COACHING
Are you ready to go deeper?
You’re a dreamer AND a doer. You’re naturally curious & love to learn. You set goals & pursue them. You’re good at getting stuff done, checking things off the list, & surpassing expectations.
- You’re a leader: You have influence & responsibility. You might tell yourself that you haven’t done “enough,” but, in truth, you have a track record of success that others aspire to. You know you are capable. You also know that there is more you want to bring forth in this lifetime – in yourself & in the world.
- You’ve read the books & listened to the podcasts: You’ve attended the workshops, retreats & professional development events. You’ve got lots of knowledge & tools. You work hard & persevere…because you’ve been taught that this is how we grow & become more successful.
- You realize that knowledge, tools & hard work aren’t enough to generate the clarity, results or satisfaction you long for: You want to feel nimble, intentional, & resourced to navigate the volatility, uncertainty, complexity & ambiguity of the modern world. Despite all of your education & effort, you often feel unsettled, unsure, & stuck in your head trying to “figure it out”…and ultimately coming up less clear & confident as a result.
- You want to feel more whole, integrated & authentic: You’re tired of living from the neck up. You want to say yes to things with your whole being. You’re not only open to the idea that your emotions, physical body, & intuition are sources of information in your life, you’re ready to tap into their wisdom & use it to guide you forward.
- You’re at an inflection point: You sense it’s time to grow – not just in what you do, but in how you see, sense, & show up in the world. You want this growth for yourself – and yet it feels like an amorphous shift that you’re not quite sure how to facilitate, though you’re pretty certain that reading another book & taking another course isn’t the path forward.
I coach at the intersection of vision & action.
When you are here – ready to grow your perspective & perception (as well as your skills), to learn how to see yourself & the world through new eyes and to use your body & intuition to sense your way into aligned choices – I’m here to coach you.
In our work together, I’ll help you develop the lenses, practices, & emotional sensitivity that will make you a more artful & embodied navigator of modern day life.
I’ll be in your crew guiding & encouraging you as you get your sea-legs and practice applying what you’re learning to the real-time currents & tides of your life.
LET’S WAYFIND TOGETHER.
We all need space & support to sail through life’s complexities. I’m in your crew as you learn how to navigate the uncharted waters of your life.
Pick my Brain
Have questions or want advice on coaching, experience design, adult learning & development, or my own personal & professional journey?
Schedule a 75 minute Pick My Brain Session.
Cost: $295
Coaching
Interested in exploring coaching with me and want to learn more about the process & whether we are good fit to work together?
Schedule a 30 minute free consult.
Engagements start at $1,995
Frequently Asked Questions
| I work with mission driven, people centered, and equity minded leaders across a variety of sectors and organizations in the for profit and not for profit space.
Most of my clients are mid to high level senior leaders. They are seasoned in their work and life experience with a strong record of success behind them. All sit in positions of impact and have significant influence and/or authority to direct resources and make decisions. Some lead teams; others are individual contributors who are responsible for significant portfolios of work with their organizations. My clients self-identify as “learners” and possess a natural curiosity and desire to think deeply and act intentionally. They tend to be both dreamers and doers. Given my own identity as an AAPI woman of color, the majority of leaders I work with self-identify as women and/or people of color. |
As a coach, I come from a place of deep belief and trust in the innate wholeness and inherent wisdom within my clients. My commitment is to help them step out of their comfort zone and into their challenge zone, and to do this, I “listen into” a combination of who they are, what they articulate they want and need and what they might not yet know they are craving, and I respond to them from there. I’ve been described as a “no-nonsense nurturer” – marrying empathy with truth, gentleness with challenge, directness with readiness, nudging with supporting.
