MY APPROACH TO COACHING

My Basic Approach
What We Can Focus On
Integrated Methods & Practices

No two clients are the same. Some are highly accomplished, others are just beginning. Some are confident and expressive and enjoy communicating; others are hesitant and feel disconnected or afraid. Wherever you are at this moment, our work together will be grounded in a shared sense of curiosity: What truly helps you?

Rather than follow a fixed path, we collaborate to clarify your needs and focus on what’s most useful—whether you're preparing a keynote, finding your voice, learning to feel more grounded in high-stakes moments, or something entirely different. The process is conceptual, experiential, and practical—and the emphasis changes as needed.

• Why Conceptual? Because how you understand something affects how you do it.

• Why Experiential? Because it’s not enough just to understand something. In order to learn something deeply, you also need to experience it directly.

• Why Practical? Because it’s important that our work is useful outside of the studio.

When we work one-on-one, an open dialogue between us (rather than a fixed road map) keeps our focus on your individual needs and what really helps you. This process is sometimes unconventional, often enjoyable, and surprisingly effective. See Testimonials.

What We Can Focus On

Most clients don’t fall neatly into just one of these three tracks — it’s natural for us to move fluidly between them:

Public Speaking & Other Communication

• Confidence: Transform fear and stress into strength and clarity.

• Improve Communication: develop your ability to communicate clearly, expressively, and effectively in a variety of contexts.

• Delivery / Presence: Cultivate vivid, grounded presence to engage and inspire.

• Content / Story: Simplify and clarify what you’re saying—and why it matters to you and to your audience.

• Preparation: Learn effective strategies for practicing speeches, presentations, lectures, pitches, trials, meetings, interviews, etc.

• Leadership: Become more aware of what hinders or supports your communication as a leader.

Voice

• Find Your Voice: Access your voice in healthy, expressive, open-hearted, and creative ways.

• Increase Vocal Power & Freedom: Strengthen your voice, reduce fatigue, and find resonance.

• Undo Harmful Habits: Heal or prevent issues like vocal nodules. This can be done in conjunction with medical professionals.

• Breathing & Embodiment: Discover how breath, body, and voice can become freer and more fluidly integrated.

• Personal Warm-Ups: Create warm-ups that support your specific needs.

• Integrate Physical Exercise and Voice: discover how exercise and Voicework can support each other.

Presence

• Nervous System Regulation: Shift out of fight/flight/freeze and into grounded responsiveness.

• Stress Relief: Learn practices to help you manage stress and anxiety — and use them in helpful, even supportive, ways.

• Charisma: Cultivate your natural charisma and feel more at ease when expressing yourself.

• Play & Pleasure: Reignite expressiveness through playfulness and enjoyment.

• Mindfulness & Self-Care: Develop sustainable practices that help you feel better and perform better.

Integrated Methods & Practices

Fitzmaurice Voicework®
To help you rediscover a free and powerful voice. An integrated approach that incorporates the body, breathing, presence, and effective communication. My main teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework is Catherine Fitzmaurice. I attended her very first teacher certification training in 1998.

Body-Mind Integration Techniques
To forge the critical connections between awareness, relaxation, and effective communication. Some of teachers and practices I’ve worked with include Kathy Kain (bodywork to support stress resilience); S. N. Goenka (vipassana meditation); Sandra Wells (embodiment practices); MBSR Program (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction).

Role Playing and Improvisation
To practice communicating in the contexts that are relevant to you--without the pressure. This can help you prepare for specific events as well as address specific aspects of communication that you need to develop in. Because the learning environment is safe and clear, what you learn becomes more digestible and applicable to the outside world. My main teacher was Richard Seyd who developed his innovative stretch work. I worked with Richard for several years and taught his work in group classes for many years afterwards.

Process Consulting (Organizational Development)
To help you or your organization get from A to B. The hallmark of process consulting is the realization that moving effectively towards goals requires a fluid process that takes into account what is really happening (not only what we want to happen). Using this work, I help clients clarify what is most important to them and help them get there. My main influence was the late, great process consultant and conflict resolution specialist, Peter Chipmann (former COO of Digital Equipment Corporation). I worked with Peter for 8 years in organizational development and conflict resolution.

"Bridges" to Performance
To help performers find accessible connections between the work we do in the studio and the work outside the studio: auditions, shoots, rehearsals, live performance, recording, warmups, etc. One of my major influences in this area is the great acting teacher, Stuart Rogers. I studied with Stuart for several years and taught alongside him at his studio in North Hollywood, California.

Physical Activity/Movement/Exercise
To integrate our work into the activities you engage in regularly--everything from working out to writing at a desk. This leads to a much deeper and wider integration of the material we work on. Some of the teachers and programs I’ve worked with include Chad Allen (Foundation Training for back health); TRX certification; Monika Tarkowska-Carter (fitness), and Michael Casey (fitness and recovery), Stacy Barrows (Feldenkrais meets physical therapy), and Maria Cristina Jimenez (yoga and Rolfing meet occupational therapy).

Games and Clown
To bring enjoyment, ease, and spontaneity into the process of learning and into what you take outside of the studio. My main clown teacher was also Sacha Baron Cohen's teacher, Philippe Gaulier. I worked intensively 8 hours/day for a year with Philippe in London, and later co-taught a series of workshops with him in the United States.

Somatic Experiencing®
To work effectively (and healthily) in high stress situations. The work was primarily developed by Peter Levine. My main teacher was Steven Hoskinson, with whom I completed the three-year Somatic Experiencing® practioner program.

Early Childhood Integration
To enhance connection with yourself and others, and help you be more present and feel more belonging in groups, we may work with formative early childhood experiences. I’ve completed the three-year Foundation Training Program with Ray Castellino (and did several workshops with him as well as with a teacher he trained, Sarah Theismann).

Other Approaches to Voice
While I don't claim to teach their work, I have worked intensively with both Patsy Rodenburg and Richard Armstrong several times. As very different examples of passionate, caring, and effective teaching, both Patsy and Richard have inspired me enormously.