About Me
I started Chrysalis Life Coaching in 2004, but I feel like I’ve been coaching my entire life. My oldest friend reminds me that since sixth grade she and our other friends just knew I would end up as some sort of counselor. I’ve always been fascinated by what makes people do what they do. I had a subscription to Psychology Today at the age of eleven. I also love to talk to people about what they want for their lives, and how they can get there. My husband always marvels at the connections I make with people the kinds of things we talk about – even when we’ve just met. So when I heard about the profession of coaching – I knew it was for me!
I have a passion for working with women in the stage of life where their kids are getting less demanding, and they’re beginning to wonder “what’s next for me?”. Women just like me. (Click here to read more about my personal story.) I noticed women reach this stage at all different times – for me it was when I was weaning my youngest child. For some of my clients it’s as their children start elementary school, for others it’s when the children leave for college. But what all these women have in common is the moment when they look ahead and realize they are not always going to be the primary caretakers of their children – that the time is coming when they get to focus on themselves again. And then they start to wonder what it is they really want from this next phase of their lives. I believe that there’s the process of figuring out and going after “what’s next”, and that, first, there’s a very important process of looking within to reconnect with themselves. I absolutely love working with women who are at this stage of their lives – poised to re-create themselves into the woman they will be in the creative, energizing, second half of their lives.
My background prepared me to do this kind of work. In addition to going through this process myself, I spent twelve years at the consulting firm of Andersen Consulting, now Accenture. I worked as an information systems consultant, a change management consultant, and spent five years as the Director of Human Resources of the Northern California office. I loved the combination of analytical and “softer” skills that these positions necessitated. After I left Andersen, I spent many years holding leadership positions at volunteer organizations in my hometown of Orinda. Among other things, I was the president of The Orinda Preschool (TOPS) for two years, served four years as a Trustee for that school, was on the board of the Orinda Junior Women’s Club, and on the leadership team to develop a new hot lunch program at our elementary school (Del Rey). I believe my organizational and analytical abilities, combined with intuitive skills and an ability to connect with people make my coaching extremely effective.
In the summer of 2002, I began to work on a master’s degree in integral psychology from John F. Kennedy University. As part of that degree, I also got a certificate in Life Coaching. What I especially appreciate about the coaching program at JFK is that it embraces and teaches a variety of coaching models. We did not learn just “one right way” to coach, but learned about seven different schools of coaching. We followed the guidelines of the International Coach Federation core competencies and code of ethics, and were encouraged to develop our own coaching style that worked for us and our clients. What I love about that approach is that it echoes my own beliefs – that there is never just “one right way” to do things, and that human beings are complex and individual creatures – the best approaches to personal growth and development recognize and celebrate our uniqueness.
On a personal note, I still live in Orinda with my husband, three children, one dog, and a fish. I love to read, travel, hike, ride bikes, ski, have tea with friends, and create all manner of things – cooking, knitting, sewing, scrapbooking. On most Saturday mornings you'll find me by the soccer fields, baseball fields, and swimming pools of Orinda.
If you’d like to explore working together on your personal journey, I hope you’ll contact me.
