People from all walks of life work with professionally trained coaches to help them attain their goals. Life coaches work with people in all areas of their lives, including personal transformation, relationships, career, finance, health, and more. Working with a personal coach is not limited to any type of person, but is best for those who are ready to take steps to improve the quality of one or more areas of their lives. People who hire life coaches do so because they are committed to living happier and more fulfilling lives, and are willing to do the work needed to get there. 

The results you’ll receive will vary depending on what it is that’s led you to work with a life coach and how committed you are to doing the work. If you get a life coach to help you out professionally, the process can help you make your current job more gratifying, gain better focus on managing your work, and/or market yourself more effectively to future employers. If your reasons are personal, you can find a life coach to help you to become more capable and confident, improve your work, personal and romantic relationships, resolve ongoing negative behaviors (including improving the ways you see yourself and the world around you), improve your overall health and grow spirituality. With life coaching, you can live a more balanced and satisfying life and literally make your dreams come true! 

Each session is custom-tailored to the client and will vary based on individual needs. In the beginning, I will discuss what matters to you and what you are committed to accomplishing through our work together. Then we will begin to create a plan to identify and achieve your goals through small steps that will build upon one another and grow larger as your confidence builds. Periodically, I will give you assignments to help you to direct your progress and tools for tracking your success. Working together as a team, we will acknowledge obstacles, explore alternate perspectives, and celebrate successes. At the conclusion of each session, we will revisit your goals, evaluate your progress, and identify the next steps that are needed to achieve even greater results. 

Life coaching can take you above and beyond your personal limitations, and one of them is a little something that I call "The Proximity Wall". That's the thing that prevents you from scratching an itch with your own two (otherwise very capable) hands if it happens to be located between your shoulder blades. More often than not, when people try to achieve their greatest goals on their own, they come up against obstacles they can’t see or understand well enough to triumph over, and either end up feeling defeated or angry, blaming these impasses on outside forces or stereotypes that they feel must have held them back. Without greater insight, they aren’t able to recognize the inner and outer blocks that stand in their way and end up feeling “stuck”, without knowing why. 

On the other hand, working with a professionally trained coach can offer an unbiased and objective perspective, which can help you recognize any self-sabotaging patterns and habits you might have, and help to move beyond them. Most people find that their efforts are more efficient and productive when working with a professional life coach and that this added support and insight provides them with opportunities to better realize their potential. In short, life coaching can help you to make your dreams attainable and will give you support and encouragement along the way. 

Coaching is distinct from traditional therapy because it is not designed to address psychological (i.e. “mental health”) issues. Generally speaking, people seek out therapy when their lives are unmanageable and they cannot function properly. In other words, it helps people to go from being dysfunctional to functional, while coaching helps people to move from functional to optimal. While emotional issues may very well arise within a coaching framework, the primary focus is on helping you to develop a better understanding of the lenses through which you see the world, develop constructive habits and skills, identify your goals, and then create the means to achieve them. There is less emphasis placed on what may have led up to past events than on recognizing and acknowledging the effects of that on whatever currently is so that you can create more fulfilling outcomes in the future. 

My answer to that is the same as to the question, "How much should a red car cost?":  it depends!  The longest I've ever coached anyone was a year, and the shortest was three months. I find that the "sweet spot" for creating lasting change for my clients is right around eight months. That's because after the first seven or eight weeks of exciting progress, there's often a lull in the action for anywhere from three weeks to two months, during which many clients hit a disheartening plateau that invites a deeper exploration of their inner and outer blocks, and that's where some of the most transformational and lasting work really kicks in! (After all, if we don't take the time to examine, understand and really address what's going on beneath the surface, doesn't it make sense that the results you'll receive from our work together will be pretty superficial and temporary? I believe that you deserve more than that, and I promise that I will be every bit as committed to your success as you are!)

Whatever you and I discuss will be held in confidence and not shared with others. However, our discussions are not privileged for legal purposes. The privilege of confidentiality for the clergy, psychotherapists, doctors, and attorneys is not granted to coaching professionals. That said, life coaching is a confidential process, and your personal information will always be protected unless one of two very unusual circumstances occurs. The first would be if you stated that you were in danger of harming yourself or contemplating doing so, and the second would be if you threatened to harm someone else or mentioned that you are considering doing so. In either of these circumstances, I would be legally and ethically required to inform the appropriate authorities to protect those so endangered.

Although some health insurers may have plans that will cover life coaching for their policyholders because of the recognized benefits to their overall health and well-being, most will not, unless a doctor or other licensed medical professional can prescribe and explain why they consider it medically necessary to address some aspect of the patient's care. Still, check with your insurer to be sure. While both psychotherapists and life coaches play valuable roles in people's lives, the material that they help them to address often overlaps because health insurance is a form of insurance that protects explicitly against illness. A coach is not a doctor and cannot diagnose or treat medical conditions, or treat a disease, coaching seems only to be covered by those insurers who recognize the benefits of having their policyholders live lives of decreased stress and increased joy and satisfaction. 

I require 24 hours notice to cancel all sessions. Please be sure to contact me if you will not be able to make your scheduled appointment in order to avoid being charged for the session.