FAQs

Each session is a conversation with a strong, consistent arc that promotes insight, clear decision-making, and action. It starts with a review and reflection on your progress toward your goals from the previous session. You set the agenda for the discussion by telling me upon what you would like to focus.

We will explore the issues through a process of skilled inquiry. You will assess what the inquiry has revealed for you and set goals based on what you have discovered and where you want to go from there. 

We work together to set substantial, achievable goals before the next session. I will hold you accountable for goals when we next meet – you can count on it!

Well, yes – But not really. 

Yes, every coaching session ends with an agreement about the action steps that you will take before the next session. 

No, I don’t “assign homework” to my clients the way I assigned essays to my history students. Clients design the action steps and assign a specific number to themselves before the next session. I have worksheets and exercises to offer if and when those assignments fit your discernment process or action plans. 

I do hold clients accountable for keeping the commitments that they make to themselves and their process. But I don’t assign grades.

One of the hallmarks of coaching is that you, the client, are the expert on your own life and the navigator of your process. As your coach, I am your ally on the journey (who knows how to pave the path to make it more pleasant and efficient to travel). 

The tools that I use to pave the path depend entirely on the roads you decide to travel. You can count on one thing – we will stick to evidence-based methods. Some of the ones that come into use most often include the following: 

Positive psychology is a practice of focusing on your positive emotions and existing strengths to support change and enduring fulfillment. Psychologist Martin Seligman developed this as a therapeutic technique. The coaching profession adapted some of its tools to help clients see beyond the obstacles to their vision that tend to be more apparent.

Cognitive-behavioral exercises help identify the automatic thoughts that create self-limiting mindsets and test their validity against the weight of evidence. Over time, this guided inquiry tends to weaken the hardened mindsets that keep you feeling stuck. 

Clean language techniques unpack the layered meanings in the words and metaphors you use to talk about your present concerns and your desires for the future. This precision of thought and fullness of expression helps catalyze deep and meaningful self-directed change toward a clearly defined vision. The more clearly you articulate what you want, the better your chances are of attaining it.

Appreciative inquiry works against our bias toward the negative to encourage you to identify and develop the areas working in your life. Studies show that this tends to bring quick early gains that build confidence for the more challenging legs of the coaching journey. Therefore, you can make significant gains and build your confidence more quickly. 

I use assessments very sparingly and with clarity of potentially benefitting each client’s coaching process. Assessments that give names to certain tendencies and characteristics can be illuminating. Often, however, they act as labels that become restrictive constructs within one’s mindset. 

I discourage clients from labeling themselves.

That is exactly the question I would be asking too, so I wish to give you a firm answer. Your process is unique to you and depends on the number and complexity of your goals, your consistent commitment to the work, and how those goals change as you discover new things about yourself and your true desires for your life. 

Some people accomplish simple, straightforward goals in six sessions (1-2 months). A more typical number of sessions is 12 (about 5 months). Some people choose to stay in coaching longer if they want to work on several areas. A transformative series of goals can take a year or more of work.

Here is what I can tell you with certainty: 

Coaching is results-oriented and designed to be efficient. 

Coaching is client-centered, meaning that you can continue sessions for as long as you have goals you want to address, and we will stop when you have attained what you were seeking through coaching. You can always return to coaching in the future if you want. 

Your process is unique. I will respect its natural duration and endpoint.

I trained at the Institute for Life Coach Training and am board certified by the National Center for Education and Credentialing. 

I am also an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. 

And I draw from two decades of experience as a professor, academic advisor, early career mentor, and a pre-historic (in the “before graduate school” sense) career as a mental health paraprofessional and crisis intervention counselor. 

I stay up to date with continuing education from experts in new, promising, evidence-based coaching techniques that give my clients the best of what coaching has to offer.

Oh, absolutely. Who better to do this when you think about it? Historians are gifted at tracing currents and spotting patterns. And we have a wealth of historical figures’ experience to draw upon for role models. And this particular historian is a board-certified coach. 

Nope. I research and publish as a member of two grant-funded interdisciplinary research teams as an independent scholar. Through my sister company, Vantage Point Research and Consulting, I conduct research, write for academic and public audiences, serve as a consultant to public history museums, and make historical documentaries. So I am still in touch with my roots and I know what it’s like out there. 

Of course. That’s how I came to see that my career choices were not “either/or” but “both/and.” Instead, the question to ask was, “So hey, Professor, how do you want to do things differently?” 

It took a lot of work, but I radically transformed my life in less than a year, and I’m not looking back.