I often describe coaching as walking together in a dark forest. We – coach and client – walk side by side, and while we have a goal in mind, you're leading the way. I, on the other hand, am carrying a lantern to shed light on what you wouldn't necessarily see if you were walking in the dark alone.

I shine my lantern in our sessions by actively listening to you, asking powerful questions, and bringing your attention to what is alive for you emotionally, mentally, physically, and energetically in the present moment. The choice of what to explore is always up to you.

Furthermore, while it can be tempting in coaching to be future-focused, to move forward in a way that is authentic and sustainable, we must first move through.

When we're in the coaching space, our sole focus will be on you and your experience, rather than a specific challenge. This helps us to build tools that are rooted in self-understanding (and therefore widely applicable) rather than constructing tools that can only be used in a single scenario.

I work with clients biweekly during 60-minute Zoom sessions. Coaching collaborations generally last for 6-12 months, though I have been working with some of my clients for over two years.

Yes. Please head over to The Eighth House website to learn more.

If you are curious about what working together might look and feel like, I invite you to schedule a free, 30-minute intro call. We'll spend the time getting acquainted, going over in more detail what sparked your coaching exploration, and discussing what coaching could look like in terms of style, structure, investment, and logistics.

As we connect, in addition to evaluating whether you think my style and approach align with what you’re looking for, I encourage you to notice how you feel in your body and any emotions present for you. A sense of ease, calmness, alertness, and relaxation, coupled with curiosity, excitement, and hopefulness are helpful indicators of a match that feels right.

The financial investment depends on the scope of the coaching engagement. I use an equity-based fee model and reserve a limited number of spaces at a reduced fee for small non-profits.

Yes, but probably not in the way you’re imagining.

Investing in a person’s wellbeing and supporting their journey to empowered living often results in that person finding fulfillment and joy, both of which contribute to elevated creativity and motivation, two ingredients for enhancing productivity.

However, I measure progress through learning, not production (I am not a performance coach). Learning around adaptive challenges is a non-linear, time-intensive process. I can make my best guess as to when we may start observing changes in a person based on patterns in adult learning – but this work is just as much an art as it is a science, and every person is different.

All of that is to say: in the long run, if you cultivate a supportive team experience and offer coaching as a resource for growth, you will likely end up developing a team of empowered individuals operating from a place of fulfillment and joy.

Yes! Coaching is confidential. Here’s an excerpt from my coaching agreement:

The Coach respects the Coachee’s right to privacy. The Coach agrees to maintain verbal and written confidentiality of all Coachee information unless permission is received from the Coachee, except as required by law. The Coach will only break confidentiality if there is concern that the Coachee threatens harm to himself/herself/themselves or others. According to the ethics of our profession, topics may be anonymously and hypothetically shared with other coaching professionals for training, supervision, mentoring and evaluation to further coach professional development and/or consultation purposes.

All of this means that I do not share details of our coaching sessions with your manager or organizational leadership, either.

For a facilitated 1:1 conversation, I like to budget 90 minutes (range is ~75-90 min). Think of it as a 60-minute conversation between the two of you, but with a few additions: designing an alliance/working agreement, stating desired outcomes, pausing for check-ins, noticing, recalibration, deep breaths, etc., and wrapping up with next steps. The pace of a facilitated conversation is slow, as you might expect.

My role as a facilitator in a 1:1 conversation is:
a) to support both parties in feeling seen and heard
b) to keep both parties aware of where they sit relative to conversation goals
c) to share noticings and ask powerful questions in service of the conversation's goals
d) to hold both parties accountable to the working agreement

Yes! As part of the service, I hold a conversation (or several) with both parties individually in advance of the facilitated conversation to understand what each person is holding and feeling, to answer any questions around process and preparation, and to get to know each other.

Sometimes, based on my assessment of where each person is in relation to the conflict, challenge, and/or the other person, my recommendation is to continue meeting in a coaching capacity individually.

Consent is of the utmost importance and is an essential ingredient to creating a safe-enough conversational container. As such, I neither support nor participate in non-consensual processes. Both parties must be either wanting or willing to participate in order for me to facilitate.

No. A mediation focuses on dispute resolution, while a facilitated critical conversation focuses on relieving the emotional and tactical burden of planning, managing, and propelling a hard conversation. Moreover, it emphasizes the mutual witnessing of both parties and the development of non-violent communication skills.

The financial investment depends on the scope of the facilitation engagement. I use an equity-based fee model and reserve a limited number of spaces at a reduced fee for small non-profits.

I support leaders and teams in developing the tools and strategy needed to cultivate and deliver people-first experiences across programs, products, and operations, both internally and externally.

Together, our work may focus on integrating the following into your processes:

- Empowered, nonviolent communication
- Basic coaching skills
- Emotional fluency and articulation
- Meaningful connection with self and others

HR consulting is most often focused on solving tactical challenges pertaining to operations and programs related to the human resources function.

In contrast, people development consulting is most often focused on creating dynamic, sustainable solutions to adaptive challenges pertaining to the wellbeing of people within an organization’s operations, programs, and products across all functions.

Yes and no.

Yes, I work within organizations that sit in a variety of industries across the for-profit and non-profit sectors.

However, I choose to work specifically with organizations comprised of leaders who dream of a more equitable, healthy, joyful future for all, want to experiment and push the boundaries of what it means to be a healthy organization, and are ready to commit their time, energy, creativity, and financial resources to making that future a reality.

I am especially excited to collaborate within organizations that are already doing work around elevating growth opportunities and experiences of belonging for their employees in the LGBTQ+ community and Black, Brown, Indigenous, and AAPI communities.

(As a note, I’m not a DEIB consultant.)

The financial investment depends on the scope of the consulting engagement. I use an equity-based fee model and reserve a limited number of spaces at a reduced fee for small non-profits.