Therapist? Life Coach? Holistic Life Coach?

Therapist? Life Coach? Holistic Life Coach?

by | Feb 21, 2024 | Health Coach, Holistic Life Coach

The nuances between a traditional therapist, life coach, and a holistic life coach are unclear to many people. A life coach is not a therapist, and a life coach differs from a holistic life coach. I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify the distinctions for everyone.

Engaging with a therapist is a longish-term process where a client works with a healthcare professional to diagnose and resolve challenging beliefs, behaviors, and feelings by focusing on past traumas and issues. The goal is to change self-destructive habits, improve relationships, and work through painful feelings and memories to create a happier future.

A life coach is a trained but not healthcare professional. They work with clients for varying terms to clarify goals and identify obstacles and problematic behaviors in order to create actions to achieve desired results. The present moment is the starting point for moving forward. Life coaches help people evaluate their lives and take actions to refine them towards their desired goals.

There will, at times, be overlaps between the roles of a traditional therapist and a life coach. However, the right practitioner for a client depends on their needs as outlined above.

A holistic life coach uses an integrative approach that considers a client's mind, body, and spirit. It is believed that fine-tuning each of these areas that impact each other ultimately improves a person's level of holistic well-being. Every holistic life coach has their own unique philosophy and approach to meeting these objectives.

My approach, Integrative Solutions for Modern Life™, is influenced by the following:

Natural Health Remedies: Lessons from shamans located across the globe taught me how critical it is to detox and balance our physical body. In order to achieve homeostasis, my system taps into natural remedies including nutrition, movement, nature, stress management, and energy work.

Positive Psychology. This scientifically rooted approach to well-being emphasizes self-awareness. It explores a client's values, strengths, weaknesses, and resilience. Well-being is believed to consist of PERMA: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Research has shown that these five elements are the best approximation of what human beings require in order to thrive.

Eastern Philosophy, Quantum Physics, and Metaphysics. My extensive studies have led me to appreciate the combined value of Eastern philosophy, the scientific study of matter and energy, and other belief systems. Our culture encourages rational, linear logic over inner seeking. I believe that we need to blend the two.

Intuition. I work intuitively. Although we may have an agenda for a session, that plan will be subject to change if I am pulled in a different direction. I confirm my intuitive hunches with Muscle Testing (aka Kinesiology), an assessment tool used to tap into your subconscious mind to access answers about your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. This is where trusting and allowing comes in. 😉

Financial Services Career. My decades-long career as a Managing Director for several premier NYC-based private banks makes me strategic, goal-oriented, skilled at understanding people, and demanding of myself and my clients. You can consider me to be a hybrid of practicality meets spirituality. Living your best life demands both.

The best holistic life coaching approach for you depends on which one lights a spark within you.

I invite you to sample Integrative Solutions for Modern Life™ by booking a 1-hour Zoom Breakthrough Session.*

* Available in person by request.

My personal note for 2023 and thoughts on radical honesty

My personal note for 2023 and thoughts on radical honesty

by | Jan 4, 2023 | Health Coach, Wellness

Happy 2023!

Thank you for another year of letting me share my passion for helping you to thrive mentally, physically, and spiritually. These three aspects of being comprise your energetic field and determine your holistic health.

Everything in our world vibrates and is comprised of energy which is part of a universal force that human beings are also a part of. This means that you vibrate and are interconnected with everyone. Thereby, your energetic field affects the collective.

Want a better world? The most critical thing you can do for yourself, your family, community, and the planet is to elevate your vibration and live a better quality of life. You do this by being the best mental, physical, and spiritual version of yourself.

We’re living in a time when quality of life rather than quantity of life has become our priority. The decision to address your quality of life requires radical honesty. This means no longer lying to yourself. It's time to admit that you would like to refine some aspect of your life.

Practicing radical honesty isn't easy. I’ve wrestled with it myself. There were many times when it would have been far easier to maintain the status quo with respect to my health, a relationship, professional situation, or living arrangement than to admit that I wasn't satisfied.

Last year, I was juggling client sessions, publishing articles and blogs, speaking engagements, research, marketing, and an inspirational book idea. Because the book was not a priority, I kept setting it aside. But the idea nagged at me like a horsefly in my bedroom.

I had to be radically honest: I wanted to write this book. It would never happen unless I committed to it. I chose to limit my speaking engagements and develop my manuscript.

Today, I have a full manuscript that I'm editing. Radical honesty led me to creative expression, upliftment, and to producing something that may one day help to elevate others. Without radical honesty, the book idea would have remained an unrealized desire.

Radical honesty rocks.

Will you allow radical honesty to elevate your vibe in this new year? Are you being radically honest with yourself about your level of mental, physical, or spiritual satisfaction? Will you finally accept your Self and act on your desire?

Please contact me if you are ready to rock 2023.

Be honest. 😉

How Grateful Are You?

How Grateful Are You?

by | Aug 29, 2019 | Health Coach, Wellness

"Gratitude is the Abracadabra of the universe."
-Adironda, Marilyn Harper

It was crowded on the Canal Street subway platform. I was waiting to take the Q train home after having dinner with a friend. It’s not unusual to find musicians performing in New York City’s subway system. But on this evening, I was greeted by a magician.

The magician performed his magic act in silence, except for an occasional “Abracadabra!” This invocation seemed to create magic. Seemingly out of nowhere, white, pink, and red roses appeared in the palm of his hand.

Watching his performance reminded me that I had been sensing magic, meaning unexpected positive happenings, in my life. While on the ride uptown, amidst the shuffling of people, announcements, and annoying tone alerting riders of the closing doors, I wondered what our “Abracadabra!” is. What creates magic for us?

I had recently been feeling deeply grateful for the opportunity to build my coaching business. Being creative and helping others thrive makes me feel complete. The answer hit me:

Feeling gratitude and no need for anything to be different is your "Abracadabra!".

In other words, gratitude produces the good vibes that generate abundance. Hence, the ability to manifest welcome happenings in your life is all about how grateful you feel. This revelation is a pretty big deal.

Our conditioning (see March blog post, “Who Am I?”) leads us to chase after how things should be rather than appreciate what is.

I’m as guilty of this lack of presence as any of my clients. It’s a behavior that I’ve consciously worked on and have made some progress with. In my July blog post (see “A Life You Don’t Need To Escape”), I wrote about my experience creating a life I am so present with that I don’t feel the need to break away.

The month of August leaves me feeling profoundly grateful for my family, health, friends, clients, life experiences, and opportunities for growth. That’s not to say that a disappointment or two hasn’t come up. When they occurred, I retreated to the beach for the afternoon. Inhaling the sea spray led me to the realization that there are lessons inherent in every situation. By the end of the day, being in nature helped me to understand what they were.

I moved towards even deeper gratitude.

Afterward, unexpected clients, publishers, friends, and even invitations to savor these final days of summer by the sea appeared.

One of those offers was irresistible. I’ll be away for the next few weeks, disconnected from electromagnetic devices, feet up, taking in a good book, the salt air, and feeling grateful.

Thank you to the magician and every person who has touched my life during the magical moments of the past year.

Abracadabra! 😉

Since ancient times, September has been viewed as the beginning of the spiritual new year by several different cultures. A sense of new beginnings is palpable. To book a private session with me in order to explore what gratitude can begin to manifest for you this fall, please go to Contact Me! on the right sidebar or below (depending on device).