by Marianna Lamare

Created on: February 20, 2009   Last Updated: February 24, 2009

Over a year ago, I was just beginning weekly life-coaching sessions with Clint Pardoe, full of anticipation to work on my self, to create a better life where I would feel more fulfilled and confident. I had always thought life coaching was for younger, college students seeking help with careers; my own son had benefited greatly from three years of coaching help. As a mid-life woman in my fifties, I entered into the one-year commitment unsure of what to expect.

First, allow me to explain the difference between life coaching and psychotherapy, as I perceive it to be. Therapy involves more intrinsic inner work, dealing with childhood wounds, family dynamics, and personal problems. Life coaching, on the other hand, is more focused on the extrinsic, the behavioral outcomes of deep-seated desires and life purposes.

For me, both approaches complemented each other very well. I found a middle ground where boundaries dissolved, life coaching melding into inner work with results of therapy in the outer world as well.

Using self-awareness from my years of therapy and Buddhist practice brought me to the table of life coaching eager to start. However, life coaching is a great way to begin without any prior experience, and I highly recommend the process to anyone who feels they could use some support in making positive and meaningful changes in their life.

To quote Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet, "Whatever we are given is enough, enough, and more than enough. Don't you see? We no longer sit stitching this robe together, now we stay up all night, pulling the tracery apart." Before I could reinvent my life, I needed to see clearly what my essence was, the difference between my abundant and survival states, what I truly desired in life, how to go about being accountable to myself, and see the patterns and habits that I used to sabotage my goals. I needed to take myself literally apart and examine each area of my psyche so that I could understand how I functioned and what kept me from living my best life.

I've had a lot of success in my life as an educator - teaching subjects from special education, regular education, and now art. I've written and received numerous grants, had art shows, even written a song and a book (both unpublished as yet, but will be!), but somehow I've always felt like I've been spinning my wheels, never quite doing what I truly wanted. Deep down, I've always had a yearning for something more; and, as I discovered during life coaching, I believe that it has

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