As a coach trained in the ICF-certified, Martha Beck Wayfinder coaching method, I always come from a place of deep respect for the inner wisdom in each of us.

I believe our guidance is always present, nudging us along—often in not so obvious ways.

Even when our lives don’t look like it—or make a lot of sense—our Authentic Self is always finding ways to show up, work with as much rope as we are willing to give, and make some magic—just as we are.

The trick is to give up our tendency to see things as wrong…as mistakes. Instead, finding the grace to say, that was the best I could do at the time, and it moved me along…exactly as it could.

My own guidance has always shown up as a spark. A flash of interest. A burst of excitement. A few words, or images. A deep feeling of yeah…that.

I spent my earliest years somewhat at odds with my own impulses, not because they were bad—I just didn’t always logically understand what I was doing. It seemed I was often making decisions that later felt at best impulsive, and at worst reckless. I moved out of my family home while still in high school. Moved three thousand miles away. Started relationships. Ended relationships. Moved back to my home state. Pursued a college degree. Fell into a career in entertainment. Worked as a makeup artist and stylist. A photographer. A copywriter. An intuitive. Got married. Had a child. Got divorced. Raised my son. Fell in love. Fell out of love. Travelled wherever my heart wanted. Cried buckets. Laughed a ton.

Through it all, I was always trying to make sense of the powerful intuitive capacity I had that also seemed to come with no owner’s manual. Reading for other people was often so much easier than for myself. And even though I knew I had a strong guiding voice, life, for me, was much like it was for everyone—a make-it-up-as-you-go proposition.

And that’s what I did. I regard much of who I am as the result of a learned-in-the-trenches kind of wisdom. And I have a lot of respect and gratitude for those trenches because that’s where I figured shit out. I figured out that my intuition is incredibly clear, but that it’s not the danger-warning-system I often thought it was. Rather, it was always pointing to what was lit up. The quiet, gently glowing places…the places I would really be glad to have gone. I also figured out that raising a young son into a heart-centered adult wasn’t nearly as complicated as all the books and well-meaning friends suggested—it simply required me to be authentic and present, always with a light heart and no expectations. I figured out that working in an industry that encourages people to believe they need to look more beautiful, wear the right clothes, and own the right things was always an unconscious, clunky nod to a deeper truth that we ARE so much more than we see ourselves as.

That awareness dissolved so much of the frustration and dislike I often felt for the industry that was paying my bills. And, once I found a more resonant way to live the part I’d always been drawn to in my business, I couldn’t disengage from my career fast enough.

And yet, life doesn’t always co-create with us in exactly the way we imagine. Instead, I found that the clients whose message never quite sat right in my gut were slowly moving away and being replaced by those who were actually trying to make a real difference in people’s lives. The inability to make it as black and white as I initially wanted turned out to be one of my favorite Lessons From Life’s Trenches. Within every prickly situation is an opportunity that is co-creating with you. So, even though I wanted to be completely out with the flick of a switch—yes, with gratitude, but also with a sense of, hell yes, I am DONE helping to send THIS message—I also appreciate when I can feel something has it’s own perfect timing.

And in walked coaching.

Coaching, for me, is a space where I get to have the kind of conversations that I truly believe are behind much of what drives us to shop for things we don’t need, pursue an appearance of youth rather than love what we see in the mirror, and focus on ourselves and our flaws as almost a hobby. The kind of conversations that help us slow down and notice the feeling that is often getting paved over rather than heard. A place where intuition and self-exploration can get an audience and some much-needed breathing room. It’s a way for us to step out of all the crushing, accepted ways of talking to ourselves and others, and try out something that makes a place deep inside our bodies sigh and expand a bit.

So, that’s a bit about me.

Now, tell me about you…