ABOUT ME
I guide professionals through transition points in their careers towards feeling agentic, confident and capable so that their work can become aligned with who they are and the impact they want to make in the world.
I believe work doesn't have to be a draining necessity that causes stress and overwhelm. Our work can become a vessel of expression of our talents, beliefs and values that nourishes us and the world.
We have more choices and capacity in our lives than we think. We are agentic, live players that have the power to design and experience our work serving us on our life journey. I know how it feels because I've been there!
When I was working my corporate job in 2019, I put work in the center of my life.
Where I lived was about my work, my weekdays were spent either being at work or commuting and weekends were about work coming up on Monday. There wasn't any room for me in my life. More than that, I didn't know who I was and why I was doing what I was doing. I was unhappy, overwhelmed and stuck not knowing what choices I had or what I could do.
The pivotal moment in my life was going on a road trip through the southwest USA and climbing up and down a gigantic rock in the heart of Zion. In a moment of crazy trust in the universe and myself, I realized that if I could do that climb I could do anything, so I came back home and quit my job. Something deeper needed to be addressed than a change of environment so instead of jumping to another job I spent the next two months reflecting by the ocean and digging deep into my fears of failure, beliefs of who I am and who I should be, how I've lived my life and how I want to live it from now on.
The realization that changed my life was seeing the way that I had put work in the center of my life, with everything else (including me) orbiting around it instead of putting myself in the center and having work be an expression of who I am and what I want to create in my life. Recognizing this changed my life.
I discovered coaching serendipitously;
all because of my insatiable thirst for constant learning and growing.
During the retreat, I wanted to take a course and decided that a coaching certification would at least teach me useful personal skills on this self-discovery journey. What I didn't count on was how much I would fall in love with the mix of problem solving, sharing of knowledge and working directly with people wanting to live their best lives.
I am a big believer in prototyping and trying things out to gather data before diving right into something. After taking the course, I tried out running a couple of workshops with friends. I loved them. Wanting to gather more information and experience one-on-one coaching, I reached out to a couple of people from those workshops and, with transparency of starting a new business and trying things out, I offered them three free sessions. About a third of those people stayed on as paying clients and helped me to grow my work into what you're seeing here and now.
Being a coach has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life to date. That's probably why I still do it and love it as much as I do. Coaching has meant giving up the perception of a stable income and choosing to be a novice over and over again. It has meant facing my fears of inadequacy and failure, understanding how to create and keep boundaries and trusting in the process of learning and growing. It has also meant changing people's lives on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. I would not change a moment of it.
More than anything in the world, I love experiencing people seeing that they have more power, choice and agency in their life than they ever thought possible and witnessing them live their lives true to themselves.
SOME LOVE FROM MY CLIENTS
Mary is insightful, kind and thoughtful. She creates an open and sharing environment.
What I liked most about our calls was how deep and well calibrated her questions were. Both enjoyable and very insightful. The coaching sessions gave me insight in three areas of my life: my motivations, future plans and structures I impose on myself. I felt I had a space where I could just talk about thoughts I rarely share with people. This was very freeing.
Mary was great with her warmth, asking the right questions and genuine curiosity, balanced with great critical thinking.
Ago L.
When I started working with Mary I felt a lot of tightly packed emotions and thoughts that would swirl around my head. These narratives and emotions made self-reflection and problem-solving difficult.
When Mary brought up the image of a tightly wound ball of yarn, and how we could work to pull the pieces from the ball one at a time, I identified with the image. I no longer feel that certain subjects are tight balls of yarn but are past narratives that are still with me but are loose, and translucent. I can see them and work to rewrite them in a more positive and valid way.
I would recommend Mary to anyone looking for more clarity and groundedness as they pursue their goals.
Shirley B.
I used to feel burnout in my job and suffer from a complete lack of motivation for learning new things.
After working with you I found the strength to say no to things I didn't really want to do, I learned how to set more long term goals and how to focus on reaching those.
Thank you for the patience and the support. I would recommend anyone who needs some clarity and focus in their lives to work with you!
Tereza I.