The Top Three Questions I Get Asked About My Life Coaching Business
As a life coach and breast cancer survivor, I often receive questions about what I do and how it can help others, especially those going through challenging times. Here are the top three questions I get asked, along with my responses. I hope you find this insightful and inspiring.
1️⃣ What do you do as a life coach/what even is a life coach?
As a life coach, I guide individuals through personal and professional challenges, helping them to set and achieve their goals, find clarity, and cultivate resilience. Think of me as a partner in your journey towards a more fulfilling and joyful life. I provide support, accountability, and tools to help you navigate life’s ups and downs, especially during challenging times like facing a breast cancer diagnosis and recovery.
2️⃣ How is life coaching different from therapy?
Great question! While both life coaching and therapy aim to help individuals improve their lives, they are quite different. Therapy often focuses on healing past traumas and understanding emotional issues. Life coaching, on the other hand, is forward-focused. It’s about setting goals, creating actionable plans, and making positive changes. I help clients build a vision for their future and work towards it.
3️⃣ What qualifies you to be a life coach?
My qualifications include a blend of professional training, personal experience, and a deep passion for helping others. As a breast cancer survivor, I understand the unique challenges that come with this journey. I have developed the 5R Method, a unique process for building resilience, and offer a course called B.O.U.N.C.E – A Course in Resilience. Additionally, my background as a nurse, author, and life coach equips me with a holistic approach to support my clients effectively.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about how life coaching can help you, feel free to reach out. I’m here to support you on your journey.
How Coaching is Different from Therapy (and Why Both Can Work)
I often get asked how coaching is different from therapy, and which one is better to try.
Here’s what I tell my clients:
Coaching and therapy are BOTH incredible tools. It depends where you’re at in your life and your current struggles as to which one you want to choose. (It could also be extremely beneficial to do both at the same time.)
Therapy can help you work through problems and issues, and can be a treatment for mental illness. Coaching can help you truly create the life you want.
Coaching is more future-focused, while therapy tends to be about processing the past.
Coaching can save you money and time as you work through something difficult. It can help you move forward in a powerful way and create the future you want, regardless of your past.
Coaching helps you see things in a new way and handle situations differently. It takes esoteric ideas and turns them into practical tangible solutions.
It breaks down complex pathways into actionable steps.
A coach can’t cure your anxiety…but she sure can give you tools and strategies to regulate your nervous system and manage your own emotions effectively.
Both a coach and a therapist can help you feel heard and seen. And sometimes that’s the most important place to start.
Are you dealing with something big and scary… or exciting and happy, but still overwhelming in its magnitude? I’d love to help. Let’s hop on a call and see if my 1-1 coaching program would be a good fit for you.
A Couch in the Kitchen: Facing Divorce as a 49-Year-Old Breast Cancer Survivor
Saturday, October 14, 2023
I try to keep my voice light and untroubled as I quickly tour the movers through the home Mike and I bought only a year and a half ago, pointing out which furniture will go to my new place and which will stay here. Mike had told me to just take everything but the mattress – and maybe the futon so he could still watch TV in the loft. But I figured 2500 square feet of empty house would be depressing for anyone, and our daughter Grace would be here with him half the time, too.
My eyes angle down as I descend the carpeted stairs in the too-short Lululemon skirt I recently treated myself to from the sale rack while shopping with my daughter Alex. I discreetly tug the hem as I walk, trying to keep my curvy thighs under wraps.
“Sorry. We’re getting divorced and it’s just hard,” I say, not really sure what I’m apologizing for. “I had a pretty rough night. I almost canceled you guys, I was so overwhelmed and unsure…” my voice breaks as I look up and into the warm hazel eyes of the main mover guy.
He leans in and says softly, “ I understand. I just went through it myself a year and a half ago. It’s hard, but it’s for the best. Or at least in my case, it was,” he shrugs. His voice is low and calm. He looks right into my bloodshot eyes, and I feel seen. He has wavy salt and pepper hair and his face is lined from years of smiling. Around my age, I guess.
“I think it will be for the best in my case, too. I’m the one who asked for the divorce. But it’s still hard. Still complicated. Still sad,” I say.
“Yeah, divorce is basically an agreement that you’re giving up on your marriage, on yourselves really. You’re admitting defeat.”
“Yes, admitting you failed at marriage… again,” I say, shaking my head. “This is my third time. I never saw myself as someone who would be married three times, let alone divorced three times.”
Yesterday was the 22nd anniversary of my wedding. October 13, 2001. Not my wedding day with Mike. The first one. The starter marriage that lasted less than a year. It’s crazy to think that if Ian and I had stayed married, we’d be celebrating 22 years together. I would be someone who had stayed married for 22 years. Instead of who I am.