My Coaching Story

I was a bright young mind, off to college “pre-med” in the fall of 1994 after choosing Oglethorpe University for my undergrad degree because they had great medical school entrance statistics! By the end of the first semester at this liberal arts school in the middle of Atlanta, I was in the middle of a major identity crisis and beginning to lean far away from medical school. Eventually, I determined I’d rather study philosophy because I just had SO many questions. I graduated in May of 1998 with some burning questions about mind, consciousness, and how science studies these things. I did the work full time in the corporate world thing for a while; I moved to Boston and got a great job with a Telecommunications company and worked for them in Boston and in the Netherlands for a few years. My dad, who was my hero, got very sick and eventually died in early 2002, which I thought would kill me. But that year I took my chances and went to England for graduate school. I was diagnosed as ADHD in summer of 2002, and I took the drugs and the plunge into grad school at University of Durham in Durham, England in September. I studied Buddhism and the mind; I studied aesthetics and film; I studied the autistic spectrum and the mind. I combined Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy and science and finished my Master’s degree on July 4th 2003. I came back to the US that fall, and all I knew was that I still had questions. Not a single burning one, but a whole lot of them about why I was here and what I was supposed to do. I floundered around for a while, working a variety of jobs, until I could at move to Asheville, NC, where I wanted to live because I was in love with the old, soft Appalachians. I moved to Asheville in between two hurricanes in fall 2004, where I worked several not-much-to-them jobs to get by while I continued asking questions. One thing lead to another and in 2006, I opened a business with a friend in Greenville, SC, which eventually lead me to move “down the mountain.” In 2009, that business had been hit hard by the 2008 economic slump and all I knew at the time was that I needed H-E-L-P. It was at this point, which felt like the lowest (mentally and emotionally, at least) point in my life. I knew a coach who was part of a networking group I attended, so I asked her for help. Her practice was full, but she introduced me to a friend of hers (also a coach) who I started seeing. Wow. Holly blew me away! 

During my very first session, I began to see some possibilities that I swear had not been there the day, even the hour, before. As that little bit of light crept in, I began to notice all kinds of patterns I’d never been aware of before. Slowly, I started to see specific things I could do - right away - to make myself feel a lot better and to open up more choices into my consciousness. Coaching felt like magic! The more I worked with Holly, the more I wanted to know how to work this magic! So, that fall, I began coach training while still being coached regularly. By 2010, I started coaching and have been doing so ever since. 

Coaching combines all the curiosity of my philosophy degrees with the skills I learned in coach training to fill me with a sense of purpose every day. My purpose is to HELP PEOPLE by helping them see where they’ve become too rigid or too loose with themselves, in their lives, in their work, in their relationships, and begin choosing course-correction actions to try for making things work better and more smoothly for them. It’s such a great way to support people in doing what’s SO HARD for everyone: changing things. Change is HARD. Coaching makes it easier because it gives you a partner whose sole purpose is to help you see around your own corners and cheer you on, pep you up, and hold your feet to the fire when the going gets tough. You said you wanted this, now go and get it! It’s been a steadily rewarding way to use my degrees to keep asking important questions and to see people turn their lives in a direction that makes sense FOR THEM. I love that I do not have to have all the answers, I just need to ask the right questions and people come up with their own answers! 

The type of coaching I do uses some of my favorite things: takeaways from neuroscience to help optimize decisions and changes using your big fancy brain; positive psychology to get people to focus on what’s working well and using/leveraging their strengths; narrative therapy to help people increase their own awareness of the power of their words and thoughts and ideas; and ancient wisdom as people learn to cope through nurturing practices like meditation, yoga, breath work, better self-care, and hypnosis to make change both easier and more sustainable. Coaching WORKS because it gives people a time and a space to just focus on themselves and creating a life they REALLY want to live. Being a coach is a precious gift because I get to listen deeply to people and make sure they feel heard, supported, and acknowledged for being themselves and sharing what is truly on their minds and hearts. I’ve helped people through grieving all kinds of losses, healing from addiction, shame, and trauma, perpetual conflict in their relationships, intergenerational dysfunction and trauma, and so much more. Everyone has a story and if you listen, most of them will break your heart. Coaching helps the coach and the coachees become more resilient, flexible, adaptable, coherent, and open to change. Since change is the only constant in life, coaching helps make life both more livable and more exciting. 

Thank you for reading! My mission is to help everyone I encounter to feel more engaged, inspired, and positive about their own lives and ability to reach for their desires. Because you should LOVE your life!