Beginning in Q4 2024, I have started offering 1:1 coaching services.
The idea of being a coach hadn’t occurred to me until I was asked to do so by one of the students from a Morbid Anatomy class. That nudge sent me researching, reflecting, and otherwise unraveling what it is I have to offer others as a coach, and what it is I want to do in a coaching relationship.
If I wanted to be a coach, then what kind of coach did I want to be? What did I have to offer somewhere in the intersection of my professional experience and my academic study?
As I did this soul-searching, I made a long list of all of the lessons learned and things that I might offer a coaching client. This seed-sorting and discernment helped me determine where I wanted to help folks.
It wasn’t about burnout recovery nearly as much as it was about having a fulfilling, meaningful relationship with work. It wasn’t about imposter syndrome as much as it was around honoring the creative voice inside us. It wasn’t so much about goal setting as it was about prioritizing the things that are important to us on a soul-deep level.
While I can help with burnout, imposter syndrome, or goal setting, I want to do it with the focus on honoring the creative gifts and talents that make life meaningful and express inner truths.
Creativity Coaching for those Who Want to Live More Creative Lives.
The key part of the skills and experience that I offer is the transformation from an unfulfilling career to a more meaningful and creative one. This may mean coaching folks through a career pivot. It may mean helping clients discover areas of meaning, strength and creative flow within their current careers.
My coaching work absolutely may incorporate goal setting, imposter syndrome, and burnout recovery, but it might not! It may be more about dialoging with a client’s unconscious to discover those hidden goals and dreams that have been buried since childhood.
The coaching might be helping clients get a creative project across a finish line.
Creativity Coaching for those Who Want to Hone Their Storytelling Skills
However, one of the things that I’m seeing happening in my coaching work already is that some folks are drawn to work with me because of my storytelling research and knowledge. I already have three clients who are interested in having story-specific and writing coaching included in the work we’re doing together. In these cases, we are talking through story structure, writing goals, and tactics.
As I continue to grow and hone my story and writing classes on Morbid Anatomy, I have a hunch that my coaching might fall into this category more as the year progresses.
Specificity Doesn’t Mean Exclusion of Other Ideas
While I’m getting specific with the kinds of services that I wish to offer, I’m open to other ones. I enjoy working with people one on one. Coaching scratches the same interpersonal itch that managing people at work had done. I love to help people meet their personal goals and realize their dreams.
It may grow and change as I explore it (these kinds of things usually do). I’m willing to stay curious about what it might become over the course of the year. That’s why the initial step of working with me is a free exploratory call. That way, we can talk through what you need and what I offer and see if it’s a good match.