Admit it, your life doesn’t look the way you imagined it would.

Oh sure, the degrees are all hanging in their rightful corner and you landed the job you thought you wanted. The job you studied for. Trained for. Sacrificed for.

On paper, everything looks great.

And yet, here you are. Stressed. Overwhelmed. Unwell.

In fact… does any of this sound familiar?

• You feel too highly educated to be so poorly satisfied with your life.
• You know your life needs to be different and are unsure exactly what has to change.
• You hesitate to take actions that prioritize your own well-being.
• You’ve tried to incorporate self care into your life before and got off track somehow, leaving you feeling discouraged.

The good news is that you’re not alone. You’re one of many women in a healing or helping profession who has spent the majority of her life so focused on caring for others that she’s never really acknowledged the importance of caring for herself.

It’s not too late to change that.

The Essence of Strength SELF CARE FOR SUCCESS program is a one on one, six month coaching experience designed specifically to help you incorporate self care and well-being into your life of personal and professional success and satisfaction.

Over the course of six months, you’ll identify any areas of your life that aren’t currently working for you, devise concrete strategies for change, and build lasting habits. Even after the program is over, your life will be structured in such a way that maintaining your own success with well-being is almost second nature.

The best part? You won’t have to do any of it alone. I’ll be there with you, every step of the way.

H O W   T H E   P R O G R A M   W O R K S :

The Essence of Strength coaching program is based on the idea that every person has a unique set of values and motivators that promote and maintain the greatest sense of personal well-being and satisfaction.

I call this your unique life purpose. Your unique life purpose is who you are outside of being a professional healer or helper, outside of your degrees, outside of all those career and life choices that “made sense at the time.”

Understanding your unique life purpose is the key to making the decisions necessary to create a fulfilling life and career you love. And that’s exactly what we’ll be doing during our six months together. Here’s a breakdown of exactly what that process will look like:

SEE reality – During this stage, we will:

• See what is true for you in your current situation
• Assess all the major areas of your life and get a sense of what’s currently working and what’s not

SEEK clarity – During this stage, we will:

• Get clear on what it is you truly want from your situation
• From small tweaks to complete overhauls, we’ll create goals and priorities for transforming problem areas

SEIZE priorities – During this stage, we will:

• Seize onto the unique motivators and values that give meaning to every facet of your life
• Identify your unique life purpose, including those things that bring you the most fulfillment and satisfaction
• Review ways to use your life purpose to make day-to-day decisions that support YOUR satisfaction and well-being. (In other words, no more internal guilt trip every time you make a decision that is based primarily on your own needs.)

STRATEGIZE possibilities – During this stage, we will:

• Strategize ways to achieve your goals that are aligned with your unique purpose
• Implement practical strategies for YOUR life to achieve the results you seek while maintaining a sense of well-being
• Assess how the different areas of your life align with your newly defined life purpose

SUSTAIN personal policies for self care – During this stage, we will:

• Reinforce the systems in your life that support your self-care
• Optimize consistency (and keep you honest) by providing regular accountability while you practice these new strategies
• Establish long term self-care habits that allow you to maintain your sense of satisfaction and well-being while remaining successful in the professional and personal realms of your life

At the end of your coaching program, you’ll leave with:

• A clearer idea of what your ideal life and career actually look like and actionable steps for how to get there from where you are right now
• Best practices for managing your time in a way that feels good and authentic to you (Yes, even with your hectic schedule, this can be done!)
• A framework for making challenging decisions at work, at home, and everywhere in between
• Concrete strategies for relating to others and managing your stress in ways that sustain your sense of satisfaction and continued achievement

C O A C H I N G    F A Q ‘ S

What made you decide to transition from working as a physician to being a coach?

If you want the long story you can find it here in the About Me section of the website.

Who are your clients?

