Life
Coaching
My coaching approach
HOW I USE RELATIONAL-SOMATICS
Whether your goals are personal, professional, or a mix of both, my coaching is guided by an overall relational-somatic approach. Depending on your specific interests and goals, we can either use integrated coaching that blends the core self-development modalities I specialize in, or focus on a specific type of coaching. Learn more below.
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A Relational-Somatic Approach
I weave these two aspects into my coaching - to create the essential conditions for creating real change.
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.
RELATIONAL
(connecting to oneself, others & life itself)
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.
SOMATIC
(attuning to one's inner/bodily experiences)
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 either of 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!
"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?
How I use trauma-informed coaching
Trauma-informed coaching focuses on strengthening your internal and external resources. We aim to deepen your connection with yourself and others and attune to what’s needed in the present moment — so feeling safe and empowered can become your new way of life.
If you’re considering or in therapy, understanding how coaching differs from therapy can help you decide if trauma-informed coaching is right for you.
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
