-What are some of the benefits of coaching?
Coaching creates awareness and intention. Coaching can give you more courage and practice to show up and be present in your life- in your work and your relationships. You will gain a refreshed perspective and have more self-awareness and insight. Self-awareness is the root of all change, and enhances your ability to be with yourself and others. Coaching encourages you to grow your comfort zone, try out new ways of being and doing, and give yourself permission to take calculated risks.

-How is having a coach different than talking to a trusted friend or loved one?
A coach does not have their own agenda for you like a friend or loved one might. A true coach only wants for you what you believe to be right for yourself and will hold you steadfastly in working towards your own version of leading yourself and others well. A coach offers preparation for the critical moments in your life. A coach asks a lot of powerful, non-leading questions, without interjecting many of their own related experiences.

-How is having a coach different than having a mentor?
A mentor generally leads the relationship and does things to help the mentee further their professional development. Coaching is a more equitable partnership, where clients are encouraged to explore their own truths and answers and find their own ways of being and doing. Coaching address the person’s whole life- personal and professional.

-What is involved in coaching?
Coaching is about creating a courageous and intentional space where you can spend time contemplating and discussing what’s important to you, who you are and where you are going. Coaches ask questions and initiate inquiries. Coaches also provide structure, feedback and support, as well as accountability. Coaching exercises are designed to help clients identify what is important in their lives, clarify values, make powerful choices, and execute on those choices. Generally, you will leave a coaching session agreeing to one or more action items or inquiries that will continue to move you forward until your next coaching session.

-What are the logistics for a coaching session?
Coaching can be done in person or over zoom or the phone. There are several options and locations for meeting in person, including outdoor locations. Coaching sessions are scheduled in advance and generally last 45-55 minutes.

-How should I select a coach?
Every coach is unique and it’s important to find a coach who is a good fit for you. You want a coach with whom you feel a connection to and are comfortable with, but at the same time one who will push you outside of your comfort zone and challenge you to grow. While it’s nice to have some shared interests or beliefs, or similar backgrounds or place in life, it is not necessary to have those commonalities to have a good coaching relationship.

-Who is an ideal coaching client?
An ideal client is a person who is motivated to increase their self awareness and willing to try new things in service of their own personal and professional growth. It is also a person who is willing to be held accountable for taking agreed upon actions. I am certain that if you trust the process of coaching and are committed to growing, coaching will provide you numerous benefits. Though I will celebrate your growth and hold you to your agenda, the progress you make in coaching is ultimately about your commitment to it.

-Does coaching only benefit the client?
Coaching can serve to realign our reality, creating better relationships with ourselves, our family, our community and the world at large. Inner change depends on inner conviction, and leads to outer changes as well- changes in circumstances, behavior, relationships, etc. Each of us making small changes in our own lives can create a sea of change that can impact our greater community. I encourage my clients to be an agent of change in any way that they can, to share their purpose with others and to live authentically.

-How can leadership coaching help me with my work and leading my team?

We explore areas of strength and opportunities for improvement at work, including giving and receiving feedback, having difficult conversations, strategic planning, delegation and empowering others, and managing up.  We take a systemic view of the impacts you can have with all stakeholders,  as well as the people and forces that are impacting you.    Additionally, we can role-play, brainstorm, ideate, reflect, slow down and practice new things in session in service of your professional development.

-What is unique about InStill Coaching?
I approach my coaching business with the utmost of integrity, care and preparation. Your time is valuable, as is mine, and the time we spend together should benefit both of us. My coaching mission is to inspire a new generation of people to live and lead with intention and authenticity. I believe we are all leaders in various aspects of our lives, and draw on my decades of leading individuals and teams in family, business and community environments.   I offer a grounded and calm, yet energetic presence. Being a good listener comes naturally to me. I focus on helping you find connection to your authentic self and your creative power for the sake of living in wholeness. I believe each individual is capable of more than they could ever dream and wish to support people in recognizing and developing their unique gifts. I act in service of your self-awareness and see possibilities. We work together to help you find still places of being to inform purposeful doing, as well as integrating your being and your doing. As your coach, I see and listen to the very best in you; seeing you for who you are today as well as who you are striving to be. I offer a soul-centered humanity, and find ease and lightness of being in the work of coaching, as well as inspiration. I am an sensitive introvert who understands that safety and trust are paramount to the coaching relationship, and offer my own style of putting transformative learning into action. As a life long learner, I am continually reading and researching the latest developments in neuroscience, mindfulness, leadership, team dynamics and emotional intelligence, always adding new perspectives and tools to my coaching offerings.

-What’s with the name InStill?
The definition of instill is to “impart gradually, or impart as if by breathing.” This is what coaching and life change are all about, slowly righting our own ships to the direction they were meant to be heading all along. I love the breath reference, as breathing is such an integral and unconscious part of our being and doing, as well as a reflection of the constant change of life. Creating the break in “InStill” with the capital “S” emphasizes the need to be in still or in stillness. It is there where we can rest and restore our mind, spirit and body, as well as find our essential truths and creativity. This stillness can be found or enhanced through meditation practice as well.

-What is a Chief Inspiration Officer?
While there are probably other coaches who call themselves this, I created the title based on my finding that inspiration is the best motivator for people to create lasting change. While our culture tends to rely more heavily on punishment and even shame to change people, studies have shown that internal motivation, like inspiration, is more effective.

-What are your professional certifications?

Anyone can call themselves a coach these days.  I take pride in having been through intensive training and certification programs recognized by the ICF (International Coach Federation) including:

CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, through CTI)

PCC (Professional Certified Coach, through the ICF)

Certified in Conversational Intelligence (C-IQ)

Global Team Coaching Institute- Team Coaching Foundation Certification 

I am also a CPA (certified public accountant) and C.MI. (certified meditation instructor)