SWIHA Blog

If you’re a mother, a woman going through a divorce, or struggling with relationship problems, Life Coach Rima Desai wants you to realize that you are not alone. Growing up in India, Rima felt deprived of love and burdened with responsibility from a young age. She has experienced first-hand what it’s like to feel constantly overwhelmed, underappreciated, hopeless, depressed, and abandoned, and she knows the impact of negative self-judgement and what it can do to a person. Yet instead of letting these experiences weigh her down, Rima has instead chosen to bravely dedicate herself to giving women what she always longed for herself: a sense of being supported. “I love supporting women,” Rima shares. “Women have been historically the most ignored population of all. Our needs as women have been suppressed culturally, as well by ourselves, and we have so much judgement towards ourselves…it is unbelievable!”

“Who do you know who is fully expressed in their boldness and bravery?” If this was a survey question asked of those on the college campus of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, Richard Seaman’s name would, without a shadow of a doubt, be on the top of the list. Richard is bold and brave! As a longtime coach and the lead Life Coach Instructor for the college, Richard is committed to teaching others to be brave using a coaching model he has created using the acronym B.R.A.V.E.

When people consider what it means to be a life coach, they might dream up an external support system who offers solutions to their clients’ struggles and acts as a “rescuer.” Yet, Eric Casaccio—a life coach who specializes in addressing narcissistic situations and their aftermath— knows the truth: for a life coach, allowing clients to discover their own answers is critical for success.

As our understanding of mental health continues to evolve, it’s becoming clearer than ever that postpartum struggles with depression, anxiety, and trauma can have a significant impact on entire families, from the new mothers who are wrangling with the challenges of having a baby to their partners’ aiming to adequately support them. Stepping in to serve in this sector is Jillian Holper, a life coach and hypnotherapist with a passion for providing guidance to women throughout some of the hardest parts of their lives. “I knew from the get-go that supporting moms with postpartum anxiety and depression was something I wanted to do and was passionate about,” Jillian explains.

What Jillian didn’t anticipate was having a secondary specialty show up in her practice. “Smoking and weight management clients just kind of fell into my lap,” she recalls. “It was never part of the plan, yet I realized this is something my clients are seeing significant results from and that feels just as good as the shifts I am facilitating with my mamas!”

For Bridgett Zehnder, finding her niche as a life coach came as an extension of the challenges she faced and overcame in her own life. “Like most of us that work in the Healing Arts field, we have developed our message from our mess,” she confides. Bridgett’s “mess” wound up looking like co-dependency, alcoholism, dysfunctional relationships, divorce, and loss— roadblocks which stemmed from childhood trauma and which were keeping her from leading a healthy life.

“Because of the strain this put on me emotionally, I developed debilitating pain through fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue,” she explains. “I did not find any relief from the traditional medical field, yet I fought hard to find a path of healing.” After joining a 12-step program, implementing significant dietary changes, picking up a meditation practice, and engaging with other holistic therapies, like hypnotherapy, Bridgett finally found her hope returning. It was ultimately these triumphs over suffering that would shape her as a life coach and offer a blueprint for her clients facing obstacles in their own careers and lives.

Apprehensive! Nervous! Excited! Empowered! This was the range of emotions I experienced as I did my first LIVE Facebook coaching session as a part of SWIHA’s 31 Days of 31 Minutes of Life Coaching. My topic was 5 Ways to Connect with Spirit, and my “ah-ha” was that the ways we connect with Spirit are the exact same ways we prepare to do a LIVE Facebook gig… and the same steps it takes to fully show up in life in a very “alive” way! In retrospect, going LIVE was just a metaphor! Let me explain…

To go L.I.V.E. you must first LEAN IN!

The title of Life Coach is about learning to “lean in” to your life in a very real and vulnerable way. To be a good coach, you must have a real life– one which goes through the full spectrum of emotions. There will be times when you are apprehensive, nervous, excited, and even empowered! As a coach, the more human, vulnerable, and real that you are willing to be, the more you can be of service to others. 

