How Integrative Wellness Coaching Works
The Focus of Coaching
Coaching is different from other helping professions in that it focuses predominantly on the present. Coaching is not therapy, although it often can be therapeutic. For instance, coaching doesn’t usually delve into your past. Instead, it looks practically at what you’re doing now in your life, and how well it’s working to take you where you want to go. In other words, coaching focuses on the growth and change that lie within your immediate grasp. It also tends to emphasize the positive, rather than on the negative or critical. Coaching is not about troubleshooting, problem solving, offering advice, or floating suggestions. Rather, it’s about helping you to realize your strengths and then putting them to the fullest use to achieve your goals.
The Coaching Perspective
Coaching isn’t about mining the coach’s bright ideas or solutions. On the contrary, it’s about tapping your innate wisdom and virtue and using it to take you to your higher ground. This undertaking depends less on the coach providing the right answers than it does on them providing the right questions, ones that help you define, design, and take action on your best way forward. Good coaching also evades pat agendas, processes, patterns, and models. Only you can determine the approach that best serves you. And I’ll help you find it.
The Coaching Process
Typically we begin by assessing the big picture, the eagle’s-eye view of your life. It provides a holistic way of understanding where, how, and who you are in contrast to where, how, and who you truly want to be. My job as a coach is to always bear your highest aspirations in mind, and help you use each session to steer toward them. Each time we meet is another step toward your highest goals and ideal future. But only you can decide what that step is and how, when, where, and why to take it. The agenda is always your creation.
Typical Coaching Timeframes
Most coaching sessions last for one hour; however, 90-minute and 30-minute sessions are also feasible. The duration of the coaching engagement also varies widely. I’ve seen people change their lives in 30 minutes. Then again, some people like seeing a coach on an ongoing basis as a steady support system in their life. Ultimately, the coaching engagement ends when you’re convinced that you’ve accomplished all you came to do.
Ways of Meeting for Coaching
I often meet with clients online using web video apps such as Zoom or Skype. For those who prefer it, we can also meet via a phone call or a voice app. I meet in-person with some clients in the greater LA area, either at their homes, workplaces, or a neutral site. And I maintain an office/studio for meeting people in the Pasadena-Glendale-Burbank-La Canada area. Any combination of the above works great, too.
My Coaching Fee and Scale
My standard coaching fee is $120 for an hour-long session. I also offer 30-minute sessions for $60 and 45-minute sessions for $90. This fee schedule is on the low-to-medium end for professional coaching rates, as some coaches charge $250-to-$500 per hour and higher. Even so, I realize my rate could be a challenge for people on a fixed or limited income, or who may have fallen upon hard times. For this reason, I work on a sliding scale and have never turned a client away for financial reasons. To me, your motivation and commitment matter more than the money. So if you’re truly ready for growth and change, I’m sure we can agree on a rate you can afford.
Request a Complimentary 30-Minute Coaching Session
I provide a free coaching “chemistry” session for first-time clients who want to see if my coaching approach is right for them. Just fill out and submit the form below, and I’ll contact you to set up an online appointment (Zoom).