COACHING FOR SPACE, BALANCE, AND NEW DIRECTIONS
Hello, I’m Erin. I’m an academic and coach. I work with people who want to explore who they are and what they want out of life, both personally and professionally. I help people work towards the goals, outcomes, or dreams that are most meaningful to them.
What is coaching?
Coaching is a conversation in which two people think deeply together with the aim of improving someone’s situation or experience. Coaches do not try to impose solutions on the people they work with. Rather, they create space for people to explore who they are, what matters to them, and how they would like to live their life.
For me, coaching is the opportunity to pause in the midst of a busy life. It’s an invitation to explore what’s important to us, to identify the values that underpin our actions, and to craft a meaningful future. How often do we look up from our phones, email, and household chores to ask what we truly want? How often do we take the difficult but meaningful path when the status quo is so much easier? This is what coaching offers: life lived with intent.
How do I coach?
As a coach, my job is to create a safe, confidential, and empathetic space that enables you to reflect on your life and how you want to live it. While clients usually come to me for a specific reason – such as career progression, growing a business, difficulties with work-life balance – I take an integrative approach that considers all aspects of a person’s life, work, personality, and environment.
Coaching is not therapy but it is heavily influenced by insights and practices from the therapeutic world. Such approaches acknowledge that, as humans, we all experience challenging situations, thoughts, and emotions. The more we try to run away from or suppress them, the stronger they get, and the more they prevent us from living the life we want. Coaching allows us to get curious about the language we use to describe these experiences, the bodily sensations that accompany them, and the actions we take in response. Unlike therapy, however, coaching does not focus on the past: instead, it looks to the future. As a coach, my aim is to help you take effective action toward outcomes you find meaningful and fulfilling.
Who do I work with?
I typically work with people whose lives involve multiple hats and a lot of juggling. I have worked with academics, lawyers, teachers, creative entrepreneurs, and stay-at-home parents. My clients often have competing demands on their time such as work, family, or personal interests and obligations.
They are frequently navigating a new phase of work or life, or considering a change in direction. They tend to have a keen sense of what is important to them and a commitment to achievement and personal development, but they often have trouble finding opportunities to explore these things on their own. This is where I come in.