You have important work to do.

You want to change things for the better, in your life and in the world. You're pulled by purpose. But there's something holding you back.

• Maybe you're not exactly sure what that purpose is or how to get started.
• Or you might be doing the work, but you want to do it better, be more effective.
• Or you've been at it a while and feel a bit burned out, and stuck. You know you can't go on like this, but you can't quit.
• Or wherever you are, maybe you're just not be feeling up to it. Physically. Mentally. Or otherwise.

I believe each of us has immeasurable potential to be realized and profoundly important work to do. But we can't do either alone.

We need help. 

We need help seeing what's possible. 

We need help drawing out what we know is inside us. 

We need help to keep going when it's hard.

These kinds of help come in many forms. One is my own profoundly important work of supporting people like you. 

My mission is to equip people to help shape a better future, for themselves and others. 

We all want our lives to move in a good direction. We want to feel calmer and clearer in mind, more vital in body, and like what we do matters. 

And if you're tuned in to the troubles of our times—to the unraveling we're seeing at environmental, social, and individual levels—then you also want to see our collective path take a turn for the better. 

Although it's not always obvious, these movements are intertwined, in at least a couple ways.

One has to do with how change works.

As someone who literally "wrote the book on" change, I can confirm that futures don't just spring into being from our wishes. Every new moment emerges from what was there in the one before. You can't create wellness from illness without some intentional intervention, without deliberate change.

(me in 2021, holding my first printed copy)

The other has to do with our capacity.

As we all know from experience, the worse we feel, the harder it is to do hard things (or anything, for that matter). The reverse is also true. The greater our well-being, the more capable we are of facing challenges, taking on troubles, making change.

When we remember this, it becomes clear that shaping a better tomorrow, among many other things, entails creating greater well-being today.

What this means for you

Not only is it possible for you to feel better and increase your capacity to go after big goals and help make a brighter future. You can do both at the same time. 

My unique approach and combination of experiences makes me uniquely qualified to help.

From college professor to life coach

Though perhaps unusual, this transition makes perfect sense for me.

For 27 years I worked as a scholar and teacher in university settings, first in sociology, then environmental studies.

I love the deep thinking that comes with research and writing. I especially enjoy the work of gathering up threads of knowledge from the ever-expanding universe of information and weaving them into more useable forms to answer stubborn questions, solve problems, and promote greater understanding. 

This also served me well as a teacher who's always striving to create better and more direct paths to knowing. When planning classes, one of my goals was always to help students grasp within the span of a course what took me years to learn.

At some point it became clear to me that students needed and wanted more than I could offer within the confines of a class. Colleagues too needed supports that academic publications and conferences couldn't provide.  

As I've written elsewhere they, and all of us, need help:

• processing what we know
• understanding its implications and
• figuring out what to do with it. 

For our own good and for the greater good.

As a coach, I get to help people do all that, and more.

I get to put my diverse knowledge and skills to good use helping people do what I'm always striving to do myself: live well in the world as it is, while helping shape the one that's unfolding. 

I think of what I do as collective self-help.

Happily, I still get to teach. I offer mind- and life-changing classes, workshops, and programs—all made even more powerful with the integration of coaching.

What's different about my approach is what makes it so valuable right now.

One thing that makes me distinct is that I tend to whole persons. Embodied, thinking and learning, meaning-making beings (aka body, mind, spirit).

Even more unusual is that I take the 'spirit' part seriously, the part of us concerned with profound meaning and purpose. As I use the word, 'spiritual' refers to questions about such matters and to supports for exploring and living into those. Your curiosities, doubts, questions, and longings about all things spiritual are most welcome here.

What really sets me apart, though, is that my work with you is never just about "you," or at least not the way we typically think of our selves, as separate independent entities. I see you, and help you see yourself, as you really are—in process, and embedded in contexts of various sorts. Seeing more clearly in this way, we're able to make better sense of what's happening and to work with it more effectively.

This holistic approach is informed and characterized by my signature blend of science, sociology, and spirituality.

Other miscellaneous things to know about me

• I'm from northeast Wisconsin (where a part of my heart will always be) and live in northeast Ohio with my husband and three kids.
• Some of my favorite things are deep blue skies, very strong very hot coffee, long walks, changing seasons, and days with nothing on my calendar.
• A few of my pet peeves include uncited or misattributed quotes (which on the internet is almost all of them), buzzwords and bandwagons, single-use plastic of most kinds (especially when I'm the one using it), stickers on my produce.
•  I'm spiritual and religious. Doubly so, in fact, being a practitioner and student of two faith traditions. In general, I've always been fascinated by the world's religions and used to teach a course on the Sociology of Religion.
• My efforts to help shape a better future have taken many different forms, including:
  • teaching, writing, speaking, parenting, growing food and establishing a small experimental homestead to grow resilience in land, people, and communities; and more

I'm proud of the work I've done so far, and am so excited about the work I get to do now as a coach.

Whatever your work is, I can't wait to help you do it.