So many things! I coach from the head, heart, & gut and draw inspiration and tools from a wide array of interdisciplinary sources including: gestalt psychology, somatics, organizational development, adult development, design thinking, mindfulness, systems theory, wisdom traditions, Polynesian wayfinding, art, & improvisation. Some of the bodies of work that have most influenced me include:
- Emergent Strategy & Pleasure Activism by adrienne marie brown
- The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Conscious Leadership Group
- Coaching for Equity by Elena Aguilar
- Wayfinding Leadership by Cherie Spillars
- Liberatory Consciousness by Barbara J. Love
- Integrating Polarities and Leadership Maturity by Beena Sharma
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere
I have a B.A. in history and geology from Wellesley College, History and Geology and an MEd.T. from the University of Hawaii in Education.
I received my coach training through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and continually participate in a wide array of professional development experiences related to activism, coaching and adult development.
I’m a certified Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, StrengthsFinder, Immunity to Change as well as a certified yoga teacher and mindfulness instructor.
I currently hold a PCC (Professional Coach Certification) with the International Coaching Federation.
I’ve held a variety of roles in my career including public school teacher, community organizer, diversity & inclusion trainer, curriculum and fellowship designer and grant writer. I’ve managed teams and projects of varying sizes and scopes.
A QUICK NOTE:
Keep in mind that unlike therapy, coaching is an unregulated profession, meaning that you don’t have to obtain any particular training, pass any standardized exams, be licensed with any governing board, or stay current on your professional knowledge to call yourself a coach. For better or worse, this means that there are many, many people in the coaching world who have no background in psychology, human development, trauma awareness or coaching who are working as coaches.
The closest thing the world of coaching has to a governing board is the International Coaching Federation (ICF). The ICF maintains a list of ethics and standards for coaching, certifies coaching programs and provides certification status for coaches who are willing to open up their practice for review. I highly encourage you to invite a conversation with any coach you are considering working with about their professional background and training.
There are two ways we can grow as leaders.
We can grow horizontally – we can develop new skills, add more knowledge and information to our toolbox and learn to translate our skills and expertise from one area to another. We can essentially become more knowledgeable as leaders.
We can also grow vertically – we can challenge our assumptions and beliefs, develop new lenses and perspectives and learn to “see” the world from different altitudes and in different ways. When we grow vertically, we evolve, deepen and expand the complexity of what we see, know and can hold about ourselves, others, & situations. We become more “mature” as leaders.
You’ll need to grow horizontally and vertically across the span of your lifetime if you want to lead skillfully, artfully and impactfully in whatever arenas are of interest to you. Coaching can help you grow in both of these directions.
It can help you grow horizontally and aid you in acquiring new knowledge, operating more effectively and leveraging your expertise in new contexts and arenas. It can help you make progress towards a change, stay accountable to your goals and make more strategic decisions in your life and career.
It can also help you develop vertically – it can help you be more aware of who you are, how you limit and liberate yourself through how you make meaning of situations. It can support you in developing greater self awareness and empathy. I can aid you in making mindset shifts, being in contact with your body, mind, and spirit in different ways, developing new lenses into dynamics inside and around you, seeing the world through layers and at different altitudes, holding complexity, moving away from polarized thinking, orienting towards life in a more sustainable and easeful way…really maturing in how you “are” as a leader, not just changing what you “do.”
While my work with clients usually involves some level of horizontal development, my sweet spot is in supporting leaders to develop vertically. My aspiration is that you leave our work together having matured as a human being – feeling more confident, creative, clear, connected, and capable, being able to hold and navigate through the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the modern world without getting swallowed up by it.
Coaching engagements begin with a 75 minute kick-off call. Prior to the call, I send you some reflective prework.
During the kick-off call we draw on your prework and bring into focus some of the inner & outer dynamics you’re navigating, get curious about what’s ready to emerge and be let go of in your life, and begin to explore what how you might have, create, experience or embody more of what you aspire to.
Following our kick-off call, we meet every two weeks for a period of time – some people work with me for a few months, others for more extended periods of time. A starting commitment is 8 sessions over 4 months.
