What is Life Coaching?

Simply put, Life Coaching is a personal change and empowerment methodology that supports an individual towards learning who they really are beyond their roles, functions, achievements and story. Life coaching helps a person to discover themselves inside, at a deeper more anchored level and to learn how to reveal and step into being the version of themselves that they dream and envision, and from that anchored being, to create massive abundance in their life. Coaching creates a sacred space for you to awaken to your true self, to discover that you are already sourced with the answers, and are way more powerful than you’ve been conditioned to believe. It uncovers the deeply rooted belief systems that keep you stuck and empowers you to turn your INsights(the view from the inside out) into inspired action. Coaching helps you to identify how you can turn your struggles, belief patterns and triggers into tools and treasures instead of keeping them as limitations, so that you begin to see the hidden vision more clearly of what’s possible for you. Coaching unearths that which already exists within you, but just has yet to be discovered. It is founded on a framework that gently and lovingly supports you in unfolding your super-powers and inner awareness of your awesomeness, so that you learn the secret skillset of being happy, peaceful, grounded and fulfilled. And from THAT state of being, having the unshakable confidence to create, accomplish and actualize your really big dreams and purpose powerfully.

What is a Life Coach?

A Life Coach is someone who coaches human beings at being human, healthfully and happily. A Life Coach has the capacity to hold the space for you to guide yourself back to who you truly are, and will support you in discovering and knowing that for yourself. A Life Coach asks powerful questions to facilitate you exploring who you are at your core, and excavating the possibilities that exist for you in your chosen direction. A Life Coach practices deep listening for limiting patterns of thought, belief systems, language and behaviors that exist, and brings them into your field of awareness where they can be unpacked. You can then determine if these serve you or if its time to let go and create new structures, new neuropathways, new ways of being and thinking. Together we explore where you are, where you want to be and what’s in the middle of those two points and how to navigate the unknown. A Life coach is skilled in asking the right questions that allows you to see your path unfold on how to move forward in a way that is aligned with your values, goals and who you want to be while doing so. A Life Coach helps you get clarity on your goals, your north star, your vision, and to activate your self-command muscle and higher frequency, to more quickly experience results with your mind, body and soul in sync. A Life Coach keeps you accountable to you, and to your journey and your progress. A Life Coach sees you as powerful, knowing your potentiality and walks you towards seeing and experiencing this truth for yourself. A Life Coach is the beholder of your rEvolution that awaits you, in becoming a masterful warrior of your mental, emotional and spiritual health.

What is the relationship between a Life Coach and client?

A good visual analogy I like to use to describe the relationship between a Life Coach and the client is to think of the Life Coach as a rowboat, creating the space for you to sit safely, holding you afloat, as you embark on your journey whether in calm or rough waters. The Life Coach is in for the full ride. You are the rower, doing the rowing, navigating and leading the direction, exploring both familiar and unchartered waters. The Life Coach sits with you in your boat even through darkness, offering perspective and illuminating your endowed gifts and talents, as you find your way through the dark, rough waters and back home. A Life Coach holds the belief that you have the power within you to help yourself. If you fall out of the boat, a Life Coach will not jump in to save you, deeming you powerless. Rather, a Life coach holds the knowing that you are powerful and therefore will illuminate and expand your perspective of options, throw you a life preserver, and keep the boat anchored for you to get back into. And when you discover your power to save yourself, the Life Coach will be there to acknowledge your light and celebrate you, reminding you of how far you’ve traveled when all you still may see is the fear ahead. A Coach is the witness to your process and provides a reflection of the clients thinking, progress, patterns and beliefs. A life Coach is a lighthouse for your journey home.

How is a Life Coach different from a Therapist or Counselor?

Both Life Coach and Therapist beautifully support an individual in his/her quest to feel better. What they have in common is their desire to help you attain greater well-being within yourself, your relationships, and in your life’s work, and all aspects of your daily doings. While each serves a different role in this purpose as you’ll find below, it is not uncommon that a person be partnering with both professionals simultaneously to benefit from deeper more transformative and collaborative work, in which both the Life Coach and therapist would support you synergistically.

In my experience with both, there are several areas in which they vary. One area of distinction is largely based upon where you are at in your journey. Therapy is helpful for you if you are at a point where you are dealing with a problem that is resulting in you sub-functioning, and you are wanting to get back to baseline. Whereas Life Coaching is for you if you are at baseline and you desire to optimize how you are doing and feeling, or wanting to take action towards a desired goal, aspiration or higher fulfillment.

An everyday example of this is someone who is working through a specific unhealed trauma from childhood or a recent crisis, causing continued deep depression or frequent triggering that feels debilitating (therapy suitable), versus someone who doesn’t have a specific event to point to necessarily as the cause for their unhappiness. Perhaps there are several repeated behaviors and habits that cause exhaustion and frustration, you feel stuck, perhaps noticing you resort to comparison of yourself or your life for validation of your worth, feeling overwhelmed or resentful of expectations by others or yourself and it is affecting your confidence or triggering perfectionism, self-doubt, all or nothing thinking, holding you back from experiencing true happiness and success (Life Coaching suitable).

