WHAT IS COACHING?

Yes, the transitional life coaching I provide can be therapeutic, but it is not therapy. Transitional life coaching is distinct from traditional therapy because it is not designed to address psychological issues. Coaching is created to raise a level of awareness in you to uncover the direction you want, and to create a plan so that it can become a reality. While emotional issues may arise, the primary focus of coaching is to help you identify your goals, achieve them, and develop constructive habits and skills. There is little emphasis placed on the past with coaching, but instead the focus is on creating what you want now and in the future. Simply, therapists and consultants deal with problems; life coaches have GOALS to achieve! I am an Associate Certified Coach (ACC), I abide by the strictest ethics set forth by the International Coach Federation (ICF).

A transition coach notices from a distance the difference between what it is you say you want and what is it you are doing to achieve what you want. We work together with you carefully to close that space and create that change. We design a plan, support and encourage you, move you to action and stay by your side until you make the transition it is that we have realized you want to accomplish. You could be wanting to make a change at the company you work or change firms completely, shift to a different business, make a change in the marriage you are in, you may have moved cities and need support making that transition. Maybe you have battled a serious illness and are not sure what it is you want and need clarity. These are a few examples-we work on them together.

We get stuck in our ways! When we’re together you are able to visualize your future, you can picture it, you are then able to design it. We develop a plan, execute, reevaluate, keep moving ahead until what may have seemed impossible when we started is now not only possible, it’s your reality. Your transitional coach works together with you in strong partnership to make sure you stay the course.

Not long ago a client and I had done a Zoom introductory session, she told me she was not sure about the concept. It was good that within the first few minutes she was so forthright with not only her reticent feelings about “the whole life coaching thing”, but my certifications as well. I was wondering why someone with such sentiments would bother wasting her time. She continued to say that her friend had been psyched about her own life coach, so she decided to try calling. This happens quite frequently. Change is something we often deal with during our lives, change in job, financial change, family change, I am passionate about giving people the support and tools they need to feel empowered. Before I became a coach and began to educate myself about the field, I thought it was scam too. The more informed I became about coaching, the more I understood that coaches help their clients meet an unfulfilled want. I had spent time at therapy, coaching is not the same. A therapist helps you when you feel like you are at rock bottom. As a coach, I can help you when you are looking to be better than just average. My clients change because they want to change but don’t know where to begin,

I am here if you want an accountable partner to encourage you as you make a big transition. As your transitional coach, I ask you the right questions so that you come to your own solutions. I am not going to analyze you and tell you what you need, despite clients asking me to do so that’s a consultant. If you want to hire me as a consultant, we can arrange that time separately. I will give you assignments to help direct your progress, help support you, but only you can make the differences you want. We will work together to acknowledge your obstacles, explore alternate perspectives, and celebrate successes. I am here to get to know you, to build on your strengths, notice your weaknesses and what crap you’re telling yourself, we will work together. That’s how you will make significant changes! How does that sound to you?

When I was looking to be a coach, I could not believe that you actually did not need any qualifications to be a life coach. You just could say you were one and away you go. It’s not like being a psychiatrist, you don’t HAVE to go to school or pass tests. I wondered if the field would be filled with people who desired therapists but did not want to invest in the schooling that was necessary for that field. It felt like a hack version of therapy to me. I am definitely not a hack! The more I learned about coaching, the more I learned that it was a growing need. I did my share of research, discovered it was a developing field and found out that there were many life coaching training programs, but you didn’t have to take those programs. I have always held myself to a higher standard. I became a certified life coach in 2014 and have earned an ACC level credential, there are just a little over 16,000 who have this coaching credential in the world. The Life Coaching field keeps growing every year. I personally continue to enhance, develop, and perfect my skills through continuing education. In the last year I have completed Writing, Creativity and The Mindful Coach with the Mindfulness Coaching School, as well as Leveraging Change-makers Mindsets for our Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous World at the ICF Calgary Chapter, as well as completed the Way of Writing with the terrific teacher and world-renowned author Natalie Goldberg on learning to be able to better express yourself through the written word in anticipation of starting up a journaling group in the future. I have completed many transitions myself and I am a member of the International Coaching Federation the leading global coaching organization. 

Transitional life coaching helps you design a vision and accomplish a plan. More often than not, you will try to achieve, but don’t even realize what stands in your way. A transitional life coach offers an unbiased and objective perspective and helps you realize your patterns and habits. We’re an educated third-party sounding board to help inspire and advise you about all different decisions in your life. Most people experience that they are more efficient when working with a professional life coach and that this provides the opportunity to better realize their potential. Transitional life coaching can make your dreams attainable and will give you support and encouragement along the way.

Perhaps you want to leave your multi-tier corporate job and you want to be in film production? Maybe it’s the other way around? Maybe you live in New York and you want to move to LA and can’t figure out how? Maybe you want to travel, or write, or perform? Maybe you have had a long illness and you would prefer a different job, but aren’t sure exactly what it is? Maybe you are retiring, now what? These are real “life matters”, real things, there are many different kinds of things. This is where a transitional life coach fits in. Let’s figure out where it is you want to go and how to get you there. You decide, I help you lead the path. Are you ready to get to work? You will experience change because you work for it. We will set a strategy, you will put the pedal to the metal, shift old ways of thinking and observe results. Don’t start coaching because anyone else wants to do it but YOU! I will help you realize what you need to do, it’s up to you to do it.

What we discuss will be held in confidence and not shared with others. Our discussions are not considered a legally confidential relationship like in the medical and legal professions thought, and so our communications are not subject to the protection of any legally recognized privilege. A coach agrees not to disclose any information pertaining to the client without the client’s written consent. The coach will not disclose the client’s name as a reference without the client’s consent.

My coaching is done over the phone or through Zoom in the privacy of your home for comfort, ease, and convenience. Each session follows a similar format, we review your homework exercises, identify what you want to focus on “today”, and your desired outcomes from the call, explore the issues and how it relates to the overall theme and desired outcomes that we set.

There are coaches out there that charge anywhere from $50-$5000 per hour. I have some associates who command a yearly retainer of $1 million. Amazing, right? My coaching practice is a different model from pay-by the hour, you are making an investment in a partner that will help change your life. You will have to look at that personal goal in your mind and really contemplate the investment you will be making on yourself. Will it be worth it to be spending it to see the light at the end of the tunnel? It’s totally true, coaching is an indulgence. However, you could be in the type of position where you are feeling unsuccessful in some area of your life and coaching no longer feels like that indulgence. It’s like that vacation you take when you don’t want to indulge-but you must! Let’s get busy, I’m looking forward to encouraging you through your change.