What do case studies show?
Evoking Transformation
Coaching is all about change. Please read the stories of a few clients in different situations and see how we supported each client without judgment and served their needs. We partnered with clients and provided the tools they needed so they each sculptured whatever life they wanted. Using an analogy: If your life is a boulder that can be sculptured,the clients looked at their lives and through coaching saw their own potentials. Then they approached it from different directions and angles. Thus they were able to etch their own particular design, creating their desired life sculptures..
Bringing A Dream to Reality
The Issue At Hand:
A man in his 30s contacted us expressing an interest in working with us to help him define his goals in life and to take appropriate actions to reach them..
My Approach
In the assessment session we discovered he was at a place in his life that he felt life was passing him by and he did not know what he wanted from it. He was completely disconnected from any knowledge about the direction his life was heading in relation to any of his life goals. We became aware that a family member had purchased this service for him, for he had no hope for any change. In our further discovery we learned he was doing a few low-level jobs just to pass the day and acquire some small earnings. On the surface it seemed he was just coasting, and had no desire for any particular direction. Yet upon further exploration, it became apparent he really did wish to establish himself in a successful business.
This dream seemed so far out of reach that he did not want to pay any attention to it. Therefore, he chose instead to simply going through the motions of life, aimlessly spending day after day. As we coached him, he explored his deep desire and dream. The more he attempted to get closer to his dream the more his inner critic showed resistance. With further coaching he was able to recognize his inner critic and mange to control it. This allowed him to get closer to his real dream, close enough to brush against the reality of its possibility.
He became ready to find his purpose and articulate it. He looked at his strengths and skills and increased his ability to examine his situation and recognize his true potential. He came to the understanding that the only thing holding him back was himself. This very significant understanding allowed him to make a solid decision. Gradually as his belief about himself changed, he became able to take action from a place of strength.
The Client's Take and Actions
He resigned one of his casual jobs and kept the one in which he was serving as a care giver, a job which was more aligned to his values. This step provided him further time to focus on what he really wanted to do, which was to develop his business. He purchased equipment that supported his business, and expanded his knowledge about his profession. This in turn gave him the courage to define what he wanted in his business. This increased attitude, focus and resulting energy helped him to see himself as making headway on his path towards his dream. He then began to develop his business with a partner and acquire clients. More client began to be lined up and his business began to be sustainable. In six months he saw a remarkable increase in his business.
He put a structure in place. Having begun to realize what he really wanted, he managed to control his inner critic and set himself on a path of success. He became internally driven, held hope for the future, and no longer was satisfied with waiting for life to just pass him by. Rather, he was now excited and his creativity was pulling him like a magnet to his business. Now he knew what he wanted and had a tantalizing taste of his dream. In further coaching he learned to change his behaviors to avoid being distracted by his inner critic and to stay focused on his success.
Finding personal satisfaction with making progress in accomplishing this goal, he developed the inner confidence needed to look at other aspects of his life, family and health. He had begun to recognize his true potential and was now on the path to achieve his various goals – that of living a fulfilling life.
I was stuck in my life like a hamster on a wheel locked in a cage and didn't feel that this would change.
Not realizing my job was sucking the life out of me and the relationships in my life wasn't genuine. I was in couple’s therapy and that worked but something was missing. The something missing was action. Life coaching took me off the couch, out of house and eventually out of my head. I'm currently a stay at home Nana enjoying my family and friends.
I owe this to my life couch who helped me define what I wanted and helped me to create steps to get there.
Mary, a retiree
Managing Stress
The Issue At Hand
An accomplished manager of a profitable food store was living in a state of constant stress which was taking its toll, affecting her health and personal relationships.
My Approach
At our initial meeting our assessment indicated she was a highly-skilled and very capable manager with many years of experience in her own field. Her work environment was very demanding. It involved many sills and tasks: keeping the customers, employees and boss happy. This meant managing the direct reports and adopting the changes from upper management to keep the store competitive. But she was conflicted, for she wanted time to enjoy her grandchildren and to be a large part of their lives and she also carried the responsibility for her elderly mother. It was just too much.
She was juggling too many balls in the air as she felt a great sense of responsibility and loved all of them. She was stressed. To help her we started with a few calming exercises. She found some peace that she needed so badly. This sense of harmony opened her ability to perceive, and gave her the clarity she needed to see the possibilities around her. This oasis of tranquility offered her a stress-free zone and allowed her mind to open up to consider solutions she had no access to before.
The serenity and resulting clarity she experienced provided a freedom of choice to design a life chosen by her. Through further coaching she explored and identified her personal values. These included actions she had taken and concepts that were at the core of who she was. The refreshing freedom she experienced and the insights she gained by recognizing her values, helped her to decide to bring this calmness to her life.
The Client's Take and Actions
She was empowered and no longer tired and stressed. She started to notice the pattern of her stressors and identify her trigger points. She learned the way to access her inner serenity by herself. Recognizing the value of this peaceful state, she deliberately created a daily meditational routine. In this process she recharged her inner energy and focused on her values that were important to her. Then she made a determined decision to watch for the trigger points of stress during her day. She even went one step further and decided to take an item with her to work to remind her of this calm period throughout her busy day.
She therefore went to work in a better state, not in a reactive mode. Better able to address the different situations throughout the day, she proactively used her managing skill to determine when a situation could trigger stress. This awareness gave her control to turn situations. It wasn’t always easy to remember, but her “reminder item” instead triggered her state of tranquility, she emotionally returned to what she had experienced earlier in the day.
