Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

WHAT IS COACHING?
According to the International Coach Federation definition: “Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. A professional coaching relationship exists when coaching includes a business agreement or contract that defines the responsibilities of each party.” For me, coaching is about growth and change. It’s about discovering what you don’t know about yourself, your career or your life, thus opening up new horizons for transformation, new choices and inspiring action steps.
WHAT IS TRANSFORMATIVE COACHING
I am trained in the Transformative Coaching Paradigm through inviteCHANGE. Transformative coaches provide and co-create an environment of safety, respect and absolute belief in another’s inherent wisdom, resourcefulness and wholeness. Within this co-created relationship, bold curiosity and powerful questions uncover limiting beliefs and shine the light on an unlimited field of possibilities that generates conscious choice and lasting change.
WHO HIRES A COACH?
Coaching is a versatile and powerful technology for personal and professional growth, and many people in all walks of life hire coaches for a virtually infinite variety of reasons. These are the sorts of people for whom my practice is designed:

•Women and men who are yearning to know more about who they are and what their life purpose is.
•Men and women who want to get off the treadmill of endless self improvement and step onto the path of igniting their passion and thriving in life.
•Entrepreneurs, solo-preneurs, and small business owners, especially in professional services, who want to thrive without selling their souls or over-working themselves. Who want to have someone to be absolutely real with and bounce ideas around with as an invaluable partner for clarity and identifying their next steps.
•Women and men who have a feeling “something big” is nudging them, or seeking to emerge in their life.
•Men and women who have the courage to be bold, take risks, and step ‘outside the box’ with infectious enthusiasm and a good sense of humor.

HOW DOES COACHING WORK?
Coaching reveals and challenges the way things are and the way they tend to stay the same. Coaching then opens up ways to change that so you can create the results you want. That’s why it is so effective in situations where the usual remedies don’t seem to help because the usual remedies are typically part of the problem.
WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM YOU AS MY COACH?
I am 100% committed to your success - without being taken in by your perceived limitations! Working with me, you get going and maintain your momentum. For many people, the time with your coach may be the only time you have the benefit of ALL of someone else’s attention and listening.

You’re able to clear your mind chatter, sort through what’s happening in your life, identify options, and set priorities. You’ll hear the “hard truth” given with compassionate rigor, holding you accountable for your choices and commitments - without making you wrong.

HOW DO I GET STARTED?
It’s simple. Phone (425) 788-4303 to schedule a free interview. I invite you to prepare for the interview by considering the following questions:

1.    What has you interested in hiring a coach now (both in the sense of “for what purpose?” as well as “why now and not a few months ago or some time later this year”?)
2.    What other coaching and/or mentoring relationships have you had, and what made them effective? Is there anything about them you would have liked to be different?
3.    What draws you to me as a potential coach?
4.   What do you hope to learn, accomplish, or change as a result of coaching?
5.   How will you evaluate your progress?
6.   What expectations, hopes, or requests do you have with respect to the structure or style of our work?
7.    What, if anything, do you want to know about me?

HOW LONG WOULD I WORK WITH YOU?
While coaching can be very effective for short-term change, my clients stay with me an average of 6 to 12 months, some longer. Significant learning takes time and I love significant challenges, so I request that clients make an initial six-month commitment to the coaching relationship.

Many successful people in all walks of life are finding that coaching is key to their peak performance, learning and enjoyment. Therefore, they choose to work with a coach on a continuing basis, sometimes with brief sabbaticals.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COACHING AND THERAPY?
Coaching is not therapy, though it is compatible with therapy and many clients choose to do both. Imagine therapy as a process that opens and airs out all the rooms in your house. Coaching is the process that helps you move into those rooms and make the most of them.

Coaches perceive clients to be whole, resourceful and creative, fully competent to live the lives they are meant to live. Rather than exploring and analyzing the past, we focus on the present, on your current challenges and how best to meet them. While many clients experience improvements in their mental and emotional health as they learn to set and reach the goals that are congruent with their values and that make the most of their resources, this is not the focus of a coaching relationship.

Clients come to coaching not because they need it, but because they are ready for it!

Click here to read a brief article that fleshes out the differences.

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