What brings people to you for Coaching, where do you start?

 

We start where support is needed to move forward in life.  This could be an illness, a divorce, a possible career change, retirement, death of a loved one, how to be in a relationship with another or with oneself, or simply a desire to live a meaningful life.

 

Why did you decide to be a Life Coach? 

 

I attended The Academy for Coaching Excellence (The Academy) to be a Life Coach so that I could, with words, guide a person inside to find their own answers versus projecting my beliefs onto them.  I intended to bring the information back to my current Reiki Practice, offering Coaching sessions in person in Anchorage, Alaska.

 

How Did You Integrate Coaching into Your Life?

 

At The Academy I met Phil, now my husband! Phil is from Vancouver Island and I am from Alaska.  We decided to travel together for a year while we were in training at The Academy.  We did Tele-Classes and received Coaching Sessions with our Mentor Coaches on the road. In our daily practice we used the ‘tools’ of the ‘coaching model’ we were learning; in our lives individually and towards building our committed relationship.  This allowed us to test, and experience, the models’ authenticity before we offered it professionally as Certified Life Coaches.

 

Did you ‘Receive’ Coaching Yourself?

 

Yes.  I was required to meet with my Mentor Coach twice a month the entire time I was a student of The Academy.  This was over a year and a half!  I am thankful everyday, now, that this was a requirement.  I may have abandoned this dream in the same unconscious ways I have other meaningful dreams.  Through the support of Coaching I finished my rigorous studies at The Academy and achieved my goal of being a Certified Life Coach.

 

How did ‘Receiving’ Coaching Enhance Your Life?

 

Through Coaching I am living an authentic, conscious life as an ‘Effective’ Coach, Healer, Partner, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Mentor, and Friend.  I am now able to ‘be’, from my heart, in service to humanity.

 

Do You Coach Clients Over The Telephone?

 

Yes, most of my Coaching is done over the telephone.  It is a valuable tool that connects us as a Global Community.  As the borders of our world come down, so too do the borders of our hearts. 

 

I began developing a conscious supportive community as a Reiki Teacher and Practitioner in Alaska.  When I decided to travel, it was through the telephone, that I stayed connected with my Alaskan clients; they are part of my family and my roots in the beautiful North Country.

 

Now I have clients across the United States and Canada, due mostly to my Alaska community.  They continue to honor me by referring their loved ones to me for Coaching.  This allows our community to continue to grow beyond borders.

 

Can you ‘Connect’ With Coaching Clients Over the Telephone?

 

This is a subject I received Coaching on from my Mentor Coach.  I had been receiving Coaching for months at this point, on the phone! Now it was time for ‘me’ to offer Coaching to my Alaskan community.

 

I told my coach that I needed to ‘see’ my clients to intuitively know what was going on with them, to ‘touch’ them when they needed comforting. This was the only way I could ‘connect’ with a client.   My coaches’ response was something like:  ‘So we have never met in person Heidi, would you call our relationship intimate’?

 

I experienced the light of a new awareness; a light that I have come to know is created through coaching.  My Coach has been the most valuable mentor in my life, and we had only met on the telephone! In sessions to this point, and many  more to come, my coach supported me to move out of my psychology, my past, my always needing to know why, and into something infinitely more interesting ~ Living my life Now!

 

This meant letting go of what life ‘wasn’t’ about:  Living my life ‘someday’ when I get ‘it all figured out’, ‘when I grow up’, ‘when I get more education’, ‘when I make enough money or have time’.  It meant Right Now living my life ‘being me’.

 

What Happened After this Big ‘Ah Ha’?

 

Once this new Ah Ha moment passed, instead of it ‘just’ being an Ah Ha my coach guided me inward to my own answers and through a path self discovery that gave meaning to ‘my’ life and taught me a skill set to ‘live it’; to not just philosophize about it; to take actions toward goals that were authentic to my life purpose. 

 

These actions brought the ‘Ah Ha’ out of the metaphysical realm of ideas and into the physical realm of manifesting my dream to be an effective Life Coach.  The first action after this session was to contact my clients and offer them Coaching Sessions on the phone!

 

What  Coaching ‘Tools’ Did You Use to Take Action?

 

Two of the ‘tools’ I used were my Life Intentions and my Standards of Integrity.  In our ‘Coaching Model’:

 

A Life Intention is “a direction, aim or purpose that comes from deep within us.  It reflects who we are in our hearts. 

 

Standards of Integrity are the attributes that reflect who we truly are, our true self, in our heart. 

 

In the ‘Coaching Model’, Maria Nemeth, the founder of The Academy states:  the heart, it is not the center of emotions.  It is ‘the steady place inside of you that lets emotions and thoughts wash over it like waves but remains essentially unchanged.  This core is were your wisdom resides, and it’s shining surface reflects aspects of life that inspire you and brings you happiness.  This is your true nature.’ 

 

I used these tools to take action by focusing on ‘something more interesting’ than my fear of ‘not connecting’.  I focused on my Life Intention: To Be and Effective Life Coach, and in so doing, being a conscious contribution to my community.  I also focused on ‘demonstrating’ my Standards of Integrity by ‘being’ courageous, connected and confident when I talked with my clients, no matter how I ‘felt’. 

 

This is part of the ‘skill set’ taught at The Academy; to ‘be’ our Life Intentions and to ‘demonstrate’ our Standards of Integrity in the midst of ‘whatever’ we are ‘feeling’.  This action was a way to re-member them.

 

How Did You ‘Experience’ Ontology in Your Coaching Sessions?

 

Ontology is the study of ‘being’.  Psychology is the study of the mind.  At The Academy, we focus on Ontology versus Psychology. 

 

My Coach, taught me to go beyond my thoughts, feelings, emotions, and beliefs.  She ‘staked her life on who I truly was in my ‘heart of hearts’ and ‘held the high watch’ for me to walk through the obstacles in my life, both past and present, to clean up the sludge in my life and to live with clarity, focus, ease and grace.

 

Because of her willingness to believe in me, especially when I did not believe in myself, I am living a meaningful life with integrity and purpose, doing what I was placed on this earth to do and supporting others to do the same!