What Is a Holistic Life Coach?

Most coaching starts with a goal. You name the thing you want, and the work is the distance between here and there.

That works right up until the goal is not the problem.

A holistic life coach works with the whole person rather than one isolated problem. Instead of treating a career decision, a relationship pattern and a self-worth issue as three separate projects, holistic coaching looks for the single thing underneath all three, and works there. It usually turns out to be one thing.

What Does a Holistic Life Coach Actually Do?

The word holistic gets used loosely, so here is the concrete version.

When you bring a problem to me, we do not stay on the surface of it. We look at what you believe underneath what you say you believe, when you decided it, which is almost never in adulthood, how it shows up in your body, because a belief you have not resolved keeps speaking through the nervous system, and what it costs you now in the specific relationships and decisions in front of you.

Then we work at the level where it was formed rather than the level where you think about it.

The practical difference: a conventional coach helps you leave the job. A holistic coach asks why you keep choosing that kind of job, and works on that, so the next one is different.

How Is Holistic Coaching Different From Regular Life Coaching?

Conventional life coaching starts with the goal you name, works with now and forward, measures progress by action taken, and uses accountability, planning and strategy. It fails you when the block is not conscious.

Holistic coaching starts with the pattern underneath the goal, works with now and the age the pattern formed, measures progress by whether the thing stopped repeating, and uses belief work, forgiveness work and developmental age work. It is more than you need when all you wanted was a plan.

Neither is better. They are built for different problems. If you know what you want and need structure to go get it, conventional coaching is the right tool and it is cheaper. If you have made the plan three times and watched yourself not do it, the plan was never the issue.

How Is Holistic Coaching Different From Therapy?

Therapy is clinical work, delivered by a licensed clinician, and it treats diagnosable conditions. Coaching is not that, and I am not a therapist.

What I do is work with people who are functioning well and still stuck in a repeating pattern. In practice the useful distinction is direction: therapy often works on healing what happened to you, and holistic coaching works on what you are building now, with the past included because it is still operating.

If you are in crisis, or you think you may be dealing with a diagnosable condition, a licensed clinician is the right first call. Those two things also work well alongside each other, and plenty of my clients do both.

Who Is Holistic Coaching For?

It tends to suit people who have already done real work on themselves. Readers. People who have been to therapy, who know their attachment style, who can explain their own pattern accurately, and who are quietly frustrated that none of that made it stop.

The presenting issue is usually one of these:

• The same kind of relationship, again, with a different person
• Self-worth that does not match the life they have actually built
• Saying yes when they mean no, then resenting it
• A decision they have been circling for a year
• A version of themselves that only appears around family

What Happens in a Session?

We start with what is live right now rather than a history intake. From there we trace the pattern to where it formed, work with the belief underneath it, and do the forgiveness work that lets the part of you carrying it stop carrying it.

I draw on Spiritual Psychology, which I studied at the University of Santa Monica, on ThetaHealing, which I have been certified in since 2005, and on DreamBuilder coaching from the Life Mastery Institute. You will not need to know which one is being used. It is one conversation.

Sessions are available in person in Santa Rosa or online. Single sessions begin at $250, and longer coaching packages are on the coaching page.

Where Do You Work From?

In person in Santa Rosa, and online with clients anywhere. Locally that includes Windsor, Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Sonoma, Napa, Novato, San Rafael and San Francisco.

How Do I Start?

If you recognise yourself in any of this, start with a conversation rather than a purchase. You can book a free soul aligned call here.

If you already know you want to begin, the Spiritual Psychology and Pendulum session is $250.

Common Questions

What does a holistic life coach do?

A holistic life coach works with the whole person rather than one isolated goal. Rather than treating a career question, a relationship pattern and a self-worth issue separately, the work looks for the belief underneath all three and addresses it at the level and age it formed.

What is the difference between a holistic life coach and a therapist?

Therapy is clinical work delivered by a licensed clinician and treats diagnosable conditions. Holistic coaching is not clinical treatment. It works with people who are functioning well but stuck in a repeating pattern, and it often works well alongside therapy rather than instead of it.

Do holistic life coaching sessions work online?

Yes. Sessions run the same way by video as they do in person, which makes it possible to work together whether you are in Santa Rosa, elsewhere in Sonoma County, or outside the area entirely.