The answer to what’s next is
compassion.
Transformational coaching for midlife professionals and leaders ready to answer the call of what's next.
You care – you care a lot.
There’s even an argument to be made that caring is the throughline of your career.
Blasé? Not a word folks have ever associated with you.
But midlife is challenging that tendency to tend, and you’re not always sure what comes next.
Nothing’s wrong.
But it’s also not quite right.
Fundamental shifts happen with compassion.
Coaching can make space for incredible personal growth: this is not a revelation.
But the big breakthroughs, the ones that fundamentally shift your self-awareness, internal dialogue, and core perspective come from a place of care, not critique.
Welcome, I’m Kay
I’m a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with a penchant for tending friendships, cultivating political awareness, and a good cup of coffee. After decades spent in development, communications, and program management, I deeply understand how compassion can be both a challenge and a tremendous asset.
My approach to coaching is informed equally by the latest data-driven research in the coaching field, and the ancient wisdom traditions of our world. As a highly intuitive and sensitive person, I pull from all of these streams to best support you where you’re at. Together, we work with your nervous system – never against it – to find your ‘growth edge’ and broaden your window of comfort.
For sensitive souls, midlife isn't a time to fade or retreat from overstimulation. It's a time to untangle what you’ve been conditioned to be from what you truly desire. And it's the perfect moment to have a coach who understands your unique wiring by your side.
Midlife is hard
Mortgages, rent, house upkeep, raising kids, caring for elders, saving for your retirement, politics – it’s all barrelling at us with equal intensity and ruthlessness. And don’t get me started on the ways our culture’s ageism plays into the job market (heaven forbid you decide you want to pivot your career after 40).
There’s a reason so many of us feel like we’ve been handed the impossible.
Making meaning and sense of this hard work and crisis that is middle age can feel insurmountable. But rather than slog through it, I think we can view it as something akin to a crucible: a spiritual practice or a major discipline, like learning to climb Mt Everest or backpacking the Pacific Crest trail.
It takes work.
It takes guts.
It also takes unlearning so much of what we’ve been taught to want.
The crucible of midlife is the unraveling of what we’ve been told to want and what our soul yearns to be.
Some color it a midlife crisis; others, a midlife chrysalis.
Either way, this is when we finally shed what isn’t important.
And the way we can do this is through boundless compassion and empathy for ourselves.
The small print
COACHING, PSYCHOTHERAPY, AND CONSULTING: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
Typically the difference between a coach and a therapist is that coaches focus on moving forward toward desired change, with an emphasis on “what,” such as what is keeping you from making this change and what do you need to move forward? Psychotherapists and mental health care practitioners focus on healing the wounds of the past, with an emphasis on “why,” such as why do I feel so much anxiety, and why can’t I get out of bed? Both practices utilizing knowledge of human behavior, motivation, behavioral change, and interactive counseling techniques, and there can be some overlap, but as a coach I am ethically bound to tell you when we have crossed over into territory where I don’t have training.
People who seek coaching are generally in good health, or already under the care of a mental health provider, and want to improve and deepen their relationship with their inner guidance to function at a higher level. In contrast, psychotherapy is a health care service people seek out to restore their emotional selves back to baseline health and frequently reimbursable by insurance. It is not uncommon for my HSP clients to work with both a coach and a therapist, and this collaboration often produces the most profound results.
Consultants are experts in a particular field who you hire to help you solve specific problems. They focus on the word “how,” such as here’s how you do this. A coach will never presume to be an expert on your life and will not provide consultative advice unless otherwise agreed on.
Ethics
Coaches are not subject to government oversight. As a commitment to my clients and my integrity I keep my accreditation up-to-date and adhere to the International Coaching Federation's Code of Ethics.
Learn more about coaching ethics >>
