I actually started my first coaching certification in 2018, but my full-time job demanded most of my energy, so coaching had to be set aside.
What I loved most about coaching, and still do now, was hearing people’s stories, helping them untangle what they were going through, and supporting them as they figured out what came next.
In 2020, I lost my job because of COVID layoffs. Once I was ready to think about what came next, I asked myself when I last felt excited by my work because it felt like it mattered to someone. The answer brought me back to coaching. So I continued my training and began again.
I know what it’s like to spend years trying to adapt to systems that don’t fit the way you’re wired. I’ve lived with anxiety since my twenties, and it's taught me a lot about understanding myself, recognizing what I need, and learning to advocate for those needs.
During my time in IT, I worked in a corporate environment that didn’t always align with how I worked best.
Corporate culture is gradually changing, but there are still a lot of ideas about how people should show up, communicate, perform, and succeed. At times, those expectations felt rigid.
Many times, I had to self-advocate instead of continuing to force myself into ways of working that didn’t fit me. I had to un-learn the idea that honoring how I work best was a form of opting out or falling short. I was actually learning how to support myself so I could show up in a way that felt both sustainable and authentic.
That experience helped shape the kind of coach I wanted to become.
I want to help people understand themselves, question the expectations they’ve been trying to meet, and figure out what they need in order to move forward. Sometimes that happens because life has changed. Other times, it’s because the path they’re on no longer fits. Either way, I believe there’s value in getting curious about your strengths, your needs, your values, and the way you move through the world.