How We See It
(to help you get a feel for our individual approaches
and to help you determine which of us you might enjoy working with)

Dave

I believe, in the end, it’s change that defines us. I don’t mean the mistakes (or even the courageous choices) we make that bring about the change, as much as I mean what we do afterwards. It’s those moments of transition that offer us the most fertile ground – not just upon which to create a future, but also to create right now.

Change (whether we want it or not) offers us the best opportunity to be ourselves.

I believe we’re conditioned to swap what we probably should do for what we truly want. We learn there’s value in putting aside our dreams for someday and in pursuing what’s practical today. We’re taught that these two things (the dream and the practical) are mutually exclusive and that’s one of the biggest disservices we do ourselves in the course of our lives, because doing so often influences so many of the decisions that we make.

I believe there are a number of ways to keep your dreams in your life while you do the practical things (like pay rent and raise a family). Even if it just means taking your dream off the shelf one day a month or one day a week, it’s important to honor that part of who you are. If you don’t, chances are you’ll feel resentment. You’ll feel suffocated. You’ll feel like something essential is missing from your life. You know why? Because it is.

I like working with people who are willing to take a chance on themselves and who want to find a way to do the thing they love while still being there for those who matter to them. And I’m also drawn to those people who feel stuck or lost in some way and who are trying to re-establish (or maybe establish for the first time) some sense of direction or purpose. I enjoy helping people re-connect with parts of themselves they may have put aside or forgotten.

I believe you can be serious about your job, your relationships, your health, and still have fun, still find time to laugh, still exercise a sense of humor. I believe a smile is one of our greatest weapons, one of our greatest gifts. I believe the hardest person to trust, to forgive, to love is yourself. I also believe you are the most important and, ultimately, the most rewarding person to trust, to forgive, to love.

I work with people who want to give that person a chance.

Click here for a free consultation with Dave to see if we’re a good match and to learn how personal coaching can benefit you.

To learn more about Dave, click here.

Cathy

Even though I’m a teacher and coach, self-improvement is a concept that does not resonate with me.

I see it as a trap.

I believe our natural inclination is to want to be our best self, and because it IS a natural inclination, it also tends to be exploited. Just think of the Victoria Secret I Love My Body Campaign and the negative affect it is having on so many girls and women.

Self-improvement is a way of looking at yourself superficially from the outside and, while assuming that there is much to be fixed, creating a plan of action to make yourself look like and behave like a certain ideal established by external forces.

Personal growth through self-awareness and mindfulness, on the other hand, offers us a way to grow from the inside out. There’s nothing to fix. There’s no ideal way to look or be. There’s your best way to look. Your best way to be. I’m interested in helping you connect with your center so that you can re-imagine from that healthy place what your best life looks and feels like, so that you can re-write your story, which also means so that you might step into your own authority and learn to be happy and comfortable there.

When we live from our center, from this place of authority, we make better choices because we understand ourselves as part of something much bigger, we recognize ourselves as interconnected, and so we experience more responsibility, but also a sense of peace and joy in our daily lives.

Living mindfully makes living so much simpler. But it’s no simple thing – we have much to unlearn. And much to be curious about in the process. I believe that I teach best by doing, by practicing – by encouraging myself constantly to unlearn so many habits and patterns and ways of being that do not support all of life. It’s a stripping away of many unnecessary layers, and so even the term “personal-growth” is somewhat misleading. It’s not about me and more or bigger or better as much as it’s about we and deeper and sustainable and meaningful and simple and honest and natural.

I work with people who believe in (or who want to believe in) themselves as creative beings, who want health & well-being for themselves because they also want it for all of life.

Click here for a free consultation with Cathy to see if we’re a good match and to learn how personal coaching can benefit you.

To learn more about Cathy, click here.