Coaching calls are 50 minutes each and can be held via phone or Zoom. Each call begins and ends the same way. We do some sort of presencing exercise to support you in arriving and focusing. Then I ask you “What has your attention today? What do you want to explore together?” You share your topic and we coach around that. At the end of our call, we capture key insights & next steps. We also celebrate your progress & take time to schedule our next meeting.
In between sessions, I am available to support and encourage you via email, text and voice memos.
When the arc of our work together is complete, we spend our last session reflecting on the journey, celebrating your growth and synthesizing your key learnings, so you feel that the experience is complete.
Coaching is fundamentally about using inquiry & curiosity to discover the pathway to meaningful change, intentional action, and deep transformation.
Thus, in each of our sessions we will explore a topic, question, challenge, situation, or relationship that feels important and meaningful to you. We’ll uncover things like the dynamics & patterns at play, options for approaches & actions, and opportunities for experimentation.
Discovery is a little different than planning. It requires us to show up with a commitment to presence, openness, curiosity & discernment, more so than it requires us to take a lot of actions to prepare in advance. Thus, there isn’t much you need to do to prepare for a coaching session.
I recommend that you take a few moments to identify something you’d like to get curious about together during our time.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to come to our time with ten-point agenda or a clear outcome. We will co-create the agenda together and likely discover what outcome you’re seeking throughout the course of our conversation.
Just bring your sense of what you want to talk about & your curious self to our time and we will take it from there.
Sometimes I see & hear clients worrying about whether they will be able to “optimize” their coaching time or pick the “right” topic. I really get this – we live in a world were we are constantly pressured to be efficient & productive and to “get it right,” so this is a natural tension to feel.
AND, if we are working together, you are probably craving less should’s, must’s, and have to’s in your life. You’re probably on some level over defaulting into what this capitalistic, patriarchial, hyper-individualized society we live in wants of you. And you’re probably looking for a more self-authored and liberated experience of life, where you experience more connection to, confidence & trust in your inner wisdom.
You have an innately intelligent inner wisdom that can guide you forward. If you listen & trust it, it will show you the topic, the tension, the question, the opportunity that you are ready & meant to look at in any given moment. So in our work together, we make a commitment to listen to & trust in this process.
You can’t get it wrong.
I’ll remind you this over & over again. Whatever feels awake and alive for you when you show up to our coaching space is the thing I invite you to put on the table for dialogue.
The short answer is: “Whatever is awake and alive for you.”
This could be a professional challenge or opportunity you’re facing. A personal relationship you’re navigating. An emotional experience you’re having. How your body is feeling today.
It could be an existential question you’re grappling with. A life decision you’re not quite sure how to make. Dynamics you feel but can’t put words to. A fear you have. A vision you want to manifest.
Anything is fair game. As I coach, my expertise is in helping people hear and see themselves more clearly, filter out the noise and identify what matters most, make meaning of their experiences in empowering ways, tap into their inner wisdom and the wisdom of their lineage, make decisions they can own and grow their capacity to be with the complexity and multiplicity of modern day life. And it is my joy & honor to leverage this expertise in relation to any topic you bring to the table.
We live in a world where we are often consciously & unconsciously taught to silo out what’s appropriate to talk about into very specific contexts & relationships – i.e. “I can talk to my therapist about my emotions. I can talk to my boss about career advancement. But it’s not appropriate to talk to my boss about how I’m feeling.”
And this can cause people to come to coaching thinking that they can only talk about certain things with their coach. Early in coaching relationships, I’ll hear people say, “Alice, I know we started out talking about my career, but the thing that feels awake and alive is something else for me right now…” (i.e. the passing of a loved one, an existential question about what I really want in my life) “…is it okay to talk about that?”
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Our space will feel and be more powerful, the more you give yourself permission to lean into and share what’s authentically present in your body, heart, and mind.
And know that if we ever head into territory that I can’t support you in, you can trust me to name that and help guide us forward from there.
