let’s dive in!
my approach to coaching
Combining my training in neuroscience-based coaching with my background in feminist theory, critical race theory, queer studies, and disability studies, my approach to coaching is brain-based, holistic and social justice-focused.
In my own experience as an activist and an academic, I’ve found that many of us are so stressed, burned out, or busy battling our own internal demons that we don’t have the capacity to be the social justice warriors we want to be. Coaching is a powerful tool to help us recenter, recharge, and refocus on what we truly find meaningful, in order to make positive changes in our lives and the lives of others.
brain-based
Our brains are powerful, but they aren’t always our friends. Learning how to differentiate between what we feel like we “should” be doing versus what is actually serving us is a crucial part of living in alignment with our core values and beliefs. Lucky for us, the field of neuroscience has a TON to teach us about how our brains work — and how to outsmart our brain chemistry.
I hold a certificate in brain-based coaching from The NeuroLeadership Institute, a leader in innovative neuroscientific strategies designed to unlock insights, build confidence, and take action to achieve our goals. One of the main benefits of brain-based coaching, as opposed to other approaches, is that it engages directly with the way your brain processes information in order to shift patterns of thinking and behavior. Neuroscience gives us the tools to literally rewire our brains and rewrite our own narratives.
Still skeptical? So was I, until I tried it and it changed my damn life. Check out my story.
holistic
I believe that in order to be effective, coaching must account for the whole person: mind, body, and soul. While I am trained in neuroscience-based techniques designed to focus specifically on the brain, my approach to coaching is also informed by my experience with mindfulness, meditation, and somatic psychotherapy. In my experience, our physical and emotional needs are fundamental, rather than extraneous, to the work of discovering our life’s purpose. It is only by honoring and making space for our entire selves to show up that we can truly find meaning and fulfillment.
The holistic teachers and guides who have informed my approach include Tara Brach, Lindsay Mack, Gwendolyn Ren, and Aylee Welch.
social justice-focused
Social justice is one of my core values. While I believe that pain and suffering are an inevitable part of human experience, much of the pain and suffering in the world today are caused by violence and inequality and are therefore unjust and unnecessary. My goal as a coach is to provide you with tools and strategies for working both internally and externally to engender the change you want to see in your life and in the world.
I can’t promise that coaching will put an end to all forms of social inequality — let’s be real, no amount of personal growth is going to change the structural inequalities and systemic injustices that shape our world. But by focusing on what we DO have control over (like our own negative self talk, internalized ableism, and/or self-destructive patterns of behavior), we can tap into our own power and transform our personal evolution into sustainable, collective social change.
I find it helpful to think of coaching as a kind of magical armor that helps us to become the most effective and powerful social justice warriors that we can be. And let’s be real, if we’re going to dismantle the white supremacist settler colonial heteropatriarchy, we need all the help we can get. It’s time to suit up.
Art credits, from top: Lisa Congdon, Victoria Villasana, Queer and Trans* Youth Visibility Project
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