in unknown territory, drawing on the pureness of your inner being to replace the tools and weapons used in your defense that have actually held you in stasis.
Standing with clients as they teeter on the precipice of a new awareness is a delicate dance. It often elicits tears, profanity, and the shattering of armor which has long since lost it’s potency. Those lightbulb moments are worth the discomfort that precedes them, because you’re worth laying down the BS and embracing your calling.
If I can do it, beyond physical pain, heartbreak, and survivor’s guilt, I promise, so can you.
“TENDERNESS AND KINDNESS ARE NOT SIGNS OF WEAKNESS AND DESPAIR, BUT MANIFESTATIONS OF STRENGTH AND RESOLUTION.”
— Kahlil Gibran
