Who is Michelle?
I became a certified Decision Coach through the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in 2010. After informally coaching for over 25 years, and working on the corporate side of education for over 35 years, I decided to make a career change and have a bigger impact.
I became a certified life and health coach in 2022. I also have my certification in thanatology, funeral pre-planner (more interesting than it sounds), and will be getting certified in crisis and trauma management. I believe that we should never stop learning!
I am also a qualified Stephen Minister. Stephen Ministers are lay church congregation members trained to provide one-to-one care to those experiencing a difficult time in life, such as grief, divorce, job loss, chronic or terminal illness, or relocation.
A short message...
We may not know each other...yet...but what I do know is that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are intricate, intriguing, and innovative. You have unique talents and innate abilities...skills and knowledge others may not have. And that makes you the kind of person I want to get to know and be inspired by. You may also be going through a period of feeling like you've lost control, that the world is spinning and you just don't know how to stop it for one minute so you can just breathe.
We all have seasons when it feels like life is mercilessly beating us down, and we feel alone and isolated. As a coach, I work with clients by helping them to put together a toolbox of strategies to find balance and regain control when everything seems so out of control.
As a storyteller, I encourage clients to find meaning to the things that happen. They find their voice and speak out for themselves, for others, or for a cause. Being able to articulate your thoughts and feelings, your challenges and pain, will help others understand and be able to offer you the support you need.
Storytelling and coaching may seem like different functions….and that’s correct. But that’s also incorrect.
So why do I offer both?
Storytelling can provide insight and understanding. It provides powerful metaphors and images, creating new ways of looking at things and interpreting events. By sharing stories, clients can see what happened, how things could be done differently, and are more open to making changes. And that’s when coaching comes in. Coaching is not therapy. It’s not about trying to fix the past. It’s about moving forward, setting goals, making decisions and creating your future.