Coaching
Life
To Target the Big 5 "Life Questions":
​When clients share their goals with me, I find they tend to fall into 5 core coaching areas, regardless of whether folks are local (Pittsburgh, PA — whoot, whoot!), spread across the U.S., or live in another country. These core areas likely reflect some questions and desires that you currently have within your own personal life and work domains:
How the heck do I:
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... achieve an important goal or dream — or start to explore my own deeper wants, needs, and next steps ?
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... stop feeling stagnant, stuck, or frustrated in the same situation or pattern ?
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... improve my relationships, including being kinder to myself (and maybe even learning to love myself!) ?
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... handle conflict, have hard conversations, and set boundaries — all in respectful and effective ways ?
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... feel good, balanced, confident, and more authentically myself — finding that solid place inside of myself ?
To Include the 2 "Missing Pieces" for Real Transformation:
Through my own personal development, client work, and conversations with fellow development professionals and top experts, I’ve come to see that true transformation requires us to include paying attention to our bodily experiences and the quality of our relationships (with ourselves, others, and life itself) within the coaching process. This is because, as humans, each of us is wired neuro-biologically, mentally/psychologically, and socially within a whole system that works together — we're not isolated, thinking minds solely built to perform, and we can't just will transformation.
So when we consistently ignore these two essential aspects and rely only on mental effort to push ourselves to act or change, we limit our life potential. We might appear productive, positive, or healthy — but those results are often partial, unsustainable, or even inauthentic. But by reconnecting with our bodies and embracing our relational nature, we can access the deeper sources of our authenticity, inner wisdom, power, and resilience. It’s from this deeper place that growth, real change, and optimal outcomes become not only possible — but inevitable. Yet despite their importance, overlooking relationality (internal and external) and body attunement remains the unfortunate, widespread norm, even within the helping fields, including a therapy approach that omits either of these aspects.
"relational-somatic coaching" !
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This is why I provide
By integrating relational connection and body attunement, this coaching approach helps us gain the things we humans most deeply yearn for — but often struggle to fully attain. This has proven to be one of the deepest and most fulfilling forms of personal development we can invest in in order to genuinely create the lives we want.
TWO HUGE ADVANTAGES
WHY CHOOSE coaching?
My coaching approach
HOW I USE RELATIONAL-SOMATICS
Whether your goals are personal, professional, or a mix of both, I have an overall approach that guides my work with clients. Since approaches widely vary among coaches (and all helping professionals, including therapists), learn more about mine, below:
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The Relational-Somatic Approach
I weave these two aspects into the coaching process - to create the essential conditions for making real change.
RELATIONAL
(connecting to oneself, others & life itself)
This aspect includes the connection "between us" and exploring the relational habits and patterns "within yourself", as applied to both life and work.
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Between Us: As a coach, I’ll guide how we relate to each other, through creating a supportive, non-judgemental space to be yourself and by encouraging your autonomy, experimentation, and growth. I’ll also role model new, healthy, and productive ways to relate — to yourself and others.
Within Yourself: We’ll explore your view of “who you are” and how you view others and life — views we all form as a natural internal process. We’ll work with "parts" of yourself to: (a) increase access to your authentic and best Self, (b) identify, help, and transform the parts of you that get stuck in unhelpful habits and painful emotions, and (c) develop relevant emotional intelligence (EQ) skills.
SOMATIC
(attuning to one's inner/bodily experiences)
Somatic coaching guides you to tune into how your body communicates your needs, true desires, and inner wisdom, as we explore your goals. We create the right conditions and pace to include moments of you paying attention to what’s happening in your body — such as sensations, emotions, defensive nervous system reactions, or shifts in your posture or tone of voice.
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Bringing this awareness to both moments of difficulty (e.g., stress, discomfort, threat) and ease (e.g., safety, connection, joy, authenticity) creates insights into your strengths, the barriers you face, and what you need to move forward.
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The Aim Is Twofold: to grow your capacity to meet challenges more effectively and with ease and to fully take in the good — so you can feel more fulfilled and truly at home within yourself.
CORE MODALITIES I USE*
(We'll emphasize the modalities that resonate with you and match your goals.)
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The Polyvagal Theory (PVT)
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Somatic Experiencing (SE)
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Internal Family Systems (IFS)
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The Enneagram & DiSC personality models**
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Emotional Intelligence Quotient skills (EQ)
TM
The nervous system & trauma
ADDRESSING DYSREGULATION
ORIGIN OF THE WORD "TRAUMA"
The word trauma originates from the Greek word for "wound." Entering the English language in the 17th century, it focused on physical injury. In the late 19th century, amid war, industrial accidents, and the treatment of mental illness, it expanded to include emotional and physiological disruption when overwhelming events were not fully processed (i.e., not fully felt, understood, or filed away as being over).
CONTEMPORARY TRAUMA DEFINITION
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"Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside of you as a result of what happened to you.” - DR. GABOR MATE
Trauma forms our coping responses due to not having sufficient support to handle an overwhelming event. It disconnects us from the present moment (such as our emotions) and it forms specific beliefs and habits to maintain that very disconnection — to keep us "safe".
TRAUMA & THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the brain and spinal cord’s communication network that controls involuntary functions. It detects safety or danger and drives our "survival responses" — fight, flight, freeze, or fawn — through automatic mobilization (i.e., action) or shutdown (e.g., slower body and mind processing, less access to empathy, low energy). Trauma is ANS dysregulation, where the body gets "stuck" in survival mode under stress — or as an ongoing way of life.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TRAUMA
Trauma leads to many limiting functional patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving and can result in negative life outcomes across domains, such as:
one's sense of self
spiritual connection & inner
knowing
emotional regulation
stress & coping
strategies /
cognition & memory
behaviors
work
relationships
physical & mental health
& more
Since some people seeking coaching also have a history of trauma, I've included some information on defining trauma, its impact, and how coaching can support you.
How I use trauma-informed coaching
Trauma-informed coaching focuses on strengthening your internal and external resources. We aim to develop your ability to increase your connection with yourself and others and to attune to what’s needed in the present moment — so feeling safe and empowered can become your new way of life.
The gaps left from trauma are often foundational barriers to the changes we want.
A QUICK SHOUT OUT!
To a Few Professions
FREQUENTLY ASKED questions
