Heather Shaughnessy-Cato, MA

Self-Compassion, Coaching & Embodied Well-Being | Maine

Frameworks

Prioritize your well-being, drawing from a range of evidence-based approaches and wisdom traditions.

I draw from a range of evidence-based practices and wisdom traditions and enjoy sharing the context for these practices, and the science and research which support their efficacy. I also enjoy encouraging each client and participant to creatively engage in a process of self-discovery and growth, and to apply learnings to their lived experience while also honoring their values, worldview, and goals. The services I provide are not therapy and I am not a licensed therapist. Rather, I help individuals and groups apply these frameworks for greater well-being and flourishing.

Well-Being Coaching

A reflective and action-oriented process for well-being.

While we typically think of health and well-being as relating to the physical body, it actually encompasses 8 areas:

  • Physical
  • Intellectual
  • Emotional
  • Spiritual
  • Occupational
  • Social
  • Financial
  • Environmental
Image from SAMHSA.gov

In assessing your current level of well-being, you might consider some of the following:

  • Physical well-being: How is your physical health – including movement or exercise, nutrition, and sleep and rest? What routines help to support you feeling your best?
  • Intellectual well-being: How satisfied are you with your current level of intellectual engagement, creative endeavors, opportunities to expand your thinking, engage with new perspectives, or learn new skills?
  • Emotional well-being: How satisfied are you with your ability to manage stress? What practices do you engage in to deepen self-awareness and self-compassion, or to connect with optimism, meaning, flourishing, and joy?
  • Occupational well-being: How satisfied are you with your work roles – those that are paid and unpaid? How do you define meaningful and sustainable work? What goals do you have for professional growth, to embark on new projects or roles, or to connect with purpose and fulfillment?
  • Social well-being: How are you feeling about your connections with others? How do you experience your community? In what ways are you giving and receiving care and support from others?
  • Spiritual well-being: How satisfied are you with the ways you connect with the values, beliefs, and rituals that matter most to you? How do you explore life’s big questions and/or connect with awe or wonder?

With these questions in mind, where would you like to focus to enhance your well-being and satisfaction with your life?

I offer well-being coaching, which is a holistic, evidence-based approach centered on making progress toward goals that you define. This includes exploring values and priorities, refining your vision for well-being in one or more dimension of wellness, setting goals, and making incremental progress toward those goals.

I hold a number of wellness-related coaching certifications (Health and Wellness; Well-Being; Integrative Health; Yoga Coaching) and integrate tools and practices for holistic well-being into coaching and workshops.

Resources to learn more about wellness and well-being:

Self-Compassion

The art and science of treating ourselves like a good friend.

Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is an empirically-supported training program designed to cultivate the skill of self-compassion for personal growth, developed by Chris Germer and Kristin Neff.

Self-compassion involves being caring and supportive to ourselves:

  • Listening to ourselves with understanding
  • Remembering we are not alone in our struggles
  • Soothing and comforting ourselves in the midst of stress
  • Making changes out of self-love and a commitment to growth. 

Rather than adding to our to-do list, the practice of self-compassion incorporates tools and perspectives to employ on-the-spot anytime, anywhere. Compassion is considered to be an energizing emotion, and can help us to feel more connected with others and with our own inner resources and wisdom. 

I am a Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher, and incorporate self-compassion tools and practices to build the skill of self-compassion into coaching, private training, and workshops.

More information about MSC:

Designing Your Life

Explore new perspectives and creative solutions when feeling stuck.

Many of us experience life transitions — planned and unplanned, periods of feeling stuck, and changes within ourselves, at work, and in our communities. 

Designing Your Life (DYL), also called Life Design, is based on the work of Stanford Professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The Life Design framework applies the design-thinking process to our own lives — meeting challenges and uncertainty with more flexibility and creativity, and practical strategies for flourishing.

Explore life’s wicked problems: Explore the meaning of life and work (for you); Re-design your day to enhance balance and energy; Reflect on life roles and what aspects resonate most for you; Frame solvable problems; Engage in creative brainstorming; Prototype life’s possibilities; Learn from failure; and more!

Bias to Action: Identify small, actionable, affordable steps to build your way forward. Test out your ideas in real life, in low-risk ways. Like a designer, approach life with a creative, iterative approach, learn along the way, collaborate with others, be curious — and have fun.

Start where you are: Life design is possible, no matter your starting point.

I am a Certified Designing Your Life Facilitator and Coach. I infuse Designing Your Life tools into coaching. I also offer facilitation for groups and organizations with my colleagues at Fieldbrook Advising.

More information about DYL:

Mindfulness

Bring kind, curious awareness to your experience in the present moment.

Mindfulness, or balanced, present moment awareness, can bring a sense of grounding and dramatically enhance our self-awareness.

I have trained to teach Mindfulness through the Nalanda Institute’s Mindfulness & Contemplative Psychotherapy certificate program, and through my graduate studies in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I incorporate mindfulness into coaching, private training and workshops.

Learn more:

Yoga

A contemplative practice for healing, integration, connection and kindness.

Yoga = to unite. Yoga offers an opportunity to listen deeply to our minds, bodies and hearts, to cultivate present moment awareness, and to play with embodying mindfulness and self-compassion.

I teach yoga with an intention to help others reconnect with themselves in body, mind and heart.

I integrate yoga into coaching, support others to further refine and customize their yoga practices through personal training, and integrate yoga into workshops.

I also teach yoga on Mondays at 8 am through Jai Yoga, am a regular sub at Sundara Yoga, and offer community based workshops with yoga, mindfulness, and compassion-based practices.

These frameworks are intended for personal growth and development, and are not to be used in place of mental health support, counseling, or therapy.

Contact Me

Copyright Wholehearted LLC – All rights reserved

Website Built with WordPress.com.