Sarah Whiton has been writing in a journal since she was about eight years old. As a child, she remembers having diaries with a lock and key, thick volumes in which she hid away her secrets, her heartbreaks, and all her big dreams. Sarah kept a journal through the rough times in her life, the transitions, and the big changes; she wrote through her fears and recorded the achievements of countless goals. Before she had a life coach—or ever became a life coach—a journal played a powerful and important role in her life. It gave her the ability to look within, to be honest with herself, and to fully understand one of the primary principles of life coaching:  we already have the answers within.

Sarah is now a Life Coach and a certified personal trainer who is passionate about inspiring and encouraging others to cultivate self-acceptance, awareness, personal peace, and happiness in the pages of their journal. In her very straightforward way, Sarah shares, “While it’s great to work directly with a Life Coach, your journal is the next best thing! I consider journaling self-coaching!”

According to Life Coach and meditation teacher Bill Gisclair-Sullivan, authenticity requires practice: “It is a conscious choice that we must make about how we want to live our lives every day. It is a collection of our choices and decisions, and it requires us to show up, be present in the moment, and to be honest with ourselves.”

The truth is that authenticity usually has to be re-learned because so much of our lives have been spent mastering the many masks we think we must wear to be approved of or to fit into what we imagine is expected of us. A quote from Coach Bill’s website captures his life coaching mission, which emphasizes how we can step into our truest self: "Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be and embracing who we truly are."

Bill is so passionate about this work because it mirrors his own life journey. “It took me many, many years to discover my authenticity,” Bill explains. “I spent most of my adult life working in management in the hospitality field. After making some dramatic mistakes and trying to climb the corporate ladder, I lost some important parts of myself along the way.”

Melissa Colton is a licensed mental health counselor, psychotherapist, and life coach whose favorite quote is that of Carl Jung’s: "You are not what happened to you. You are what you choose to become!" It seems that Melissa herself embodies this quote. Though a lot may have happened to her, she has chosen to re-invent herself each step of the way.

Reminiscing, Melissa recalls dreaming of becoming be a go-go dancer, flight attendant, and a member of the Peace Corps all before the age of 15. Interestingly enough, none of these things happened. Instead, she went to college, fell in love, married, moved to Florida, had two children, and lived a pretty normal, low key life… yet, always with an itch to do more!

At age 40, Melissa reinvented herself by going back to graduate school. She eventually became a licensed mental health professional, specializing in treating high-risk individuals, which included being on-call holidays, weekend, and in the middle of the night for crisis calls from actively suicidal and/or self-harming clients. As challenging and demanding as the working conditions had been, the rewards were those you measured in intangible ways– self-satisfaction, living a mission-driven life, and finding deep personal purpose in serving others.

Tune-in! Tune-up! Attune your life to your true passions! These are often the themes for a life coaching session, especially the ones offered by longtime life coach and instructor Laura Barnes, who is a true fan of tuning forks.

A tuning fork is a fork-shaped acoustic resonator that can be used to produce a very pure tone from which others can harmonize. Similar to adjusting a piano, the body and mind can be tuned to achieve optimal physical and mental balance by tapping two tuning forks instantaneously, altering the body's biochemistry and bringing the nervous system, muscles, and organs into harmonic balance. In seconds, the body and mind enters a deep state of relaxation once it experiences the non-judgmental, non-directive, gentle vibrational energy from the tuning forks.

This is a perfect metaphor for life coaching. Laura Barnes, who has taught Life Coaching online for Southwest Institute of Healing Arts for over seven years, explains, “Life coaches help their clients ‘tune in’ to the sacredness of life by being with those they serve in a non-judgmental, non-directive, gentle way! The goal of a coaching session is to bring balance to body, mind, and spirit. It’s known as creating ‘sacred resonance’ with another.”