This sense of awareness about who she was and how she reacted to stimuli gave her back control of her life. She actually started to be the manager of her own life. She nurtured herself by arriving at home ready to be in the moment, not caught up in the pressure of the daily demands at work. She then had sufficient energy to spend time with her grandchildren and to visit her mother. Soon her health started to improve.
Balancing Life
The Issue At Hand:
A devoted mother worked with us as she was starting her own business and returning to her career who wished to create a critical balance between the life of a business owner and a mother.
My Approach
At our initial assessment meeting we learned she is a very devoted mother and had home schooled her children as a means to provide a tailored program to their interests. Yet now the children had grown, and they were registered at school. This change had recently allowed her to focus on her own dream which was to work with women’s issues. She had signed up for the appropriate course and had her plan to start her own business upon her certification. Yet she was conflicted, for as a dedicated mother she didn’t think she would have sufficient time for anything else. She felt she would not do justice to her family if she continued on this path.
As we started to coach her, it became clear that she had created a story in her mind that replaced reality. This limiting belief had a hold on her and was stopping her going forward with her dream. Through further exploration she started to distinguish between limiting comments expressed by her inner critic and those from her inner leader. This breakthrough allowed her to take deep breath and stay away from feeling guilty as a mother who was also a business person. She has since started her own business.
This gave her the strength to stand on a meta view of her life rather being so close to only one narrow point of view. From this place life offered her more opportunities than the only two she had previously contemplated. This airplane/distanced view of her life generated a variety of options and gave her plenty of energy to explore them.
The Client's Take and Action
She was full of excitement to explore these options. She decided on the choice which brought her more excitement and focused all her attention on gathering information on it. At the same time, she explored important values in her life. Looking at her life as a whole combination of different aspects which are interrelated to each other, she discovered in herself a person that on daily basis was able to effectively manage different roles. She found a parallel in her current life as a mother how she was a teacher and school-taught her children in conjunction with being a mother. This enhanced her confidence of the choice she had chosen. The clear realization set in that she could, in fact, be a businesswoman and a dedicated mother.
So she focused on her education and completed her certification. At the same time she started to talk to her children about her desire and how life would look like for them with her as a working mother. She soon realized her children were behind her 100% and it was her own limiting belief that had held her back. This gave her more energy to go forward with her business development when it was needed to make hard decision in regards with her time management. She found she was strong not only to make these challenging decisions, but most importantly she was happy with her roles without any feeling of injustice towards either roles.
With a boost to her confidence she built her business development to a higher level. At the same time, she managed to spend appropriate amount of time with her children. She now recognized that both the roles of a businesswoman and a mother are complementary and each make her a stronger person. So she learned to manage her time accordingly, being happy in working to fulfill her professional dream while standing firmly with her value of motherhood, thus creating a balanced life.
Getting Unstuck and Living Free
The Issue At Hand:
A retired, accomplished woman wanted to initiate a community project that she held extremely close to her heart, yet she was held back from doing this due to the challenges of having poor health.
My Approach
At the initial meeting our assessment indicated she had a clear understanding about her project. For years she had worked in her industry and had full understanding of its needs along with a very strong desire to launch this project. But she needed help to articulate it and implement it. Her desire would have definitely supported her in this path but the physical poor health was a reality that she wanted to overcome. We started our coaching by focusing on her project, the strength and power which was pulling her towards her dream. Clarity of vision lend itself to articulation of its purpose and goals were designed. The health issues were in play but not preventing her.
During one particular session we could hear that she was in a lot of pain and was not certain whether she could complete the session. Yet she wanted to be coached through it. She was complaining about the long period of suffering she has had to endure, and her desire to be rid of the pain. When she was asked how would she think life would look like if she chose instead to actually live with it and not push it away. A deep silence was heard and then she responded: "I have never thought about this at all." Something inside her being shifted at that moment. She began to be patient with the pain, and by the end of the session the level of pain she experienced was significantly reduced.
This was just the beginning of the mind shift she experienced. She began to see her situation in a different light. The fundamental change provided her a different and new perception of the reality she was experiencing. From this point on more new possibilities surfaced. It seemed like she had accessed an energy source, and she was able to not feel the pain as she was experiencing it at the beginning of the session.
The Client's Take and Action
As coaching continued, she was able to articulate her encounter with and understanding of this pain. She had used a powerful visualization process to imagine the pain as an alive entity that for its very survival needed to be hosted by her. This allowed her to detach from it and face the pain as a separate energy, as a dynamic force challenge. She wanted to have a dialogue to inquire about its existence here. Coaching helped her to express this encounter in drawings and write the full conversation between her and this pain. These processes opened up a field of possibilities hidden before. She concluded that her pain would not go away, but that she could not only live with it, but become friendly with it.
This particularly powerful encounter in which the client used her imagination and expression in the artistic form provided her with a new coping mechanism. She knew how to have control over the pain. Her relationship with pain went from being fearful, tired, defeated and wishing it to be removed to understanding it as part of her and finding ways to co-exist with it. This mental control provided a relief for her from the chronic pain. This amazing transition empowered her to focus back on her community project.
Driven with her desire for the project and in control of her physical pain, she worked on implementing her goals. She created awareness about her project using social media and small networking. And she started to work on a Webinar to share her love for the project. She has not complained about her pain ever since and she is passionately working towards her project, taking it to the next level, by networking with different resources.
Consider Next:
By now you have discovered who we work with, how we work, what you can expect. See a few testimonials shared by our clients. Learn more about us and "What is Coaching".