Everything You Need to Know About Life Coaching

“I am not a guru, but a guide to lead you home to you.”

What is Life Coaching?

A rapidly growing and *relatively* new profession, there are many misconceptions about what life coaching is and who it is for. It’s not surprising, as these days anyone can call themselves a coach and create a definition of what it means, which makes it confusing for people to understand what life coaches really do and how they could impact their life.

In a nutshell: Life coaching helps you create change in your life, moving you from where you are currently to where you want to be. That change occurs on both your inner landscape, as well as in your external environment.

The coaching process takes a deep look at your current reality and explores what isn’t working, what is keeping you stuck, and what feels like it is draining you of your energy. Then we look at where you want to be and how you want to feel so that we can create an action plan to move you forward toward that goal.

In the process of creating this growth and change your inner programming shows up, and we are able to witness the thought patterns, limiting beliefs, and unconscious ways that you self-sabotage and shift them to be aligned with the next-level, more fully expressed version of you. Coaching keeps you accountable, in action, and honest about the ways that you hold yourself back and play small.

It is a process that involves mindset work, perspective shifts, breaking the molds, and creating new belief systems and ways of being so that you aren’t just doing something different, you actually become someone different: a more honest, whole, and embodied version of you who can create and hold the life of her dreams. Coaching creates change in your life from the inside out.

My clients come to me because they feel burned out, stuck, self-doubtful, or heavy with the weight of responsibility. They often have defined themselves for so long by their profession (or motherhood) or what they give to others in the world that they have lost sight of who they really are. My goal in our work together is to reintroduce each woman to her soul, ground her into her truth, and redefine her boundaries so that she knows where she ends and others begin. We uncover the roots of perfectionism, people-pleasing, or emotional overwhelm and rewrite her stories so that she can stand in her personal power and unapologetically make choices that are in her highest good, as well as that of those around her.

The second biggest reason that my clients come to me is that they are seeking clarity. They have been checking the boxes and doing the things they thought would makes them happy, but they still feel unfulfilled or out of alignment and they aren’t sure why.

In my style of coaching, I help you get to know yourself on a deep soul level and uncover your deepest desires, your deepest fears, and your deepest blocks. Then we go about creating new beliefs, habits and rituals, mindset shifts, and ways of being that help you to know your edges and stand fully in your power, making choices from a place of full ownership, self-knowledge, and self-love to build the life that you know you were meant for, one that feels the most vibrant, fulfilling, and expressed for you.

At the end of our coaching series, my clients feel deeply grounded in who they are and their power, they lovingly meet their own needs and protect their energy with graceful boundaries, and they feel alive with the fire of purpose. They live authentically and unapologetically, able to ask for help, set loving boundaries, advocate for their needs, and move toward their goals without the weight of perfectionism or fear of failure or rejection nagging at their heels.

What is the difference between coaching and therapy?

In short, therapy is intended to be healing in nature and requires a different training and certification. In my experience with therapy, it also tends to gaze more at the past, in the sense that our past is discussed and analyzed at length for healing purposes. It brings you back to baseline when you feel like you are drowning. Coaching, however, is very forward-looking. We may take a quick foray into the past to collect information, but the focus is mostly on what we will do with that information in order to move you forward to where you want to be. Coaching takes you from treading water or surviving to thriving. And while I am not a therapist or healer, there are a number of modalities that I have used to heal myself that I can share with you.  Coaching and therapy also work wonderfully together in tandem, if you are able to have multiple professionals on your support team.

 How do you choose the right coach for you?

My #1 answer to any question about what is right for you always is: Follow your intuition. If you have a feeling that you can’t really explain or rationalize, but you just know it feels right to work with someone, then follow it. Our intuition isn’t logical. Even if it is a financial stretch for you or if you feel like the timing is bad, you cannot know the gifts that are waiting for you on the other side of the leap of faith. It is often beyond anything we could have imagined for ourselves.

That said, there are a lot of coaches out there who are just trying to make a quick buck with a one-size-fits-all program that frees up their time. Those coaches tend to be really good sales and marketing people, but then don’t deliver the transformation that they promise. In order to avoid having a bad experience with a coach like this, do some digging to make sure the coach you are considering is walking the walk. Are they are embodying what they are teaching? If you cannot tell from their social media presence or your in-person relationship, I would ask lots of questions in the possibility call to find out how they are integrating their own work, and what their commitment to continued growth is. Every coach needs a coach, and should consistently be involved in some sort of personal growth journey so that they are constantly coaching from experience. I also believe that coaching is most effective when it is high-touch, so even if you are considering a group program, make sure that you will have plenty of interaction with both the coach and other mentors and members of the group. Growth thrives in community, so having at least one person on your team who is cheering for you, keeping you accountable, inspiring you, and seeing the real you and your truth can be life-changing.

What qualifies me to be a coach?

In addition to my two coaching certifications through the Beautiful You Life Coaching Academy (ICF certified) and the Hungry for Happiness Certification program, I am fiercely committed to my own growth and evolution. My soul blueprint is in seeking truth, and I am constantly digging for my own and helping others to uncover theirs as well. I have overcome depression, anxiety, and PTSD that had me reliant on medication. I have lived abroad in the Dominican Republic, worked at the United Nations, and started my life over in Santo Domingo, New York City, and Los Angeles in order to follow my intuition and my calling. Everywhere I go, I am committed to creating sacred community and safe spaces for myself and others to be seen and heard for who they authentically are. I have both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, made big, scary career changes, and have committed myself to learning the world of entrepreneurship in order to be of greatest service to others by honoring myself and my mission. I am on fire with my commitment to bringing women home to themselves, shaking off generations of suppression and programming, and allowing creating a new world where women own their power, their intuition, and their gifts.

Most of all, I am lead by my values. I live by them and do business by them, and you will find them sprinkled throughout my coaching:

If you are interested in exploring whether coaching is right for you, schedule a free possibility call where we can dive into your story and see if it would be a good fit. (I don’t vibe with pushy sales tactics, just genuine heart-to-heart connection.)

If you think you might want to become a coach, I would love to talk you through it, share my experiences, and my special offer for those wanting to enroll in the Beautiful You Life Coaching Academy. Set up a free connection chat here.