Coaching for Individuals
Self-Trust Coaching
Starting in childhood, our experiences of trusting ourselves will naturally have mixed results – we’re learning how to do life, after all! When it doesn’t work well, we can interpret that to me that trusting ourselves is risky, and so we create new patterns to protect ourselves from the hard thing we experienced.
These behaviour patterns may vary for different people, but the underlying purpose – to protect us from a risk – is the same. These patterns in adults can look like:
- Perfectionism, and the constant anxiety of not doing or being enough
- Procrastination, so that we never get to that thing that frankly freaks us out a little
- People pleasing, so that others like us, but we’re not so sure we like ourselves
- Waffling on decisions and second guessing ourselves
- Holding back things you want to say or ways you want to express yourself for fear of being judged
I work with highly self-aware people, who are often experienced consumers of self-help and/or coaching services, and but haven’t yet found a more lasting solution for making a change that matters to them.
I bring to our conversation a strong process and a large toolkit for unpacking your particular self-beliefs story. I am a deep listener, with a strong reputation for bringing clarity, safety, and calm to whatever you may be experiencing right now. My work is based in a solid understanding of adult development and trauma, and supported by training in understanding methods for working with our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts and the ephemeral realm of spirit.
I won’t know the answer to whatever dilemma you’re in, but I believe that you will. Perhaps one of these two kinds of coaching sessions will apply to you.
Momentum Coaching Session
This is for you if you have a troubling dilemma or situation, and you’d really value an opportunity to find a possible route out of the stuck place you’re in with it.
How it Works:
- Send me an e-mail, and I’ll send you a link to my calendar and where to send your payment
- Complete the questionnaire at least 2 days before our scheduled first meeting
- The first meeting is 90 minutes
- A second follow-up meeting (30 minutes) will be scheduled to allow you to assess progress being made in addressing the situation and to fine tune the approach
- A recording of the meeting will be available to you if you choose
Your Time Commitment: 2 hours
Focus Coaching
If you’d like to do a deeper dive so that you are supported in making real and lasting change, then a series of coaching meetings may be right for you. The process we’ll be working through supports not only seeing yourself differently, but allows for some time for you to experiment in operating from a basis of more self-belief.
I work with an understanding of adult development and the processes which support true behavioural change. I’m trauma informed in my work, and bring years of experience in coaching people to make the changes that matter most to them.
How it Works:
- Send an email with the subject line, Free Consultation Self Trust, and we’ll book a time together.
- If you decide you’d like to work with me after your free consultation, you will complete a brief questionnaire and review a coaching agreement that I will send to you.
- A recording or our conversations can be made available to you if you choose (some people find it helpful to have, because it gives them a chance to also hear themselves, and deepen their appreciation and understanding of where their growth edge is.
Your Time Commitment: 6 hours
Consultation About Emotions
One of the most powerful keys to self-understanding (and understanding others) that is available to us is the ability to “read” our emotions as messengers . Emotions tell us what is true for us and what needs our attention.
The good news is you don’t need to make a massive investment in hours of therapy or coaching to learn to work with your emotions. You may just need a lesson in becoming literate in the language and flows of your emotions, so that you begin to hear what they’re saying.
This is the intent behind a trademarked process called the Dynamic Emotional Integration Consultation (DEI). The self-assessment is simple to complete, and doesn’t take much time. Once you’ve shared it with me, we have a conversation designed to make sense of your experience with your emotions right now, with an intent of deepening your appreciation for the ways in which your emotions are working to get your attention.
Dynamic Emotional Integration® (also known as DEI) is a leading-edge approach to emotions and empathy that helps you understand and work brilliantly with every emotion you have. Anger, sadness, fear, grief, shame, even hatred … all seventeen of your emotions are essential for your health and well-being.
As you learn how to work with your emotions, your life and your relationships can improve significantly.
I have trained extensively with Karla McLaren (the author and founder of this consultative process), over the last six years, and I continue to deepen my own understanding of the extraordinary wisdom of our emotions.
What you will get:
- A link to the DEI Emotions Questionnaire
- A one-on-one confidential conversation to develop insight into your current emotional climate
- A personalized report on the key points in the conversation, and a plan for some practices or things you can do to support yourself more fully emotionally
- A handout that summarizes all 17 emotions, including their key function, gifts, purposes and potential issue that you may experience if an emotion is being blocked or not heard in some way
- An opportunity to book a follow-up session if you’d like more support
Do you think this might be something that you’d like to learn more about?
Book Study Group
The Power of Emotions at Work by Karla McLaren, M. Ed
The Power of Emotions at Work speaks truth to the reality that so much of work is actually emotional work and that the toxic positivity bias is creating untenable, unhealthy teams and cultures. This wonderful, insightful and practical book will help you create teams that work better together and make better work.
The focus of the study group will be digesting the most recent book , The Power of Emotions at Work, by the emotions pioneer, Karla McLaren.
This book draws upon good theory, research and packs a wallop of ideas for what we all can do – individual or leader – to improve our own emotional and empathetic well being at work. For workplace consultants and coaches like myself, it’s an invaluable, deep, and wise guide for ethical and powerful engagement processes and methods.
I’ve been working directly with Karla for the past six years. I therefore know her to be someone who is always in pursuit of the best evidence-based understanding, of how to approach engaging with our emotions so that they can play their role of enhancing the quality of our lives and relationships. This rigourous commitment, means she also, from time to time, updates her ideas.
So the other reason to offer this study group is to provide you with information and reflection questions that apply to working with the emotions in the workplace, including Karla’s more recent updates to her two other works on emotions (her 2010 opus, Language of Emotions, followed by The Art of Empathy in 2013).
I also bring to the table, over 25 years of doing organizational consultations, working with leaders and teams in all sizes of organizations – from the very large and bureaucratic to the smallest non-profit of one person and a board. I’m personally committed to find ways to bring this material alive in my own consulting work, so I’m very interested in exploring these ideas with other people, and sharing our knowledge and experiences together.
And as the first study group on her newly published book, we will have also a meet the author evening with Karla joining us for one of our discussions (date TBD).
Virtual Study Group: The Plan
- This Study Group will be of particular interest to:
- Managers and leaders
- Consultants and coaches
- People who work in workplaces that put a high demand on empathy and service to highly vulnerable people
- Anyone with a curiosity about how to fix what ails the modern organization
- We’ll meet virtually on every Monday in Novemberat 7 pm for an hour starting November 1st and ending November 29th, for a total of five meetings, during which time we will completely read the book.
- The first 30 minutes, we will spend on digesting the key ideas of the chapter (s) we’ve just read, and the next 30 minutes, we’ll explore how to apply the insights and ideas into our own work context.
- If the group is willing, I will also record the meetings so that if anyone misses an evening, then the content and discussion will be available.
- Each member will be responsible to buy their own copy of the book – and the fee for participation is $75.