CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

“I felt a new sense of possibility and freedom that I did not get from therapy…”

“Going into coaching, I didn’t think it would help improve my mental health so much as help me develop a ‘plan.’ I’ve benefited from traditional, peer-reviewed medical treatment and talk therapy in dealing with depression and anxiety. 

“I had also acquired some institutional doubts about coaching, as a patient. Thinking in terms of pathology can induce a certain passiveness, the feeling that you just can’t fix some stuff.

“Working with Lara, I learned two things. First, the coaching space, as Lara approaches it, is actually where some of the most practical applied neuroscience is being implemented. 

“And second, therapy (which focuses on how the past affects the present) goes quite well with coaching – which focuses on grounding me in the present in order to envision my future. Creating a separate coaching space with Lara helped me make breakthroughs with my therapist, as well.”

“So, I wasn’t wrong that I needed a plan. But I was wrong about what kind of plan I needed. 

“When I reached out to Lara for coaching, my career was in flux. I felt stuck, and I thought I wanted a blueprint for further professional achievement within the confines of a specific industry — the only kind of plan I felt safe executing, yet always led to my feeling more miserable the more established I got.  

“Then, just as we began working together, I contracted long Covid. 

“Lara deftly and intuitively pivoted, drawing on her own experiences with chronic fatigue syndrome to help me rebuild trust between my mind and body. This helped me overcome debilitating long Covid fatigue.

“Lara’s coaching also showed me that the strongest signals of what I wanted to do with my life were in fact in my body and emotions. 

“My mind was what was getting in the way. After working with Lara, I am much more in touch with my actual desires. And I am much less anxious.

“The results of coaching with Lara?

“I no longer feel like I’m missing out, or have anything to prove to anyone but myself. I’ve been able to take the career steps I always knew I wanted to take, but had convinced myself I couldn’t without more experience and external approval. 

“I dropped my search for ‘prestigious’ full-time jobs in journalism, finance, government, law... and started contracting with clients to do the pieces of each that interested me the most, while preserving my freedom to live exactly how I want. 

“I’ve found that my unique mix of experiences and talents is often more valuable to clients bundled together. I’d never be able to do that in-house anywhere.

“Before, in negotiating full-time jobs, I felt like I had something to explain or apologize for, that my employer was doing me a favor by taking me on. This naturally led to me negotiating myself out of salary, benefits, and responsibility. 

“Now, I unapologetically ask for what I want: compensation, time frame, deliverable, shaping a project into something I genuinely feel excited about. 

“Asking paid clients for what I want, and usually getting it (and being fine with turning them down if I don’t), has increased my ability to take on pro-bono clients as well. 

“Working with more pro-bono clients, in turn, has furthered my resolve to never apologize for charging someone who can pay. 

“I didn’t have the confidence to do that before working with Lara. 

“After working with Lara, I felt a new sense of possibility and freedom that I did not get from therapy alone.”

—Jay*, writer and lawyer
*name changed at the request of client