Ethical Coaching &
Values Driven Support
Lastly, I've trained with author and educator David Bedrick on his Unshaming method to coaching, a trauma-informed approach to releasing shame in the body and mind while ensuring that coaching does not inadvertantly reinforce systemic and personal manifestations of shame. David Bedrick is the founder of Santa Fe Institute for Shame-Based Studies.
I've also completed the Mental Health First Aid course with the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
Besides these coaching certifications and trainings, I have a M.A. in Public Policy and Administration from Carleton University, a B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and International Development from McGill University, and 17 years of professional experience in strategic policy, communications and fundraising roles in both the Canadian federal government and non-profits, including in leadership roles.
Please note that while some of the coaching approaches I'm trained in are also used in psychotherapy, I'm not a licensed counsellor or psychotherapist and I don't use these approaches with therapeutic intent.
My work is trauma-informed, but future focussed. It's intended to support clients' personal development, leadership capacity and their mental and emotional resilience, so they can be more successful and serene in all spheres of life.
Certified Coach and Proud member of the ETHICAL COACHING COLLECTIVE
I received my first coaching certification as an Integrative Change Worker through the Ethical Coaching Collective and the International Association of Counsellors and Therapists. I was trained, and continue to train regularly with Melissa Tiers, who is the founder of The Center for Integrative Hypnosis and has been training coaches, therapists and psychiatrists for over 25 years. Melissa Tiers has pioneered the integration of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis and somatic approaches for coaching with the self-directed neuroplasticity framework first developped by Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz, a research psychiatrist who is one of the world's leading expert in neuroplasticity and in the clinical treatment of OCD.
I received my second coaching certification from the Besser-Siegmund-Institute in Wingwave EMDR Coaching, a patented, evidence-based coaching modality from Germany that combines EMDR and neuro-linguistic programming principles to reduce stress, enhance performance, and increase client's capacity for finding creative solutions.
In addition to these 2 coaching certifications, I received a certificate in Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) from The Embody Lab with Dr. Fran Booth, a licensed psychotherapist and clinical social worker with 40 years of experience teaching and counselling. Dr. Booth is also a Certified IFS trainer with the IFS Institute led by Dr. Richard C. Schwartz, the American psychotherapist and academic who created IFS.
My certification through the Ethical Coaching Collective means that I am fully committed to these
Vital Skills & Ethical Standards.
Vital Skills
I coach in a way that takes into account both the conscious and unconscious minds.
I have a basic functional understanding of how the brain and nervous systems work, and my coaching can effectively guide change through the interplay of mind and body.
I have a skillset that is evidence-based.
I coach in a non-hierarchical, client-centered way, empowering the client with the awareness and tools to direct their own path and change their own minds instead of creating a dependence on me.
Ethical Standards
I do not coach without consent.
I do not sell coaching without consent.
In marketing and selling, I will treat people the way I would treat my clients: with respect, transparency, thoughtfulness, and genuine care for their well-being.
The best that anyone can be in our presence is our thoughts about them. I base all my work with clients in unconditional positive regard. If I cannot feel unconditional positive regard for someone, I refer them out to someone who can.
I understand that neither human development nor coaching happen in a social and political vacuum. I will be outspoken about my values and make business decisions that reflect them. I will never put profit above values.
I believe in every human’s capacity for healing, change and growth, and the reality of miraculous quantum change, AND I do not bypass slow, steady, repeated work and cultivation of the grounded presence it takes to stay with things that take time.
I stay fiercely awake and present to pain and suffering inherent in life and the world, but I do not let it overwhelm me and stop me from believing in the magic and fun of coaching work.
I am open to all possibilities but am dogmatic about nothing.
I don’t do gurus. I don’t do cult-y thinking. I am the best authority on me, the client is the best authority on themselves, and I do not endorse outsourcing decision-making or responsibility for how we experience the world and create our reality to anyone else.
I would rather be curious than be right.
I do not aim to be a perfect practitioner or perfect human; I aim to learn, do a little better than yesterday, and have fun.
Should I work with a coach - or with a therapist?
When it comes to answering this important question, there’s only one hard and fast rule: if you’re looking for diagnosis or treatment of a mental health illness or disorder, you need to work with a psychologist, psychiatrist or medical doctor. A coach could be an addition to your team if your specialist agrees, but cannot replace their services.
For everything else, integrative change work coaching can be extremely helpful. That includes learning how to reduce and manage feelings of anxiety, depression or burnout that make sense given your life’s circumstances (i.e. they are proportional to the situation you’re facing) and are not yet debilitating.
My coaching is focussed on lighting up unwanted patterns and emotions in your brain, and then rewiring them from a more resourced place, using a variety of tools including therapeutic memory reconsolidation, Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR coaching, and hypnosis. Sessions follow a structure that uses what neuroscience now understands about neuroplasticity - i.e. how the brain changes - to create lasting changes quickly and effectively.
As a result, you might find that coaching with me is faster and more effective than traditional talk therapy for any kind of pattern change. That includes life-long patterns like overthinking, procrastination, cognitive distortions, low self-confidence and more.