Personalized, Confidential, and Systems-based 1:1 Coaching

Valerie creates and sustains spaces where the best collaboration and shared understanding is possible. She gave me courage by example that I could trod a path that would make it easier for others who come after.

Elaine A. Bretschneider
MA in Social Work

How can I help you?

​Through discussion-based virtual sessions, I will help you to understand your current situation, identify obstacles that cause you to feel stuck, and through guided exercises, help you find clarity. I will help you:​​
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• understand your environment
• make sense of roadblocks
• embrace your personal strengths
• realign your goals
• discover the unique path to a more rewarding life

I bring 30 years of client-centered advising and coaching experience, and a systems-based approach to my work. We will work together to understand the systems you are navigating, and uncover the personal strengths that you have in order to design a meaningful path for yourself.

What is a Systems-Based Approach?

​Often when one seeks coaching and mentoring, one is encouraged to reflect on personal strengths and weaknesses and craft a plan to improve oneself. My approach will recommend that we explore self-awareness and personal growth within a thoughtful assessment of the environment that you are immersed in. Identifying, describing, analyzing and understanding your surroundings (executing an environmental scan) will help you more accurately understand your challenges and design solutions that are realistic. This approach is influenced by Systems Thinking, a leadership model that recognizes that individuals operate within organizational systems that can foster or restrict both organizational and individual wellbeing. Whether you are beginning your career, at a crossroads, or a seasoned leader committed to executing compassionately and effectively in your organization, knowledge from a systems analysis can help you respond appropriately to the situations that you find yourself in. Additionally, utilizing meaningful frameworks drawn from feminist theory, critical race theory, and social transformation theories may also help you understand your journey.

What Clients Have Come to Me For

New and Early-Career Professionals

• Discovering where to begin with their professional journeys.
• Grounding confusion and feelings of a lost direction.
• Learning how to access and build their supportive networks.

​Mid-Career Professionals

• Understanding the challenges with their work environments.
• Overcoming roadblocks to their personal and professional growth.
• Reflecting on what they want to prioritize to live a fulfilling life.

Seasoned & Senior Professionals

• Building and sustaining positive working environments, cultures, and collaborations.
• Balancing time for self and care-giving with busy work commitments.
• Distilling their thought-leadership and experiences to help and mentor others.

​Specialized Coaching for Coaches & Consultants

• Helping coaches develop clarity and  understand their clients.
• Identifying personal blind spots that get in the way of effective management.
• Assisting consultants in understanding dynamics and systems that hinder innovative work.
• Understanding challenging clients.
• Helping leaders build insight in their organizations.

Valerie brings a fantastic combination of her counseling, leadership and organizational skills to her coaching work. She listens with real heart and has a finely honed ability to cut through the noise to identify underlying causes and patterns when you bring personal or professional challenges to her. As an experienced coach and consultant myself, I deeply respect her as a peer supervisor and coach's coach.

Mohan Sikka, CPCC, CGT (he, him)
Leadership Coach, Team Facilitator, Organizational Consultant

Get in Touch

[email protected]