Life coaching as a concept can traced back to the 1970s, and summarized with the following quote from Timothy Gallwey’s 1974 book, The Inner Game of Tennis:

“The thoughts, feelings, and motivations within us may be invisible, even to ourselves, but have great impact on how we see ourselves, the choices we make, and how we see and treat others, which in turn create much of the external conditions in which we live.”

This quote refers to how coaching reflects a client’s internal processes and mindset and provides a framework to support moving them externally toward desired changes.

Coaching was further cultivated into a profession in the 1970s by Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott, known as “The Mother of Coaching,” who established the first coach training organization called the MMS Institute. Then by Sir John Whitmore in the 1980s, moving the discipline of coaching more broadly from sports performance to business and leadership, and then, due to demonstrated favorable outcomes, began to be applied to other areas of life.

Today, the International Coaching Federation (ICF), founded in 1995 and the foremost governing body in the coaching industry, defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential."

Through powerful question-asking, active listening, reframing of perspective, goal-setting, and action planning, coaching helps extract inner wisdom and resourcefulness from within clients and provides them with the structure and support to make tangible progress against their goals.

Benefits of investing in coaching may include a greater sense of agency and direction, increased self- and situational awareness, outside accountability for taking action, and ultimately, the implementation of highly impactful and desired changes in one’s life.

Although coaches may use tools and approaches that derive from studies in the field of psychology (particularly positive psychology), coaching does not take a clinical approach, does not utilize the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and would not be appropriate to deal with acute psychological crises. Coaches are not licensed medical professionals and do not make diagnoses or offer prescriptive/directive advice.

Though coaching facilitates learning from the past, coaching generally places more focus on action planning and is future oriented rather than processing the past as therapy often does. As such, therapy is often more appropriate for supporting people in moving from a suffering state to a baseline state, where coaching best supports people as they move from baseline functioning to a thriving state.

If they have the capacity to do so, someone can be engaged in both therapy and coaching simultaneously. In such cases, there can be a synergistic effect in multiple areas of one’s life.

Yes, anything shared within the coaching relationship is confidential. Even the fact that you have inquired about services or begun working with me as a coach is considered confidential—you are free to share this information yourself, but I would never do so without your permission.

Please note that as in other professional contexts, there are conditions that may require breach of confidentiality—namely, if I’m subpoenaed by court of law, if you confess that you have committed a serious crime while working with me, or if we determine that you are at imminent risk of hurting others or yourself. But even in these cases, there will be no surprises as confidentiality-impacting issues will be discussed with you prior to any breach. This is typically not a concern for anyone who works with me, as I ensure we evaluate alignment of values and needs during our initial connection/discovery call. Communicating this policy simply protects both coach and client.

Before jumping into coaching, we’ll connect to ensure that coaching with me is a good fit for you, and agree on terms and logistics. As this is a professional coaching practice, we will work from a coaching contract. The contract is always amendable, but it serves as a basis of understanding and reference point and must be signed before we start any actual coaching sessions.

Logistics will be discussed during our initial connection call. Video call links are included in meeting invitations for appointments. After enrollment, you will have access to my appointment scheduler, allowing you to select time slots that work for you.

If we happen to be co-located, we can arrange to meet in person. Otherwise, video calls are completely effective for both the verbal and non-verbal communication we attune to. Phone calls can also work well, especially after the rhythm of relationship has been established.

In short, by completing a coaching certification program. I graduated from Lumia’s Signature program, an ICF (International Coaching Federation) Level 2 accredited program.

See the ICF’s core competencies, which coaches are typically well versed in, and the code of ethics that ICF-aligned professional coaches abide by for additional detail.

If you are facing financial hardship, support may be available, assuming we are a good fit otherwise.

I also offer reduced per session pricing for multi-session up-front purchases. Multi-session packages must be used within designated timeframe.

I very much appreciate referrals, introductions, and word-of-mouth promotion. Please feel free to share my website and encourage them to explore!

However, a prerequisite for my working with someone is that they have recognized a need or desire for change within themselves, and they are ready to invest (time, effort, attention, and money) into a coaching engagement. The internal motivation needs to be there already for us to do the work. We can’t force people to engage in personal development work, no matter how obvious it may appear that they would benefit from it. Similarly, we can’t impose our goals or values on others. Intrinsic motivation is an important part of coaching and sets up a coach-client relationship for success.

Please head over to the Contact page, fill out the form with your preferred email address, and check the sign-up box for news and updates. Feel free to ask for any specific information.

Contact information is kept confidential, and I’ll never spam you or share your contact information. You may unsubscribe anytime.