You are full of potential. Let’s dive in!
Coaching transforms
You have dreams. Life has a way of keeping those dreams at a distance. Coaching can help!
As a life coach, my job is to see and hear you fully and to help you get at the things that are really important to you. Whether you’re looking for professional success, better strategies to thrive with ADHD, or ways to express your creative self, we can work together to figure out how to achieve it.
I’ll help you harness your strengths to better understand yourself and to go after whatever it is you want in your life.
An experienced professional
I’ve had a long career in software, working for big name tech companies as a professional communicator, a software development educator, and a people manager. I know what it’s like to both struggle and thrive in a high-pressure corporate environment while dealing with ADHD. I’ve had years of experience navigating performance management on both sides of the table.
I know how difficult it can be to try to get help from HR staff who mean well, but who don’t have the education, training, or resources to treat non-neurotypical employees with compassion and humanity.
A creative soul
I have a deep connection with the arts and with artisanal craft. I’ve worked in wood, leather, iron, and fiber. I’ve studied printmaking and book arts, graphic design and desktop publishing, drawing and painting. I’ve acted and directed on the stage. I design tabletop games and write fiction.
If you’re searching for your creative self, I get you. I want nothing more than to help you find it and set it free!
I believe that everyone has a unique voice with something to say. Through creative expression, no matter the medium in which you express it, you can share your genuine self with the world.
A compassionate, playful partner
I’ve got training and knowledge to coach you, whether you’re dealing with ADHD or just dealing with life. But what makes me a great coach isn’t about what I’ve learned in classes and books.
I’m a great coach because I listen. I value all the shades of human experience that make up your essential being, and I want you and the world to love them as much as I do!
I’m a great coach because I value laughter and play. I know that life is serious, and working toward change is hard, sometimes painful work, but I believe to my core that the way forward is to find lightness and joy in the struggle.
Are you struggling? Unhappy where you are?
Looking for a way forward?
As your coach, I can give you the support and perspective that everyone needs to make a change. Without any preconceived notions about you, without an agenda beyond wanting you to be happy and well, I can offer you an ear, a shoulder to lean on, maybe even a kick in the pants if that’s what works for you!
My journey with ADHD
You could do so much if you only applied yourself.
That’s my childhood. Curious and courteous, scattered and unproductive. I was the kid who got along great with the teacher, but frustrated them because I didn’t do my homework. My poor parents didn’t know what to do with or for me. They took me to child psychologists, developmental experts, and whoever else they thought might have an answer. Nobody did. I grew up before the proliferation of childhood ADHD diagnoses. I wasn’t hyperactive (in a visible way) so nobody made the connection.
By the time I was finally diagnosed at the age of 28, I had programmed computers for the US Air Force, started a theater company only to shut it down after one production, been a graphic designer and copy-shop clerk at a big-box office supply store, built and fixed computers as an IT specialist, and landed a job as a programmer/writer at Microsoft. My dreams were big. My drive was strong. My follow through was abysmal. I was asking the same questions many folks with ADHD ask: Why do I procrastinate? Why are the things I want to do so hard to get done? I got substandard help from well-meaning, but ill-equipped therapists and psychiatrists. When that didn’t work, I carried on alone in growing shame and despair.
It took me 13 more years of struggling before I got the help I needed. In that time I gained management experience, earned two college degrees, and lost a job because of my ADHD. If getting help were easy, I’d be telling a different story. Most mental health professionals don’t have any formal training about ADHD, let alone adult ADHD (a condition many still look at with suspicion, despite the evidence). I got good help, but my brain didn’t want to be in corporate high-tech anymore, and it let me know by shutting down. Even with the best manager at a company with the best intentions, I couldn’t make it work.
It turns out, learning to live with your ADHD is first and foremost about learning who you really are, and learning to love that person. Sometimes the path is scary! I left my last tech job without a safety net. I was committed to helping others in similar positions. Now I’m here, doing what I set out to do!