Heidi Gates

503 881 4759

heidi@ reikiriver.com

How is coaching different than therapy or consulting?
Coaching is a form of consulting.  But, unlike a consultant, I maintain contact with you to help implement the new skills, changes and goals to make sure they really happen.  And it's not therapy because we don't work on your "issues", get into the past or deal much with understanding human behavior.  I leave that up to you to know and figure out while I help you set personal and profession goals that will give you the life you really want.  Coaching includes principles found in sports coaching, like teamwork, going for the goal, and being your best.  But unlike sports coaching, most professional coaching is not  competition or win/lose-based.  We strengthen your skills rather than helping you beat the other team.  It's win/win.

Who hires a coach and why?
People hire me because:
They want more.
They want to grow.
They want it easier.
It's as simple as that.  I help you get all three. Quickly. 

Why does coaching work?
Coaching works for several reasons:
The synergy between us creates momentum.
You lean to set better goals - ones that naturally pull you toward them rather than goals that require you to push yourself to meet them.
You develop new skills, and these skills translate into more success.

I read about it everywhere--why is coaching so popular?
For a few reasons:
1. Many people are tired of doing what they "should" do and are ready to do something special and meaningful for the rest of their lives.  Problem is, many can't see it, or if they can, they can't see a way to reorient their life around it.  A coach can help them do both.

2. People are realizing how simple it can be to accomplish something that several years ago might have felt out of reach or like a pipedream.  A coach is not a miracle worker (well, they are, sometimes) but a coach does have a large tool kit to help the Big Idea become a Reality.  Fortunately, people now have the time and resources to invest in themselves in this kind of growth.

3. They want spirituality in their life.  Many coaches are spiritually based -- even the ones who coach IBM and AT&T.  My working definition of spirituality?  "How connected you are with yourself and others".  The coach helps clients tune in better to themselves and others.

Can you really connect with people over the phone?
This is a subject I received coaching on from my Mentor Coach.  I had been receiving coaching for months at that point, on the phone!  Now it was time for me to offer Coaching to my Alaskan community.
I told my coach that I needed to see my clients to intuitively know what was going on with them, to touch them when they needed comforting.  This was the only way I could connect with a client.  My coach's response: "We have never met in person, Heidi.  Would you call our relationship intimate?"
This opened my eyes.  My coach was the most valuable mentor in my life, and we had only met on the phone.  My clients are often amazed at how quickly we can work together in this way.  And it's very efficient-there's no travel time to my office and you don't have to take hours off in the middle of you day.  When we talk, we get right to work.

Heidi graduated as a Certified Life Coach from The Academy from Coaching Excellence.  To learn about the Academy, visit:
academyforcoachingexcellence.com