I specialize in working with disillusioned early career physicians. These are individuals who are in their first few years out of training and realize the lives they are living are not nearly as fulfilling as they expected when they began the path towards being physicians. They have devoted a whole lot of time, energy and money to get the credentials, certifications and degrees they need to help others. They hoped this focus on service would automatically yield satisfaction in life.

My clients believed their formal education would give them all the skills and tools they needed take on any life challenges without outside help. Instead, they find themselves without the sense of satisfaction they desire and at a loss to figure out how to make it better. Some need coaching support as they seek to implement positive changes in their work, relationship or health status. Others find that transitional life events such as a job change, parenthood or even a big move reveal a need for new strategies to establish and maintain the habits that support their sustained success and satisfaction.

When clients come to me, they have realized that their previous strategies for achieving their personal and professional goals for success with satisfaction are not working despite their best efforts. They know they need a different approach to make their intentions a reality. Although they are used to being the ones who give help, my clients see the value in asking for help to find new ways to make changes that last.

If this sounds like you, then I encourage you to schedule a complimentary clarity conversation so we can explore how we might work together.

How do you differ from other professional coaches?

I’ve been there. I get it. Because of my experience working as a physician, I personally understand the contradictory mindset of individuals who dedicate themselves to the well-being of others to the detriment of their own. I am a formerly burnt out healing professional who worked with a coach myself to learn how to couple success with satisfaction in a way that supports well-being. This helps me understand from where my clients are coming and where they have to the potential to go.

Do you work with professionals outside of healthcare?

While I specialize in working with early career physicians, my clients include all manner of high achieving altruists (including veteran clinicians, educators, engineers, scientists and attorneys) seeking to align their life’s work with their life purpose in a way that supports their satisfaction and success. My perfect world would be one in which everyone is flourishing in all aspects of their lives. That’s why I am happy to assist anyone who desires my help in attaining and/or maintaining a sense of satisfaction while achieving their full potential inside and outside of work.

Do you consider yourself a wellness coach?

Good question.  The answer is “not really.”  Traditionally a wellness coach focuses on helping clients achieve health goals.  Rather than a wellness coach, I consider myself a success coach who addresses how overall well-being affects satisfaction in the numerous aspects of life.

What’s the difference between you and a therapist?

There is some overlap in the methods used by therapists and coaches. Therapists do use coaching skills with their clients. They also have a greater scope of practice. The main distinction is the goal of coaching is to help clients build the future they desire by developing actionable strategies. I do not delve into past issues. While the past does inform the present and the future, it is not the focus of my work with my clients. We discuss WHAT their truth is and how that truth helps or hinders the client achieving goals. Those who need a deep dive into WHY and HOW that is their truth may benefit from working with a mental health professional.

Here is the simplest description I have heard to distinguish therapy from coaching – Therapy helps with healing from past issues that affect how you function today. Coaching helps with putting plans in place today to affect your future. I encourage any client who has issues requiring expertise outside my skill set to seek out the care of an appropriate mental health professional.

With what type of personality do you work best and what is expected of me?

As my client, you are an individual who is ready to get out of your head when it comes to changing your life. You want to take new action to affect necessary change, even if you aren’t exactly sure what yet. You are excited to embrace the power you have within yourself to improve your circumstances. You are eager to partner with me to learn how to create the space needed for reflection and implementation to make your best life happen. You are open to releasing all the very good reasons you have been giving yourself to maintain a status quo that isn’t really working for you.

For individuals who are ready, this program provides the appropriate practice, support and accountability to learn the best process for achieving your desired results.

For what type of person will this program NOT work?

The type of person who will not succeed in this program is someone who wants to focus on what you don’t like in your life instead of embracing and optimizing what you do want. You are not ready to acknowledge and accept your part in improving your circumstances. If you want things to be different without being open to change, you are not a good fit.

What results can I expect?

Professionally, clients are more confident in how the work they do is aligned with their values and priorities. This leads to greater productivity, achievement and satisfaction inside and outside of work. They start new business ventures, find new jobs, and get promotions at the places where they already work.

