Coaching for Personal Development

Self-Esteem & Body Confidence

Changes to ourselves and our bodies are natural with the progression of time and with experiences such as onset of a health condition, pregnancy, childbirth, medication use, aging, and other life changes. It’s not always easy to love and respect ourselves through these fluctuations, especially with deeply engrained societal ideals about how we should look and act. I’ll work with you to heal your relationship with your mind and body, an integral part of wellness. We’ll also work to cultivate compassion, confidence, gratitude, authenticity, and intuition.

Self-esteem refers to the quality of the beliefs that we hold about ourselves and our worth.  You’ve heard it before: the most important relationship in your life is the one with yourself.  It can be difficult to genuinely care for and connect with others until we find a deep connection and respect for ourselves, but this isn’t always an easy task.  We receive messages from social media, entertainment, advertising, and the core systems that we interact with every day about who we should be.  Personal development is a wonderful endeavor, but when we strive to be someone (or look like someone) we’re not, we can easily slip out of alignment with ourselves.  We know we follow through best on our goals when we can connect to them personally and authentically.  If we attempt to change ourselves to reflect another person’s ideals, we can usually see this reflected throughout our lives.  We might spend time in ways that aren’t enjoyable, attract the wrong types of partners and friends, or find ourselves in careers that aren’t good matches for us.  Developing self-esteem is a gradual, gratifying process.

Body confidence refers to the way that we think and feel about our bodies and how they look.  Being confident doesn’t mean there’s nothing we want to work towards or improve about how our bodies look, feel, or act.  It does mean that we have a baseline of acceptance that our bodies will go through changes and phases throughout our lives; our ability to enjoy life or experience confidence and self-esteem in the present isn’t dependent on those fluctuations.  Body confidence emerges when our thoughts and beliefs about our bodies reflect a deep level of kindness, respect, and gratitude.

Most of us struggle with self-esteem and body confidence at some point in our lives.  We’ll start with some kindness as you rebuild your strength.

Life Changes

To live is to experience change, and change can be both exciting and scary.  I provide coaching to those who are experiencing life changes and find themselves in need of support.  Whether you’re a parent navigating a new baby and a new definition of self-care, changing your familial or living arrangements, exploring a new career, or experiencing other types of change, I’ll work to help you align with your new reality, explore new parts of your identity, and accomplish your most important goals.

Major life changes and events can leave us with the sense that we need to re-balance.  They can bring about the need for different routines, habits, and schedules.  Even joyful, thrilling changes can cause stress on our minds and bodies and development of new habits and routines can be difficult to do alone when we’re under stress.

Parenthood, retirement, and career changes are common examples for many people.  It’s at these times that we most need to be in touch with our mental and physical wellness as questions come up such as: “How will I fit in time to eat healthy and exercise now that I have a new baby?”  “What do I want to do with this new time and freedom that I’ve never had before?”  “How will I make sure the best parts of myself, my wellness, and my relationships don’t get lost in the change?”  “How does this new part of my life change my identity and why can that feel scary?”  We’ll explore these questions, how to maximize the joy and minimize the stress, and more.