About Me

I am interested in systems that work – and that includes kick-ass relationships of all kinds, including the one between you and the Divine (which is actually the one between you and yourself, of course).

I believe life is always amazing, even when it hurts, because I see the journey as one big connected adventure in motion.

I believe that all of the experiences in our lives, from intimate relationships to job challenges to health issues are all designed to help us grow into our potential, into our most magnificent selves.

So no matter if clients come to me for trouble in their marriage, dissatisfaction with their career or money situation or even distressful health situations, it always comes back to a journey deeper into ourselves, reflected back onto our practical, physical world experiences and into our unique contribution, our fit into the whole. The real world challenges are communication to us, not punishment or rewards. This philosophy  is a big part of the Currency of Connection – the book and all of my programs. Read more here.

Life is happening through us, not to us.

Why I Coach

I love it when energy is flowing freely. It just feels better to my body.

You see, I have a gift of seeing/sensing/discerning energy and explaining the impact of that energy so that people can make conscious choices and really see themselves, sometimes for the first time in their lives. I am here to help people (and myself) interpret the puzzle pieces and integrate the “challenges” in real time, in the midst of real world experiences.

I have been coaching my whole life (ask my childhood friends), but getting paid for it since 1995. My practice has always been based on reading the sensations in our bodies and for the first few years I focused on executive leadership coaching and helping entrepreneurs fine-tune their dreams.  But over time, I realized that all coaching comes down to the same thing –relationships. Relationships of many kinds, but ultimately they all lead to the relationship we have with ourselves and with God, the Universe, Source, whatever Name you give It.

I believe life is not an “either/or” inquiry about separating our physical experience from a spiritual one, but rather a “both/and” journey about integrating the two, about living into the possibility of every moment and about unbending into the allowing of flow. So my coaching (and my life) is about how we can most gracefully and effectively create lives that are buoyant, brilliant and beautiful!

And I am very no nonsense in my commitment to that goal – for myself and for my clients!

My Story

I used to think the stork mis-delivered me late one night in northern Alabama just as the Civil Rights movement was heating up. He dropped me off to my somewhat Bohemian parents (hence the unusual first name) and to my very Southern, very well to do grandparents and a culture that was on the edge of big change. I did my stint in college, then my time at Woodstock, but eventually (like all serious pioneers) I headed west to live in a tipi for a few years, raise two amazing kids on a big, organic farm and successfully influence local and state politics regarding forest practices and pesticide use in Washington State. My willingness to embrace change so wholeheartedly has provided me some pretty unusual experiences that I wouldn’t necessarily suggest copying, but which do afford insight. So I suppose the stork knew what he was doing after all.

My past life has included several entrepreneurial adventures, leadership in more than a handful of non-profit organizations and program design for personal growth experiences at a variety of venues including my own summer camp for grown-ups and a real job at a major holistic retreat center. It was through four years of behind the scenes experiences there that I realized some of the most respected and affluent teachers in the world had issues with money, just like the rest of us.

In early 2010 I began exploring how we might better integrate this experience of flow and connection to our deeper truths through the world of money. And what a fascinating puzzle piece this has turned out to be!! I came to realize that money, like all relationships is simply another mirror for us to see ourselves, to grow into our most fulfilled selves.

My book, The Currency of Connection: How To Create an Exquisitely Kick Ass Relationship with Money was released early 2013. It is both an exploration about how money fits into the system of our human Being-ness and a guidebook of practical steps for how you can create a powerful and joyful relationship with money, in much the same way as you can create mutually fulfilling, kick-ass relationships with humans. I have also been teaching this material through a series of seminars such as “The Power of Enough” and “The Currency of Connection”.

As I move into this next phase of my own adventure, I find that I am more in love with life every day! I am dedicated to making life easier, more connected and more meaningful (for all of us)

Enough About Me…Now What About You?

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us.”

-Steven Pressfiled

If you are ready to tap into that joyfull, unlived life just waiting for you to claim, get in touch with me today to find out if Sympatico Coaching or the Currency of Connection Programs are right for you.

512-695-1257

More Conventional Bio

For those of you who might prefer the more convention bio, here that is:

I founded Sympatico Coaching in 1996, focusing primarily on entrepreneurs and high tech business executives.  When my clients taught me that people had forgotten how to play, I created Camp Camelot, a weekend summer camp getaway for Not-So-Grown-Ups.

I also worked 4 years as the Program Coordinator at The Crossings, a major holistic retreat center in Austin where I booked and managed contracts for best selling authors and created large events, such as the popular “What the Bleep” Conference and “Reimagining Ourselves: A Transformational Retreat for Women”.

Since moving to Austin, I have also served 10 years on the Board of Directors for Wisdom at Work, a local non-profit dedicated to bringing our whole Selves to work.  I was the Executive Director for this organization from 2010 – 2012.  I have also served on the Executive Board for Greater Austin Sports Association, the sports marketing arm of the Austin Chamber of Commerce and on the Board for the Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

In Washington State, I founded Nogie King Landscape Design, a Landscape Architectural firm with a focus on green building and eco-tourism and served by appointment to several political commissions there.  I was also on the Board for the Mt. Baker Watershed Protection Association and spoke numerous times to the Washington State legislature on pesticides and forest practices.

Currently, besides running my coaching practice and writing my book, I sit on the Board of Directors and run a bi-monthly teleseminar for the Global Sufficiency Network, an international organization which acts as a hub and resource center for those working toward a more humane and sufficient world. I also have presented at numerous events including the keynote at the Bioneers Conference in Salt Lake City in late 2011. See the Examiner.com article for more information about that event.