Frequently Asked Questions

"What is Life Coaching?"

Life coaching helps people live out their dreams by helping you take the obstacles out of the way and get the junk out of the way. We have conversations that explore goals, decide on actions, hold you accountable while provoking new thoughts and inspiring you to develop and follow your burning desire.

My individual coaching sessions are "Enlightened Conversations". Life coaching is an invaluable service to help you achieve self-actualization and help you take the best advantage of your life -- by your own rules. It's a process of guided transformation, where you can leverage consistent support, encouragement and clarity from your coach to help empower you to see through massive and rapid life changes. It's an end to procrastinating your life away, an end to succumbing to the daily grind. It always allows leveraging your freedom to choose so that you can choose wisely. The role of the coach is to help you delve deeper into yourself and your life situation, so you can surpass your barriers and resisting change, and to have someone to help you uncover what is holding you back.

I coach business people into having the business of their dreams, parents into having better relationships with their children and people into living out their dreams.

"What holds people back from their dreams?"

Most people are held back by fear, anxiety, worries, concerns, confusion, and not knowing their resources. Sometimes people have a dream but can't figure out where to start, but most people who have a dream allow it to be set aside due to other priorities. A good coach will help you find ways to make your dream a priority while managing your stress levels.

When people are afraid they have a hard time making long-term plans or figuring out their next step in achieving a long-term goal. When you're anxious or worried you feel rushed about what you feel stressed about. You're consumed by it. So fear keeps you locked into the big problem, and doesn't allow you to set it aside and take care of other things too.

"How does fear tie in to stress?"

"Fear" is the big category for a lot of very personal emotions: concern, worry, panic, anxiety. It also ties in with other undesirable emotions like frustration and anger. Some philosophers say there's really only two emotions: Fear and Love, and everything else is simply a matter of degree and blending those together.

When we have these feelings, our body releases a chemical into our system that tells us to shut off everything unnecessary and go into "Panic Mode". It shuts down our digestion, it changes our circulation, it changes how we think. If we're just a little anxious, it's a trickle of the chemical. If it's outright panic, then it's a flood. It puts us into the state that medicine and biology calls "Stress" -- our body changes systems to handle the crisis even at the expense of our long-term health.

The problem is that our body is not meant to live in a state of distress for a long period of time. We're supposed to spend most of our time in a relaxed state, and sometimes have something that worries or frightens us, resolve it, then go back to being basically relaxed or excited about something we're working on.

But in our modern world, we're subjected to stress every day. We've forgotten what it's like to have no stress in our lives. Instead we have deadlines, crunches, workaholism and even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some of us are in a constant state of anxiety. We need help.

"What will you do for me?"

I will help you open up to possibilities, keep you on-track and accountable to your goals. I will accept you as you are while challenging you to become the person we both know you can become -- the person you want to become. I will help you learn about the obstacles you experience and how to transform them into tools to grow into your dreams. And my specialty is helping you cultivate your dreams into burning desires, so that you have endless energy to craft and live out your life purpose.

"What won't you do for me?"

I won't hand you a plan or tell you what to do. I won't do the work for you. I won't pass judgement, label you, or ask you to change to fit into society's opinion of "normal". A coach is not a therapist, and I will not fix your problems for you, but I can help you find what's getting in the way of you transforming dreams into reality, and help you get past it. I will help you find the gifts that those challenges have given you, so you can experience unconditional love and profound gratitude.

"How is coaching different from therapy?"

Coaches are not interested in exploring the past or labeling you with any disorders, prescribing treatments or assigning therapies. The best coaches are interested in helping you realize your best possible future and transforming obstacles into opportunities. You choose whether you want to have a coaching relationship, and you choose the agenda for each session. With consistent coaching, you can expand and determine your goals, then make rapid progress towards them.

"If I ask questions by email, how quickly can I expect an answer?"

You may email me with questions at any time, and I will usually answer quickly, but please remember that life coaching is not an emergency. If you think you may need to talk to someone or ask questions on an emergency basis, you would probably call someone other than your life coach. Life coaching is proactive and preventative. If you're having a crisis, please seek out emergency assistance, a therapist or other health professional.

"Where can we meet?"

While I do most of my work on the phone, I do have several options for office hours in the Orange County area. If you require an in-person visit at your offices, please inquire. I may have to charge for travel time, since I won't be able to take other appointments during travel.

"When are you available for in-office sessions?"

For in-person appointments, I am available for sessions from 9am, ending no later than 2pm. Availability is affected by school calendars & closings. I have much more flexibility for phone appointments. Fridays work best for meetings in my office spaces.

"Are our sessions confidential?"

Yes, your session is confidential. There is a confidentiality statement in our coaching agreement.

"How much do you charge?"

I work on a sliding-scale fee. I know what my minimum is, and what my maximum is. What I prefer is for you to consider your budget and find a fee that you're comfortable with, a higher fee that would be a stretch of your finances but still possible, and a lower fee that would make you feel like you're getting a bargain. At the end of our discovery session, we can come to an agreement of how much you'd like to pay, and hopefully it's within my sliding scale. If it is too low, I will let you know what my minimum fee is. We both have budgets to balance, and I don't want either of us to feel financially stressed around our sessions.

"What is your refund policy?"

Individual sessions can be canceled without penalty with 24 hour notice. If you cancel a scheduled appointment without 24 hour notification, 1/2 hour of coaching will be deducted from your current prepaid sessions. If I cancel a scheduled appointment without 24 hour notice, 1/2 hour of free coaching will be credited to you. If either of us miss any scheduled appointment without a courtesy call, the entire session length shall be deducted or credited. This agreement works in favor of the party who is "stood up" in case either of us miss an appointment due to an emergency. Sometimes Life Happens. But it would be pretty unusual for either of us to not be able to at least call, right? :)