Another distinguishing factor is that therapy tends to focus on uncovering the past issues, often external people or situations that are the root cause for the results and behaviors an individual is experiencing in the present. Life Coaching focuses on discovering the root power of the present moment as the catalyst to ignite and activate your personal empowerment to choose, to up-level your thoughts, emotions and results that you want to experience for right now and your desired future. Coaching holds the knowing that while we all have a story of struggle, some that will bring you to your knees, that you are not a victim of your story, but a viking of THIS moment, authoring the rest of your story. Regardless of the past, we have the ability to choose how to respond NOW in these present moments. All choices have consequences whether we think about them or not or whether we are aware that we are making them or not. Your choices change your experience of the struggle and you create consequences for yourself. Coaching holds the client’s choices NOW, not their past, as their responsibility for the experiences they will have moving forward, to heal past issues and to powerfully create their future experiences, and the future is created in the present moment.

Coaching most often deals with the NOW and what we are creating, and therapy most often deals with resolving the past.

Ultimately, regardless of which is best suited for your particular needs, it is imperative that you maintain your own sense of agency, that is, that you are always the one making your decisions and have the awareness that you are the owner of your decisions. You are in control of you. You contain your best answers for you, so be true to that inner guidance, know that you are resourceful, and let no one but you be the authority on your own empowerment choices to heal or to up-level your life. Be the author of your story and the creator of what comes next regardless of where your story has taken you up to this point. The ending has not yet been written. How will you write the next chapter? You do you!

How is a coach different from friendship?

With a friendship, both people share their issues and their joys and there is time shared for both to get off their chest what they are feeling about the issue at hand. A coach however is holding the space for you, to listen with only the client in mind.

A coach listens to the client without judgement or evaluation, whereas in a friendship there is generally some level of judgement and evaluation freely shared. A coach does not provide opinions. When you break down the word, an opinion is when someone tries to pin themselves and their beliefs on you- to pin I on you. O-pin-i-on.

A coach has no vested interest in which direction or decision a client makes. In a friendship there is often a bias as to what their friend “should” do.

Is coaching a fit for me?

Who needs a Coach?

Everyone. No one on this planet is immune to seasons of change, uncertainty, hard decisions, or transitions. Whether you are ready for a change, have had enough of a situation or change is forced upon you and you are asking yourself, now what?, these transitions require support. You will feel your brain's natural resistance to the discomfort and uncertainty of change through what will also become a time of growth and learning. A coach can help you make the smoothest transition through your transformation and get clear on your north star, your target, and how to reach it.

Coaching is right for you if:

• You judge yourself often

• Your expectations for yourself seem unachievable

• You find yourself comparing your life with everyone else’s story

• You are caught in the lows of not-enoughness - never feeling like you are good enough, attractive enough, fun loving enough, easygoing enough, fit enough, intelligent enough, a good enough mother, father, wife, husband, son, daughter, etc.

• Perfectionism is a constant weight on your shoulders and costs you time and money

• You are caught in the viscous cycle between not feeling happy, and then guilt on just how grateful you “should” be feeling for what you are lucky to have.

• You are wanting to be a “good” person and do for others, yet you are constantly left depleted and resentful from people pleasing (“If I don’t do this, he/she will think I don’t care about them)

• You feel very unsettled during chaos and just want things to go back to how they “should” be, and back to “normal”

• You have all or nothing thinking about your abilities and your life outlook.

• Your choices are based upon the fear of “or else” thinking….”I have to do this “or else” he/she will think I’m…”.

• Extreme thinking and self bullying are your motivating tools, such as “if I get this wrong, I will be fired or it means I’m stupid”

• You think “if only” statements such as “If only I were better at this, then I could handle the situation better”

• You need balance desperately and every time you attempt it, it only lasts for a week or so and you finally give up and then berate yourself for “failing”

• You always second guess or doubt your choices, wishing you had said or done something differently

• You quickly blame others or yourself for the circumstances at hand whether you do it aloud or even silently in your head. Secret……your mind doesn’t know the difference to real or imagined, and reacts the same

• You are easily triggered by what others do and say

• Everything feels like it is working against you

• You are at the point where your own mind doesn’t even believe a word you say towards what will be different tomorrow

• You feel a sense of hopelessness about whether you will ever be truly happy

• You’re not even sure what happiness is “supposed to” be like

• You have difficulty transitioning in times of change

If you are ready to be responsible for the awesome life that is awaiting for you to decide on for yourself, let’s open the door to the possibility to say “yes!” to YOU.

This self-work is meant for you if you are ready to:

Level up

Heal and grow new skin

Be your own compass

Learn the art of awareness of the thoughts driving your emotions

Author your own story

Release old limiting beliefs that keep you stuck

Gain unlimited confidence

Live from your deepest soul wisdom

Trust your decisions

Declare your rEvolution

What types of issues can I work through with a Life Coach?

