Coaching

My favoritest thing about Amna is her dirty, dirty mouth. My next favoritest thing is how she sees into people’s hearts and zooms in on what they need, in a way that is full of acceptance and wonderfulness. Amna is hot. She’s also wise, wickedly funny, insightful and loving. If you have a chance to get help from her or do anything she’s even tangentially connected to, take it! —Havi Brooks, Pirate Queen at The Fluent Self

I am a fierce advocate for your You-ness.

You are the ultimate arbiter of what your life should look like.

You set the agenda, and I support you in getting there. Together, we decolonize and air out and fine-tune the beautiful, unique machine that is your hybrid life.

What happens?

My aim is to give you the support you need to make incremental changes and big, brave steps (when called for), all in service of arranging your life to suit you.

(By “suiting,” I’m not talking about making life fit your whims. I mean nothing less than uncovering the understandings and symbols and structures that will support you in your mission – whatever that might be, and even if you don’t know what it is yet.)

Here are a few examples of clients & work I love. (NB: names and particulars have been changed for privacy.)

Client Aisha was about to shack up with her (secret) boyfriend of five years. Who was not of the Approved Religion. Or the Approved Race. She wanted to figure out how to break the news to her conservative parents (and simultaneously come out as heterosexual), and how to negotiate the ensuing drama and emerge from the other side feeling good about herself.

We worked on the internal stuff first – how she is well-equipped to make life decisions for herself. How every creature, from the humble beetle on up, has the right to choose its own mate, and she deserves no less. How she has rights, goddammit, and she is allowed to arrange her life to be with the person she loves.

Then we came up with concrete, life-saving strategies. For how to prepare herself for the difficult conversation. How to actually have the difficult conversation, and how to stay in touch with herself and be her own friend, no matter what the response. How to deal with the aftermath, and settle into her new life gracefully and with the confidence of knowing she’s doing what’s best for her.

Aisha moved in with her guy, and faced up to her fire-breathing family like a woman. As expected, they did not take it well, but she set the terms of the interaction and came out with her dignity and self-respect intact, and now has techniques for talking to herself and to others about her relationship, and the happy understanding that she’s the boss of her life.

Client Beth had a thriving online business when we met. She also had a secret identity: by night, she was a masked writer!

The question at hand was essentially one of identity. She wanted to be both, out loud: a writer and a business person.

But she didn’t know how to define these two aspects of work. And whether creating a distinct online home for her Writer Self would dilute the brand, and the customer base, of her existing business.

She wanted to create a separate section of her brand for her writing life. But she was deterred after she got some expert advice to keep it all together, since she was already big in her business niche.

I helped her figure out the essence of what she really wanted when she thought of distinguishing these two aspects of her identity. And we discovered ways to meet this need. She saw that she really did want to follow her desire to separate the two, regardless of feedback to the contrary, and got at what was holding her back from moving on it.

She went on to create her writing website, and to stock it with all the juicy Beth-ness that didn’t fit on her other site. Now she has two sites, with clear boundaries (formulated by her), about what happens where. Even better, she has a welcoming home for each of her ventures. And that meets her need to define herself for herself.

Client Abby was in a dull and annoying job that kept her going, but she was an artist and had Several Large Dreams related to her creativity and helping others with theirs. She came to me to figure out how to make a viable arts-based business of these dreams.

My work with Abby was mostly on the internal. She’s perceptive and brilliant (as my clients tend to be), and there’s no lack of vision in her head. We did do some nuts-and-bolts brainstorming about business models and experiments. But what she needed more, and what I was thrilled to provide, was clearly seeing who she is and what she’s capable of. And reflecting that seeing back to her.

Which is completely obvious to anyone who talks to her for two seconds. It was no work at all to get on board with her dreams, because they were so beautiful and so her. This clear-eyed support for her Abby-ness turned out to be just the grease the wheel needed, because it started turning and hasn’t stopped since. She caught fire with ideas and gumption, and immediately started implementing and making huge progress in making the business she’d dreamt of.

This is the way for so, so many of us. We get trained to not take our desires seriously. And to believe that we’re not powerful enough or important enough to make them happen.

