We evolve, we transform…Change is inevitable.
Change IS inevitable, and my life has been full of change, as I'm sure yours has. Most recently I became a Certified Professional Co-Active Life Coach (CPCC), training with The Coaches Training Institute, the premier coaching school in the world, affiliated with the International Coach Federation (ICF). As a coach, I help people who want better lives, achieve them.
Prior to becoming a coach, I worked as an actor and director in theatre, film and television, and trained with master teacher Stella Adler. Working as a teaching artist in New York City public schools in Grades K-12 and for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts nationwide, I taught in classrooms and led professional development workshops for teachers. Later, with a teaching license and certification under my belt, I was a full-time Drama teacher at The La Guardia High School for Music and Art and the Performing Arts (aka the Fame school).
“We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or
less in one direction until we splash into something
that forces us to find a new course.” – Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
Then suddenly my life transformed overnight and without warning. My mother was diagnosed with a progressively degenerative physical and cognitive disease and I answered the call to manage her care for what became a twelve-year journey – certainly an ordeal and surprisingly, a gift.
Of the many life lessons: To be there for someone in rough seas, over my head, out of my depth, making countless mistakes, frequently feeling alone, helpless, frightened, angry and sad. And the many times I knew I was courageous, loving, effective, loyal and undaunted. I felt humbled by the people in the caring professions who do the heavy lifting, giving of themselves fearlessly, tirelessly, lovingly. I learned more about being present for another human being, more about patience, compassion, acceptance and love than I could ever have imagined. And, I learned too, that caregivers often get sick because there never seems to be enough time, willingness, or energy to take care of themselves when caring for a loved one. This was certainly the case for me.
It was during this time that I trained to be a co-active life coach but it would be several years before I would become certified – first would come the completion of my mom's journey and then my own health and healing. But happen it did, and I became a certified coach, launched my coaching practice and began to develop innovative programs.
We change, that is for sure. But nothing is lost. We are an amalgam of all our life experiences and our learning. All we were and are is grist that can be used for our own lives going forward and to help others in theirs. Today I use my life experience and the many skills, abilities, talents, values and tools I have as a coach, educator and theatre practitioner to help people gain clarity, razor-sharp focus and build momentum to have the lives they want, the lives that are uniquely their own.
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts…"
– William Shakespeare