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Midlife Coaching - Mid-Life Coach - Sharon Teitelbaum, Massachusetts
Experienced midlife coach Sharon Teitelbaum helps clients "get unstuck" in the Boston, MA area and worldwide.
 If, by the time we reach an age at which we expected to feel content, whether it’s thirty, forty, or beyond, we are not living with purpose, meaning, and many real moments, we will find ourselves dissatisfied and unfulfilled. "Is this all there is?" we ask ourselves."
Barbara deAngelis
You can learn new things at any time in your life if you're willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you."
Barbara Sher
Giving Yourself Permission to Explore
Marianne was an entrepreneur and mother of a young son who had worked very hard for many many years, building her business and her professional reputation. Both were in extremely good shape as Marianne entered midlife. But she was not. She was drained and exhausted and felt like a drone. She was still living in survival mode, though her circumstances had changed significantly over time. I helped her update her sense of her circumstances: she was no longer living hand-to-mouth – she had a thriving, profitable business. In the privacy of the coaching conversation, she acknowledged that she was longing to work less than her usual 60-hour weeks in order to spend more time with her son and to have more time to herself. Through our work together, she re-structured her business, hired help, changed her work schedule, and started taking a lot more time off – while continuing to expand her business and profitablity. The heart of the matter was her getting clear about what she wanted for herself in this stage of her life. She wanted to spend her son's school vacations weeks on vacation with him. And she wanted regular time off for herself – to exercise, to see friends, to shop, to read, and to NOT ALWAYS BE IN A HURRY. She was able to create all of this for herself.
Not all mid-lifers crave more time not-working, but many consider it, along with other huge potential changes as well. Why? Because many people in this age group have outgrown some of their structures and patterns over the last decade or so. This can be terrifying, as they have been living a good life – who in their right mind would want to mess with it?
But when your life really isn’t working for you in some way,
you can’t ignore it -- at least not for long. The restlessness
or discomfort you may be feeling at midlife is your invitation into
some new adventure that's not yet visible. First there are hard
questions to answer, such as, what’s not working in your life?
You may need to let go or renegotiate parts of it. As you clear
some space, you will be able to tackle other questions, such as
"What do I want the rest of my life to look like?" Then,
the new chapters in your life can begin to open up to you in delightful
and amazing ways. As a life coach, I can help you answer these questions.
Are you . . .
- Longing to have more meaning in your life?
- Worrying about significant relationships that seem stuck in
a rut?
- Determined to make some changes in your life, but you’re
not sure what they are?
- Clear on what’s next for you and need some help pulling
it all off?
- Unwilling to continue being owned by your work or your schedule?
- Yearning to do something in your life that you haven’t
yet done?
- Feeling like it’s now or never for career advancement?
How I Can Help
I will become your co-investigator and your witness. Listening
very closely to the way you talk about yourself and your life, asking
out-of-the-box questions, and engaging you in the exploration of
your dissatisfaction, I can assist you in translating your general
agitation into concrete areas that need attention. Once we know
what the areas are, we can start working with them; I can help
you structure a way to do this that is based in action rather than
contemplation.
Most mid-lifers’ sense of themselves is quite out-of-date
with who they are NOW. Chances are you have not yet integrated
into your self-concept many of the accomplishments, milestones,
and insights that you’ve reached in the last ten years.
I can take you through this process of "taking ground,"
that is, assuming full ownership of who you have become, which is
essential to your midlife transition. You have some hard work ahead
of you – you need to know what your strengths and your depths
are!
You may have big things at stake for you now: marriage, career,
relationships with children, lifelong dreams as yet unfulfilled.
The midlife conversation is a substantive one! This is a time when
people resolve questions like "Whose life do I envy?"
or "What’s my biggest fear?" or "What’s
not OK in my life?" I know the material, both because I have
been through several iterations of my own midlife journey, and because
I have coached many people through midlife transitions.
I’m biased toward strengthening and enlivening what’s
already in place rather than leaving it behind, though sometimes
the latter is called for. If your marriage seems dead in the water,
I am likely to refer you to a couples therapist, not a divorce attorney.
Old dreams, too, can be brought back to life. At 54, I dusted off
my old, discarded dream of completing an athletic endurance event,
took up distance cycling, and rode the Pan Mass Challenge, a 2-day,
170 mile charity ride. If I can do that, who knows what you can
do?
Midlife is often a time to assess and modify your work-life balance.
You may need to re-allocate your time and energy so that your current
work/life balance needs are satisfied.
You are bringing out a new release of yourself. Call it
"You, Version 5.0" If you’ve ever been part of a
commercial product development cycle, or the birth of a child, you
know it’s a complex process. And in this case, it’s most
certainly not a linear process! I offer you design and development
experience that can help you do your midlife work more efficiently
and with clearer intention.
Are you feeling drained and burdened from having more questions than answers about what’s next for you? Are you curious about what it would be like to work with me? Take the step of setting up an exploratory phone meeting with me. You’ll know a lot more by the end of the call. Email me with a few times you could be available, and please include your time zone. I’ll get back to you. |
Client Quotes
Listen to what my clients say. Here is a sample:
Your support feels like you are solidly, irreversibly on my team. Working with you has helped me move toward the fuller, more expressive, more integrated, more joyful person I am: more sure, inspired, directed, focused, optimistic about the possibilities, more aware of things that can get in the way.”
C.F.
Writer
Vermont
Thanks to Sharon Teitelbaum, Personal Coach Extraordinaire, who planted the seed and fed and watered it lovingly and skillfully.”
J.C.
Musician
I believe my work with you was a very significant factor in getting me to pay attention to myself and decide which changes I needed to make to have a new vision. It is hard for busy people involved in the demands of their day-to-day lives to stop and focus on what other choices they might make. I could not have done that process my myself. I’m not sure anyone can. It’s hard to believe so much has been accomplished in the last year, but the facts speak for themselves. My thanks to you for your skills, your talents, and your ongoing support.”
P.K.
Attorney, now Politician
My life is so expansive now. I truly feel that I have choices. I even own all the decisions I have made in the past. I am loving school - feel like a kid in a candy store. I feel like I am among "my people" when I am in class. I even look forward to my PB&J dinner in the car on Mondays. I'm still not sure how this will end up - but the direction feels very 'right.' I think about [my new interest] constantly - while I'm driving, while I'm exercising. It jumps out at me when I read the morning paper. I truly feel - at last! - that the arc of my life (thus far) "makes sense.”
L.L.
Physician
Massschusetts
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© 2003-2008 Sharon Teitelbaum, MA, MCC