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Coaching | Art | Supervision | Therapy
COACHING APPROACH
I find coaching to be helpful when I want someone to accompany me in my approach to a challenging project or situation, a longtime goal or an unfulfilled wish. The coach becomes an agent to provide support, to find the pulse within my goal, and to help me identify my next good step. Then I can spring forward on my own.
I have been an artist and an expressive arts therapist for a long time, and I bring to my coaching practice my understanding of those bodies of work, my integrating them together, and over 30 years of experience. My journey to becoming an artist is significant to my approach as a coach. As a teen, I was told that I could not improvise, and to me, that meant I was not creative. Later, studying expressive arts therapies, I had the opportunity to experience first-hand the transformational force of creativity, and this led to a profound creative awakening. As a practicing artist, I continue to refine the well of possibilities that creativity can offer.
Creative Pathways is the name of my business because I believe that when we tap into the wellspring of our creative intelligence, we create a route to travel toward an aspiration. Creativity offers many pathways to approach something, anything, that is sometimes otherwise inaccessible- inaccessible for many kinds of reasons.
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My coaching approach is body, mind, and spirit oriented. I offer a solid presence when I listen to clients. A key part of this approach is to create a friendly environment where you can be in touch with your guiding creative potency, what I think of as an internal oasis where we can quench our thirst; as a place where we can attune to our essence and generate from our natural talents.
​The main coaching tools I use are based on creative and mindfulness principles, and nature’s wisdom. Together we use these tools to tackle what could be in the way of personal and/or professional goals. My style incorporates various practices informed from my study of the following approaches:
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Expressive arts therapy (an arts-based therapy approach, ieata.org)
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Focusing (an engaged, accepting attention that facilitates listening to an inner bodily experience, the “felt sense”. focusing.org and focusingnewengland.com)
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Authentic movement (a body-centered witness meditation)
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Mindfulness traditions (plumvillage.org)
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Nature Intelligence
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Creative coaching is for all, and that includes the ones who might not call themselves creatives. Through coaching, I invite clients to tap into their creative intelligence and engage their imagination and heart. You are encouraged to explore with your senses, to value your strength and the process; all of this and more can help you energize your vision, focus, and actualize your goals. The clients I enjoy, and have been successful with, aspire to create a more fulfilling, meaningful life - a life in which they feel more in connection with their natural way of participating as a caring and responsible being in the world. I also appreciate working with someone who thinks they are not creative and may wish to be “a creative,” or “do something creative.” I also like working with those who are curious about the creative process and what it can do for them. There are many ways we can be creative in our life, from how we approach our relationships to embracing the art of living. The creative process teaches about growth and about ways to re-invent ourselves during times of change, developmental or situational.
I abide by the International Coach Federation’s rules of conduct, which are described in www.coachfederation.org. Please contact me if you would like more information about my coaching agreement. Coaching can takes place in person in my Medford studio, or via phone, Skype, or FaceTime.