About Kathy

So who am I and why should you hire me as your coach?

What do you plan to do with this one wild and precious life? I love this quote by Mary Oliver, because it’s one of the most important questions you’ll ever ask yourself and one you should revisit frequently. Well, what do you plan to do with this one wild and precious life? What are you doing with it now? Are you as happy and fulfilled as you want to be? As you could be? If not, why not? As the Nike ad says, just do it! It’s way past time to get going. Because in life, unlike the stage, there aren’t any dress rehearsals.

If the previous paragraph sounds like it has a sense of urgency to it, well, that’s because it does. A cancer diagnosis in 1999 turned my life upside down. In response, I did the same as I threw out everything that didn’t work, kept what did and went about reconfiguring my new life. My perspectives, how I coach and the person that I am today are due in large part to that frightening diagnosis.

Today, I am so excited about my life and about life in general, its possibilities, it’s challenges, its highs, its lows and all of its messiness. I want your life to be as exciting to you as mine is to me. Don’t let it take a life-threatening diagnosis to shake you out of your complacency. Following my diagnosis, I:

• Quit my secure job working in communications for the government
• Travelled to war-torn Sierra Leone, where I worked as an editor for a development agency
• Worked in Victoria as a freelancer, editing donor documents for international development agencies
• Spent three months sailing through the Caribbean and the Bahamas
• Helped build a house
• Worked and lived in Kabul, Afghanistan on a military base as an editor for the largest daily newspaper in Afghanistan
• Loved and lost
• Spent the last week of my mother’s life caring for her, at my sister and brother-in-law’s home
• Took sailing lessons
• Cycled through Italy and
• Completed The Coaches Training Institute’s co-active coaching curriculum and became an ICF certified life and business coach. 

And before the diagnosis?

Interesting stuff, but who are you and what about before the diagnosis?

One constant throughout my life has been a love of learning. I’m always taking courses and reading, reading, reading. You’ve heard about the life-long learner, well that’s me. I save fiction for beach vacations and spend the rest of the time reading autobiographies, biographies, anything about American politics I can get my hands on, as well as psychology, self-help books and books about human behaviour. One of my personal goals is to see as many presidential libraries as I can before I die. I’ve spent a day at the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan presidential libraries but could have spent a week at each. One of my great joys in life is sipping a latte while savouring The New York Times’ Sunday edition. My desire for new and novel experiences has created an addiction to travel, I’m afraid. If you know of a 12-step program for travel addicts, send an email my way, will you? I’m also a movie buff who loves hiking, cycling and sailing. I’m told I have a great sense of humour and if you hire me as your coach, I’m confident we’ll share a number of laughs along the way. Like my clients, I am a work in progress who sometimes struggles with the same things you might - maintaining a balanced life, seeing the forest instead of the trees and handling  challenging relationships and people in my life.

Career wise, I’ve had a variety of careers. I have a Bachelor of Social Work degree and a Master of Arts in Journalism. I started my working life as a social worker, worked with juvenile delinquents, emotionally, mentally and behaviourally disturbed youths before going into sales, where I worked for Xerox and then a publishing company. I’ve spent the last 18 years as a journalist, columnist and public relations' professional, working in Arizona, California, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and here in B.C. I’ve written speeches, planned events, done media relations, emergency communications, managed publications and worked on a royal visit. I worked on Prince Charles’, Harry’s and William's first overseas trip following the death of Princess Diana. (My ears are still ringing with the plaintive and sexually charged cries of young pubescent girls screaming, “William.” But that’s another story)

While I experienced many highs professionally – meeting princes, movie stars and ambassadors – a little voice inside me kept whispering, “What am I supposed to be when I grow up? What is my purpose?” That quiet but persistent voice kept me restless and antsy. I was egotistical enough to believe that my broad experiences, my love of learning, my fascination with human behaviour and being diagnosed with a terminal illness had to be for some higher purpose. It turns out I was right. The answer I sought for years was simple enough - coach.

Why I love coaching

There’s something magical that happens – and I don’t use that word lightly – when coach and client get together and hold a similar vision for the client. It reminds me of a quote by Johann von Goethe: “Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” And with all due respect to Mr. von Goethe, I’ve found that it also doesn’t hurt to have a coach by your side, who believes in you like no other and keeps your feet to the fire.

Although I don’t subscribe to a particular religion, I do believe that as spiritual beings having a physical experience we all have a purpose for being here. We are obliged and I  believe become happier once we discover our gifts, develop them and use them wherever they are needed. I believe the world is hungry for our talents and wants us to reveal our uniqueness, not hide it from the light. By gifts I don’t necessarily mean something that impacts the world in a big way, like finding a cure for cancer. (But wouldn’t it be nice if someone did?)  Gifts can be as seemingly simple as knowing how to comfort a frazzled senior in a bank lineup. Or as complex as doing a triple bypass. Simple or complex, all our gifts are needed now, as never before.

Who I love coaching

As a coach, I have the great honour and privilege of helping people discover and maximize their gifts and potential as well as find greater meaning in their lives. My varied experiences and background give me the ability to coach in a number of areas. I love, love, love working with people who are interested in squeezing every last ounce out of life and who are interested in making lemonade out of the lemons life serves them.  

I also feel compelled and am excited about devoting some of my practice to people who are going through their own dark night of the soul, as a result of a life threatening or terminal illness. I’ve been there, done that, and in addition to getting the lousy T-shirt that came with the experience, I’ve also gained a lot of insight on the journey called, “life after a life-threatening diagnosis.” I feel very confident about my ability to coach individuals making the transition from life “b.c.,” (before cancer) to life “a.c.”, (after cancer). In hindsight, I wish I had known about coaching when I went through the process of re-defining my life, as it would have helped me enormously.

Whoever you are, whatever your strengths and weaknesses and whatever your reason for visiting this website, I know that you’re already naturally creative, resourceful and whole. As a result of our working together, you’ll regain your passion for life in general and for your life in particular. In short, you’ll be excited about what you’re doing with your one wild and precious life. My role is to help you tap into your innate wisdom about how best to live your most fulfilling life. I’ll do that by helping you get in touch with your values and then by helping you map out a plan to ensure that you’re living them. What’s so important about living your values you ask? The end result of living the values that you hold dear, whether or not that results in keeping up with the Joneses, is that you’re happier with your life. And isn’t that what we all really want deep down, anyway? Best get started, because as I said earlier on, there aren’t any dress rehearsals. Even if you are a Buddhist and believe in reincarnation.