Coaching

Coaching with Heather Shaughnessy-Cato

Take a kind, experimental approach to meeting challenges in everyday life: transitions, changes in priorities, feeling unfulfilled, feeling out of balance, feeling stuck, managing stress, self-criticism, or self-doubt.

With individual coaching, we focus on your goals and agenda. I delight in being your thought-partner and sounding board:

Helping you see and hear yourself more clearly and with more compassion
Incorporating relevant tools and practices to generate insights and new solutions
Partnering with you to help put those insights into action
Helping you to connect with motivation rooted in kindness, rather than criticism.

My overall goal is to help you to feel more at home and empowered in your life.

Coaching is designed to help you:

Clarify your values, priorities and goals.
Learn more about what’s working well for you and where you are stuck.
Engage in problem solving to work with barriers to progress.
Shift beliefs and behaviors in service of greater balance and flourishing.
Find greater alignment with your priorities in your daily life.
Have access to helpful resources (links to meditations, reflection questions, worksheets, articles, podcasts, etc).
Take designated time and space for you to be seen, heard and supported on a regular basis.

Learn skills and tools to take beyond the coaching process.

As a part of coaching, we can draw from any of the frameworks that are of interest to you. I will share a range of skills and resources you will bring beyond coaching to integrate as your needs shift. Tools and practices include options such as:

Self-Compassion

Practical ways to engage in kinder self-talk
Strategies to soothe and comfort yourself in the midst of difficulty
Ways to bring more understanding to yourself and your experience
Techniques to bring more skillfulness to meeting and working with difficult emotions
Practical and sustainable ways to treat yourself like you would a good friend.

Mindfulness

Practices to cultivate greater presence and clarity
Grounding exercises for more balance in intense moments
Habits to appreciate the good things in life
Ability to notice, name, and work with thoughts, feelings, and body sensations
Ability to bring greater awareness to habitual patterns and lessen reactivity.

Yoga

Learn practices to meet your needs in the moment: for relaxation, for greater energy, and/or greater focus.
Learn to more reliably cultivate emotional and mental balance.
Learn poses and sequences for any location: in a chair, on a mat, while standing; and for any length of time (including just 1-2 minutes of practice!)

Designing Your Life

Explore a variety of tools and practices to think more expansively and creatively, and for greater insight into what resonates for you
A method to take action with lower risk and greater confidence
Practical design strategies to enhance balance and energy in daily life.
Learn the art of reframing to open space for innovation.

Integrative Health

Tools to clarify your vision for well-being
Learn key elements of adopting helpful habits, based on the science of motivation and change
Establish practices and habits to feel more supported in daily life.

When might you seek coaching?

When you are ready to make a change to enhance your physical, emotional, mental or spiritual well-being and would like support in the process.
When you wish to add perspectives, tools, and skills to “do life better” (one of my favorite phrases from the Ten Percent Happier podcast).
When finishing work in therapy and wanting support to continue with personal growth; Or comfortably in the midst of therapy and looking to add coaching, self-compassion, mindfulness or yoga to enhance your personal growth and development.

Working together & Pricing

Available as virtual sessions (Zoom) or in-person in Brunswick, Maine.
Coaching begins with a 3-month commitment for new clients.

Rates

$650 for 3 months of coaching / 6 coaching sessions

Two coaching sessions per month, for three months.
- One initial 90-minute strategy session
- Five 50-minute coaching sessions
This also includes relevant resources to support you in the process — worksheets, self-assessments, reflection questions, guided meditations, and guidance for customized practices.

After the initial three month commitment, you are welcome to continue in the coaching process. At that time we will set the next phase of commitment and frequency of sessions that will serve you, with similar per session pricing options.

Payment plans are available. Sliding scale rates are available upon request.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get started? Schedule a free 30-minute consultation to explore the possibility of working together, or send me a note (both options are below). In the consultation we will discuss what is bringing you to coaching, your goals, and how I may be of service.

When do you offer sessions? Typical availability for scheduling: Monday – Friday, 10 am – 3 pm. Appointments outside of these hours may be accommodated upon request.

Is this therapy? No, the coaching I provide is not therapy and I am not a licensed therapist. Therapy involves the application of the principles and procedures of counseling to assess and treat mental health concerns. Coaching does not involve diagnosis or treatment.

Coaching, instead, is a transformative process for personal and professional awareness, discovery and growth. Coaching focuses primarily on the present, in service of building a future more aligned with your values, interests, and goals.