Because of my own leadership experience, I often work with leaders. But my motivation extends deeper. For people who don’t fit the norm or have gone through difficult or traumatic experiences, it can sometimes be hard to find a coach – I want to change that. 

In addition to leadership, I specialize in things such as coaching for gifted people, trauma-informed coaching and neurodiversity-inclusive coaching. Stress, burnout, chronic illness and other challenges are also areas where I feel extra passionate about making a difference. I describe what I do as coaching with room for complex challenges and human stories, and I aim to meet my clients as they are, where they are. 

Maybe you are autistic or have ADHD and are looking for a coach who understands neurodiversity? Maybe you are gifted and are looking for a coach who can keep up with your pace and explore at the depth and complexity you need for coaching to be useful for you?

Or you are simply looking for a coach who can give you space to come as you are with the goals and challenges you have. Does any of this sound like you? If so, you are always welcome to reach out!

Coaching is about creating clarity, awareness and motivation. With a clear goal, greater awareness about what you want and why, and deeper insight into both your situation and how you work, you can take more conscious steps towards what you want. A coach will not tell you what to do. Instead the focus is on creating a safe space for open exploration, where you can find what works for you. Coaches use techniques such as asking questions, challenging, summarizing and reflecting back and you work in a partnership, where you both are experts but on different things. Many appreciate coaching because when you don't get advice it creates a non-judgmental space where you can find ideas and insights that are truly aligned with who you are and what you want.

To explain coaching further, I usually compare coaching with mentoring and therapy. A mentor is someone with more experience who shares their knowledge and gives advice. You might see a mentor if you are new in a leadership role and want to learn from a more experienced leader or you might be seeking a mentor if you want to make a career change and learn from someone who has walked that path before you. If you want to learn from another person's knowledge and get direct advice, a mentor is a better choice than a coach. 

Therapy is about treatment and support and there's great information about therapy elsewhere. There are many different therapy forms, but in essence, a therapist offers treatment for things like depression, anxiety, grief, PTSD, attachment disorders and more. Therapists work from a theoretical foundation and tailor their approach based on diagnosis and individual needs. If anxiety is interfering with your ability to function in daily life or if you need treatment for a diagnosis, seeking therapy instead of coaching is the right choice. In therapy, you might revisit early experiences to uncover the root of an issue. In coaching, we work from the present toward your goals. We focus less on why something happened, and more on how you can move forward from where you are now. That might include working with things like performance anxiety or imposter syndrome, but we approach these from a forward-focused, goal-oriented perspective, while they might be approached differently in therapy.

It's not uncommon for someone to work with both a coach and a therapist at the same time. When that's the case, coaching often focuses on a specific goal, such as navigating a career change or finding new strategies at work after burnout, while therapy provides broader support and helps address the deeper patterns that may have contributed to the burnout in the first place. 

If you'd like to know more about how coaching differs from mentoring and therapy you are always welcome to reach out.