But we are. You are. And I am delighted to help you get this.

Is this you?

You are curious, brave, smart, willing to laugh and willing to stretch. You are fascinated by what makes you go.

You are open to new ways of doing things. You are not wedded to any particular ideology – “whatever works” is a philosophy you can get behind.

You will put in the time and work and love.

How I Can Help

I’ve done a lot of this stuff for myself, in my own life. I’ve also trained as a Meaning Coach with Eric Maisel (because what’s bigger than Meaning, really?), and study with Barbara Sher every chance I get.

We’ll figure out what works for you (YOU, the unique and fantastical creature that has never existed before and never will again), with curiosity and compassion.

I will not rah-rah you or push you to make leaps you don’t want to make. I will ask you to bring your heart and your courage, to support you and be your friends on this worthy adventure.

We will not be trying to change who you are so you can fit into some pre-determined mold. We will devise paths that suit your natural complexity and meet the needs of the particular being you are.

If I’m talking to you, maybe you’d like to know how to work with me.

What happens next?

Single Session/$200

Package of 4 sessions/$700

Once you’ve completed the payment process, I’ll email you with the link to my calendar, where you can choose your appointment times. Each session is 60 minutes.

If you’re getting a package of multiple sessions, it’ll work out best if you book all of your sessions right away. Since I only do a certain number of sessions a month, and my calendar is open to anyone who’s ready, by booking all of your sessions now, we’ll be able to avoid big gaps between sessions and make consistent happy momentums.

On this same scheduling site, you’ll get my phone number, and send me a note about what’s on your mind. We’ll use this as an entry point in our work together.

You’ll call me at the appointed time. If the tech faeries permit, I’ll record our call and send you an mp3 after the session. This recording will not be shared with anyone else.

Nice things clients say about me

“One of the best things about our sessions has been the amazing energy level I’ve experienced from talking with you. As soon as I get off the phone I’m bursting with ideas and motivation, and I have to write it all out for a good half hour. In fact I have a hard time falling asleep after we talk because I am just so excited about getting to work on my projects!

I’ve found that one great thing about the way you coach people is your ability to see connections between the various elements of a situation, and bring them all together to come up with a big picture. I also got the sense that you’ve experienced a lot of the same obstacles and setbacks that I have – both internal and external – because your response was very understanding and compassionate whenever I expressed some anxiety or hesitation. And you were great at giving me the right amount of encouragement and accountability without it being at all overwhelming.

Having your support on my projects has made a huge difference in the amount of work I get done and the goals I manage to achieve, not to mention the extent of what I see as possible. Since we started working together I have set up a blog and maintained a regular creative practice which gets recorded on the blog. With your help I’ve also created a structure for a class that I’ll be offering very soon, and I’ve also had a few more business ideas grow out of our sessions. In other words, my business and my creative practice have really grown with your help.”

-Sarah Bairstow, www.artfulplay.com

“You didn’t tell me to focus on just one thing. You respected my being a hybrid, and did NOT ask me to narrow this down. You did not ask me to focus. I want to do it all!

I don’t want to work with anyone who wants me stop being faceted. I want to work with someone who will encourage me to go in the many different directions I want to go in.

You really honored that I have lots of different things I want to do with my business and my life, and helped me put it all together.

Your style is direct, yet gentle, and so insightful I hang up thinking “wha? How did that even happen?” (in a totally clarifying way).”

-Tara Swiger, www.taraswiger.com

“Amna’s intuitions are right on the mark. Even when I was exhausted from spending the weekend doing difficult technical writing while losing my job, Amna pierced right through the fog in my brain. She managed to find the areas that were hiding important bits of information, and was invaluable in strategic brainstorming. And the best thing? She doesn’t say things like “Pick one thing and stick to it.” Amna is a quick-witted and compassionate listener, who’ll help you get things going by paying attention to ALL the things you find important.”

-Maartje Gorte, www.playyourwordsright.com

Four-session packages are good for 60 days from the date of purchase. If you must cancel or reschedule your appointment, please let me know at least 72 hours (3 days) in advance. This time is reserved for you, and you are responsible for full payment for any session cancelled, missed, or rescheduled within 72 hours of the appointment.