Growth is multifaceted and non linear and the coaching journey is too. As one client so eloquently wrote:
“My coaching journey has been a reflection of my life – full of moments of joy, insight, and wonder, as I’ve discovered new depths to myself, strength and resilience I didn’t know I had, possibilities I didn’t realize were available to me.
My journey has also felt tender and vulnerable. I’ve felt sadness as I’ve come face to face with regrets I have or ways I hold myself back, grief and frustration as I’ve tried to let go of things that hold me back and found it really hard to do that, fear as I’ve tried new things.
There have been periods of movement and stasis, times when I felt compassion for myself and others where I’ve really judged myself.
My coaching journey has felt complex, like my life. It’s also filled me with a sense of aliveness and taught me the power of developing new perspectives as well as new skills. Sometimes I am in awe of how different my life feels to me because I’ve learned how to look at it differently. People and situations I used to find so challenging and overwhelming are different because I’ve changed.
I’m honestly really proud that I have found the courage within me to be truly alive in this way and, I’m so grateful to have worked with a coach who could really see, guide and be with me in all my messiness from a place of deep love and belief.”
I offer a variety of assessments and debriefs (Enneagram, StrengthsFinder, Energy Leadership Index Assessment, Immunity to Change interviews), leadership 360s, team meeting observations and more. Please email me directly at alice@wayfindingwisdom.com if interested.
There are many kinds of support out there, and we need different kinds of support at different moments in time. Check out my blog post on how to identify what support you need here and to make sure coaching is right for you.
If coaching is the right support for you, then I recommend that you start by doing some internal reflecting & clarifying for yourself. Ask yourself:
- What is it that I’m hoping to explore or address through my work with a coach? This will help you identify the focus of your coaching and select a coach who has appropriate expertise.
- What do I want to feel, have, create or experience as a result of working with a coach that isn’t present or available to me right now? This will help you clarify your personal definition of success or impact. Share this with any coach you interview to gauge whether and how they might support you to bring your vision alive.
- Are there any special qualities or qualifications I’m looking for in a coach? Perhaps you want to work with someone from a particular background, who has a certain set of life experiences or professional experience, or someone of a certain gender or racial background. Maybe you’re looking for certain personality or style traits like directness or succinctness. Use these look-fors to guide your search for a coach and share them with any potential coaches as well.
I recommend interviewing 3-5 coaches, then sitting with the experiences you had and asking yourself, “Who am I most drawn to work with?” I believe our gut tells us whether someone is a fit for us or not, and encourage you to trust your inner sense of knowing about whether someone is right for you…even if your head feels confused. Many times I’ve thought to myself, “It doesn’t make logical sense that this would be the right person for me,” but trusted my gut and in the end, the person was exactly who I needed to be in relationship with.
If you can answer yes to these questions, then we may very well be a good fit for each other.
- Are you ready to commit to meet bimonthly for a period of time and to bring a topic to each of our coaching sessions?
- Are you energized by the idea of becoming more present and embodied as a leader and human being?
- Are you wanting to live & lead more holistically, using your body, heart, & intuition as well as your mind to support your decision making?
- Are you ready to let go of “forcing change” or trying to “make change happen” and instead willing to allow it to emerge from within you?
- Are you open to using exploration, experimentation, discovery, dialogue, and sometimes non-action as navigation tools in this next chapter of your life?
- Are you currently more interested in understanding the dynamics at play inside and around you than getting to a goal or destination as quickly and efficiently as possible?
- Are you ready to set down looking to someone else for the objective right way and instead ready to live and lead in your own unique way?
- Are you willing to be vulnerable, feel uncomfortable, & try on new ideas & practices in the service of what you want to be, have or experience in the world?
- Even if your brain doesn’t logically understand everything you’ve read on my website or know exactly what to do with it, does my language & philosophy resonate with you and feel right in your gut?
