Donna's Results from Working with Irene

Like many people approaching middle age, I had found myself in a job that was particularly unsatisfying. I was at a loss for what to do, and a friend of mine recommended Irene. Though she was physically 3000 miles from me, we had an initial conversation and I decided to give phone coaching a try.

• A New Compass for Career and Life Navigation

  Together we started to explore my strengths, interests, and, through the Archetypes of Calling, my personal tendencies. This last exercise was particularly helpful as it provided names to what I think I subconsciously knew to be many of my personality traits and preferred ways of operating. Giving them a name allowed me to take ownership of my tendencies, and begin to consider them as assets to be employed. In the past, I’d often felt like my particular strengths weren’t as valuable as those I saw in others, and never really thought about making career or life choices based on them.

• Out of the Box, on to Possibility Thinking

  When I started with Irene, I was working as a radar engineer, though my background is actually mechanical engineering. I couldn’t get to where I wanted to be, but due to the slow economy and my aversion to risk I also didn’t want to look for work in another company. With Irene’s help I began looking for other possibilities outside my career for personal satisfaction. We took inventory of all my interests (gardening, self-care and wellness, juggling, music, and more), and explored creative ways in which seemingly disparate activities might actually pair well together. Doing such an exercise opened up new possibilities for me, showed me that I could pair engineering with, well, just about anything. Irene helped me understand that there were no “rules”, and the only person that any of my ideas had to make sense to was me.

• Self-Discoveries Lead to Confident Decisions — Life-Changing!

  It was around this time that I found an herbal studies program at a nearby college that piqued my interest. Irene and I discussed it, and through all the self-discoveries I had made in my work with her, I felt confident that enrolling in the program would be a good move. It turns out that it was an excellent move, as after completion of the program I decided to stay on for a Master of Science in Therapeutic Herbalism. I recently finished my training to become a clinical herbalist through an education that I can only describe as life-changing.

• Spacious Vision—Engineering plus Therapeutic Herbalism

  In my “day job”, with persistence I managed to finally get a transfer to a department that allows me to use my (mechanical) strengths and skills in a more natural way. And though I had no idea what I would do with my herbal training I have since formulated a vision for a future that has room enough for my stable engineering career as well as an herbal practice. I feel confident about my vision because I have a much greater understanding of who I am, what my natural tendencies are, what skills I have and could develop, and also what I need to live and prosper.

• Irene—Guide for Me Making My Own Discoveries, Thought-Provoking, On-Track, Committed, Possibilities Becoming Reality

  While I have met several other mentors and teachers that have been instrumental in getting me where I am today, I can honestly say that this journey started with Irene. What I appreciated about her were her methodical techniques for exploring various aspects of my life one by one. She served as a guide for me to make my own discoveries, and never led me to a presumed answer. She asked challenging questions and provided thought-provoking “homework” to further facilitate my self-discovery. On some days when I felt particularly down on myself, she worked with me “where I was”, provided objective and compassionate feedback, and always kept me on the track that she helped me set out for myself at the onset of our work. Irene was my cheerleader - a partner fully committed to helping me discover not only new possibilities, but also how to take steps in turning those possibilities into reality. Today, I’m well on my way to doing just that.

—Donna Koczaja