You don’t have to be “sick” or have something “wrong” to be supported. You simply have to desire more and better for yourself. You are not a patient, you are a client in which we unpack thoughts and co-create your big dreams. The types of areas that I help my clients with center around feelings of longing and discontent in your life related to your relationships, your health, your career, your family, your purpose, your social life, your personal growth, your self-image, to name a few. See the question “How is a Life Coach different from a Therapist?” for further clarification on meeting you where you are at in your process so that you receive the appropriate matched support with where you are now to where you are headed, to maximize your results and so that care is coordinated where needed.

How can I benefit from having you as my coach?

Anyone who is wanting support in moving forward in some area of their life can benefit from coaching. Have you ever wished you had a personal Jiminy Cricket (Pinnochio’s conscience)? Well, you do but you just may not have been aware of its existence and mistaken it for your brain. Or you may have used other people’s dispensing of helpful advice, poll taking or outside validation as your Jiminy Cricket and wondered why you still feel unfulfilled. As your coach, you will benefit from me helping you to spot yours, hear it and learn how to choose confidently and aligned with where you are headed. I am not your Jiminy Cricket, as there is no one who can be. I am more like the Blue Fairy nudging and helping you to awaken and forge the relationship between you and your Jiminy Cricket so that you can see the truth, what’s real, and feel unshakable confidence in your choices, your actions and your progress towards your deepest goals and desires for your life and your imprint on those lives you touch. My job is to help facilitate your journey to receive whatever your intention is and to get the results you are ready to create for yourself

What are your credentials?

The International Coaching Federation(ICF) adheres to a form of coaching that honors the client as the expert in his/her personal and/or professional life and believes, as do I, that every individual is creative, resourceful, and whole. It is upon this foundation in which I was trained and have built my practice.

I am trained and certified through Coach For Life Institute’s Life & Leadership Coach Training Program, an accredited coach training program through the International Coaching Federation(ICF). As an ICF member and Credential-holder, I am part of a self-regulating group of elite coaches who provide accountability to clients and to the coaching profession as a whole. ICF establishes rigorous education and field practice requirements that provide unquestioned legitimacy to my commitment to excellence in coaching. As an ICF professional and in accordance with the standards of the ICF, I am bound by the ICF Code of Ethics and agree to fulfill my ethical and legal obligations to my coaching clients.
In addition, I hold a Bachelor of Science teaching degree from Cortland State University in NY, with a focus in Child Development and Psychology and a minor in Speech Pathology. My teaching education and coach training beautifully compliment each other in the work I do supporting individuals to become curious, learn, level up, and evolve in order for them to rediscover and anchor themselves from the inside, and to bring their magnificence out into the world fully expressed, as they begin to see the hidden vision more clearly of what's possible for them, that once seemed unreachable.
I learned to coach from a whole-person perspective- Mind, Body and Soul, with a deep emphasis on the ontological aspects of our nature as the roots driving personal empowerment, self-regulation, lasting life change practices, and the secret sauce to being deeply happy and fulfilled. I believe all answers already exist within us from what is seeded in our soul at birth. I am inspired to help others find their unique life soulutions, learning how to transform their deepest understanding of who they are and their relationship in the world with others.
Above all, my greatest education and teacher has always been my past “mistakes”, my most difficult struggles, and my toughest pain - that is my true valuable fieldwork.

“Pain is a traveling professor and it goes and knocks on everyone’s door. The smartest people I know are the people who say, come in, and don’t leave until you have taught me what I need to know.”- Glennon Doyle

What happens in a coaching session?

This depends upon the coach’s style of coaching and the client’s stated needs. I find that my client’s gain deeper clarity and results when they lead the direction of the session by preparing the agenda they would like to set for the session and choosing what action steps and self commitments they want to hold themselves to afterwards. I believe in an individual’s innate wisdom to guide themselves towards their deepest desires when they are lovingly held to their highest and are in charge of their own journey. I will ask you powerful questions, provide perspective and guardrails so that you remain productive in your purpose and chosen direction, aligned with your larger goals you desire. I reflect back thoughts and ideas being uncovered, notice where there are blocks and energy shifts, allow you to try on ideas in the safety of a session. I will stand guard at the door of your mind and illuminate unconscious thoughts and patterns, bringing them into your awareness, so that you can see the stories you tell yourself for what they actually are, help you unhook from them and decide whether to let them go or to rewrite the script. I serve as a mirror and witness to your process to get you from point A to point B and support you through the messy middle. View this helpful Session Prep Form to prepare you with the agenda for our sessions.

Where do sessions take place?

Sessions can take place anywhere you feel most comfortable, via phone, zoom or at my home office in-person(see photo below). My clients find that they get the most from their sessions when they can be in a quiet space that they feel safe, uninhibited and can be fully present. When you schedule your complimentary session, you will have the option to select how you would like our session to take place.