Personally, clients are more comfortable incorporating thoughts of self care when making decisions. This leads to participation in healthier activities and more authentic relationships that support their well-being and success. They spend more time with their families, use their vacation days, improve their eating habits, and begin regular exercise regimens.

Overall, clients see improvement in essential skills such as making decisions, following through on tasks, prioritizing activities, managing conflicts, communicating with partners and maintaining healthy boundaries. They feel comfortable and confident making the choices that promote personal and professional satisfaction while sustaining their desired level of success.

How does your coaching lead to those results?

By working with me, clients get on a faster path to accomplishing their goals, living life with purpose and enhancing their sense of overall satisfaction. This is done by clarifying personal and professional goals, identifying a unique life purpose and developing personalized strategies to achieve those goals in a manner consistent with that purpose.

A lot of my clients are very skilled at completing tasks at the expense of their own well-being. Because this program addresses well-being as well as results, clients recognize they are best able to sustain success when they take time to care for themselves. This allows them to spend more quality time with their friends and families, enjoy the work they choose to do and find peace in all of it.

The regular accountability and intentional practice provided by coaching helps clients accomplish their results faster than they typically would on their own. By the completion of the program clients recognize that establishing the necessary habits to sustain their own well-being enhances their ability to do good work for their companies, their patients/clients and their families. They are living happy lives inside and outside of work.

How quickly can I expect results?

Most people will see improvement after the first few sessions. The most important thing to recognize is in order to see results you have to be willing to put in the work. Many people want to improve their situation. However, they have not been able to do so on their own because they have not implemented a consistent plan to achieve and maintain results. With my guidance, these same people can reach their goals by the end of their chosen program.

Can very bright and hard-working people obtain these results on their own without paying for a coach? 

Yes, they can. The issue is that despite their intelligence and work ethic, they haven’t up until now. My clients come to me because they know they are capable of better outcomes in their lives and need a different approach to achieve those outcomes. In the same way they invested in their formal education, they see the benefit of investing in coaching to obtain the tools and accountability necessary to have success in all areas of their lives.

How will we work together?

Before we decide to work together, we will have a conversation to discuss your current challenges and future goals to determine how I may be able to help you with them. When you decide to work with me, we meet according to the schedule described for your chosen program option. The coaching meetings take place on-line via videoconference so we can have face-to-face conversations while eliminating travel.

How much of a time commitment is the program?

That is dependent on the needs and desires of the individual. Most clients choose one of several coaching program options ranging from 3 months to 6 months in length. Please click here for a detailed description of each. For those who want one time assistance with strategies on a single issue, I also offer individual laser coaching meetings.

Some of those individual meetings are up to 2 hours long. Isn’t that a lot of time from a busy person’s schedule?

Yes, the meetings do require a significant investment of time for a relatively short time overall. Many clients state that making this time for coaching meetings is the beginning of them creating space in their schedules for needed self care and reflection. Once the coaching program is complete, they already have established the habit of regularly designating time for the activities that support their personal and professional success and satisfaction.

Why does coaching cost so much money?

Simply, it’s because you and I are BOTH worth it. Since I encourage my clients to know their own value, I believe it is my duty to model that concept by charging rates that reflect what I feel my services are worth. Hopefully, this inspires them to recognize they are worth the same investment for personal and professional development.

How can I be confident in investing such a significant amount of time and money to work with YOU as my coach?

I think any worthy coach needs to live a life aligned with the principles they espouse. That’s why I do my best to be as authentic as possible in all areas of my life. Since I encourage my clients to seek the best for themselves, I do what I can to provide the highest quality with my coaching services. To that end, I completed 125 hours of intensive one-on-one instruction in an International Coach Federation accredited coach training program. My mentor during my certification as a success coach is actually the world’s first Master Certified Coach.

That being said, I think the best answer to that question comes from my clients themselves. Please click here to see testimonials from people who have worked with me.