Welcome to The Essential Coach

I am grateful to my Web Developer Edison Leon who worked with me on building my new site. He is a rare and special person who made the process easy and enjoyable.

I want to tell you a story about WHY I created this new service, The Essential Coach.

I founded ShiftShape Coaching in February, 2002 to guide individuals through their career journeys. The last couple of years I moved away from coaching and I was concentrating on other things.

Then one day this past January I had a lovely dinner with two friends and things seemed pretty normal.  We left the restaurant and as we were driving down this dark country road we heard a very loud boom.  Not knowing what it was, my friend kept driving even though the back windshield blew out entirely. I had shards of glass all over me since I was seated in the back seat.  I realized that the roof was an inch away from my head and I was bent down in my seat. We pulled over and I got out of the car to inspect the damage.  It was a tree limb that had come crashing down and smashed my friend's car. She later had to purchase a new car.

No one could believe that someone could walk away without a scratch like I did. People kept saying that it was a miracle and God saved me.  But I felt like this was more of a wake-up call.  I knew God was telling me to do something.  I remember my mother used to say, "what do you need a house to fall on you?" In this case it was a tree.

I answered the call and focused on coaching again. I chose the image of a tree in a beautiful lavender field where only one path bears fruit. That is how I see the process of coaching. There are many paths to choose but the one where you do the work with a coaching partner renders the one that grows.