2007. Around this time I had the experience of getting into a great art school master's program, with great financial aid, and totally not wanting to go. Like, I cried and cried, because it seemed too good to turn down, but I didn't want to go. So I had a talk with myself and I said, "Well, you don't have to do that, but you do have to do something." I was working as a receptionist in a job share, with plenty of time to make art and write, but I was stagnating. So I did some visioning. And the two things that I thought would be the most magical were: become a life coach and get a degree that helps me move forward on my kink/stigma/sex-ed work.
I found IPEC in the greater Boston area, and signed up for the training, which I think took nine months. I learned so much. And we all practiced on each other, so I grew so much and got so much coaching. I really enjoyed the program.
Right after I finished I started grad school and didn't focus much on my coaching business. I coached some people working on huge writing projects (who finished), and some female doctors who wanted more time for their families (who now have work schedules they designed themselves), and so on.
Weirdly, right after grad school, I got work on a research project where one of the things we did was look at how good doctors were at coaching behavior change. There's a coding modality for Motivational Interviewing called MITI/CLAMI and we did some work with that. So the coaching was very present, but in a more theoretical way.
I was OK with coaching as I knew it from this certification program, but it wasn't until later that I added the pieces that made me thrilled to go out there and offer something to the world. One big piece of that was a program I took in NVC Mediation, which allowed me to feel much more confident about hearing and being with the inner conflict that often blocks dreams. When I got deeper into pure empathy and internal mediation techniques I felt like I have something truly rare and beautiful to offer to the world as a coach.
