Setting the Foundation

At the beginning of our first session, I'll clarify how coaching works and what to expect from the process.

The most common misconception is that a coach gives advice - that would be a mentor or consultant. A coach knows with certainty that you hold the answer. My role is to facilitate your discovery, not interfere with it. I create the conditions for you to access your own clarity, direction, and insight.

I'll review confidentiality at the start. Everything in your session is kept in strict confidence. The only exception would be if there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else, in which case I am ethically obligated to intervene. Beyond that rare circumstance, what you share stays between us. I do not take notes during sessions because I am focusing on being in the moment with you and what is coming up for you.

The Client Sets the Goal

You set the goal for every session. This acts as an anchor - something to return to if the conversation drifts or opens into unexpected territory. Please see my Pre Session Goal Setting worksheet in my Resources section.

The goal can be broad ("I want clarity on my career direction") or specific ("I need to decide whether to accept this job offer by Friday"). It can be exploratory ("I don't know what I want, but I know something needs to change") or action oriented ("I want to create a plan for having a difficult conversation"). It can be seeking to understand issues arising from any area of life.

The most pressing issue you are dealing with will naturally arise if you are open to it, even if you are not consciously aware of it at the start. The body knows. The unconscious knows. Often, what we think we're working on is a doorway to something deeper.

If you have several goals or issues, you may notice a theme that unites them. Part of the work is finding the through-line—the pattern or belief system underneath the surface concerns.

Active Listening and Presence

As a coach, I listen in an almost meditative state - fully present with you, tracking not just your words but the shifts in your energy, microexpressions, pauses, moments where something lands differently.

I let questions arise and pass. I don't interrupt to insert my own agenda. I stay with you in the moment, following where you need to go rather than where I think the session “should” go.

An important part of listening is recognizing when silence means you're accessing a deeper part of yourself. That pause isn't empty - it's you reaching inward, finding language for something that may have not been named yet. I hold that space so you can take your time. Knowing I am listening and fully present

When I experienced coaching as a client, I was given the time and space to find words for feelings I had not named before - deepening my understanding of perceived blocks I experience in my own life. That gift of being fully witnessed, without judgment or fixing, is what I found transformative, which I offer to my clients.

Powerful Questions and Exploration

Throughout the session, I will paraphrase your main points to ensure I am understanding accurately. You can clarify or correct if I have missed something. This mirroring back helps you hear your own story from a slightly different angle, which often reveals patterns you couldn't see from inside it.

I ask questions to explore:

• When you visualize the highest outcome for this situation, what does that look like?

• What is standing between you and that goal? (Perceived and real obstacles, internal beliefs, external circumstances)

• What would have to change for this goal to be achieved?? (Making the abstract tangible)

• What's the cost of not changing? (Reality testing whether inaction is sustainable)

• How far along have you come on the path to achieving the goal? (Strengths, past experiences, support systems)

• What's one small step you could take this week? (Building momentum through action)

These aren't generic questions pulled from a script. They are responsive to what you are saying, designed to illuminate blind spots, challenge assumptions, and help you reality test your thinking. With somatic coaching, there is a lot of space held for the body’s responses. I ask my clients to let me know when sensations arise in the body during the session. Where they are, what they feel like. If the body keeps the score, the sensations which arise such as a tightening in the chest or throat, a feeling in the sacral or gut, heat rising in the body. These are examples, the body can communicate in any way chooses to. In sessions, we instill the practice of tuning into this sacred communication.

Somatic coaching is about sitting with the feeling. If it is uncomfortable, being careful not to swallow or hold our breath to repress it. If we can locate where the feeling is coming from in the body, we breathe into that part. We do not tolerate, we allow. This can be holding space for the body to release or integrate, stored feelings connected to trauma.

Co Creating the Path Forward

Together in this co creative process, we dismantle any perceived or tangible blocks. I will not tell you what to do, but I will challenge your logic when appropriate. When you may be making assumptions that may not be grounded in reality, or when you are stuck in a pattern hard to identify from inside it.

You lay down the steps you will take and specify a time frame for doing so. I do not assign homework - you commit to actions that feel aligned and achievable. The accountability comes from within, not from external pressure.

By the end of the session, you'll have:

• More clarity on what you are actually working on (which may be different from what you thought when you arrived)

• A deeper understanding of the patterns or beliefs driving your current situation

• Actionable steps you have chosen to take

• A sense of direction, even if the full path is not visible yet

What Coaching Is Not

It would do a great disservice to direct another person in their life. Projecting our own experience or potential onto another person, is interfering with their right to decide their own path based on their own unique needs and desire desires. Coaching is not therapy (though therapeutic insights may arise). It is not advice, mentorship, or consulting.

It is structured facilitation designed to help you access what you already know but haven't been able to reach on your own.

After the Session

Integration happens between sessions, not just during or after. The real work begins when you leave the session and start implementing what you have discovered.

I offer post session integration worksheets in my Resources section, to help you capture insights while they are fresh and track patterns over time. These are optional but highly recommended.

Some clients work with me for a few sessions around a specific challenge. Others work with me ongoing for months or years as they navigate major transitions, sobriety, or deep integration work. You decide how many sessions and the frequency which is right for you.

If you would like to experience this process for yourself, book a session or a complimentary discovery call. We will discuss your goals, I will answer your questions, and we can determine if we are a good fit to work together.

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