Sandpiper - Life & Wellness

Is Coaching for Me?

Life and Wellness Coaching can provide tools and insight for growth, goals achievement, prioritisation and time managment, attaining your personal and professional best, balance and feeling better about your choices, as well as validating assumptions about the choices, challenges and pathes we choose to follow every day.

Life & Wellness Coaching

We all face major challenges in each aspect of our lives. In addition to changes like divorce, employment challenges, health and fitness issues, etc. the steps we need to take to define and achieve our goals, succeed professionally, and feel good about ourselves while living are sometimes quite hard to sort out. The addition of pressures from our families, employers, children, and our own personal development hurdles, motivation and outlook - all form an often overwhelming mix of complicated choices, tough decisions and sacrifices.

Keeping focus, goal-oriented thinking and clearly defining your steps towards achievement is something coaching can help you do. It has helped me and my clients in our day-to-day and long-term challenges, and I think it can do the same for you. My work over the last years in certification in coaching has reinforced my faith in coaching as a great tool for self-improvement, positive steps and clearer insight into the choices we make.

Sandpiper - Life and Wellness is the personal coaching practise begun in 2012 by myself, Marilu Garofola. I am currently a Certified Professional Coach (CPC) with completed studies and accreditation from the International Coach Academy. For more information about me, you can read my profile.

I hope that you will take a little time to learn a little about how coaching can help you today! Learn a bit more about coaching and why I feel that it can positive impact your life here. If you'd like to learn more about pricing or coaching packages, you can visit our programs and pricing page, or send me an email.

Life & Wellness Coaching in Practice

I wish I could just ______. Have those words ever crossed your mind? It happens to all of us at some point in our lives. I wish I could just lose 10 pounds, find the time to go back to school, be more organized, be a better mother/wife/husband, find a new career path, exercise more, eat better, end a bad relationship. How to make changes in our lives or set personal goals is often not as easy as we hope. We can struggle with motivation, self-confidence, road blocks or even knowing where to begin. As a life and wellness coach it is my belief that we all deserve the best lives we can have. The knowledge and power to create that life is held by each individual. Unfortunately we often get lost in discovering answers. My job as a coach is never to act as a consultant or a therapist but more as a guide, confidant, motivator, sounding board and support system. I follow the code of ethics presented by the International Coach Federation http://www.coachfederation.org/about-icf/ethics/ and adhere to the standards of the International Coach Academy from which I achieved my certification.

Empowering

To make any life changes, large or small, must include a confidence in ourselves to achieve or even begin the process. As a coach I find it's often my job to find what will empower my client. Change can be hard, scary, uncomfortable or even dramatic to the point where we may doubt our ability to follow through and stay true to our goals. Having a coach can help you keep on task, overcome obstacles, have accountability to someone, acknowledge achievements and keep the motivation to follow through on your dreams.

Settling vs. Striving

We all know how comfortable a routine is, but when does that routine become a rut. How often do we settle for something less than what we want or deserve. It can be as simple as being treated poorly by someone in our lives, overcoming bad health choices or lifestyle routines, being stuck in a job we hate, leaving a harmful or unfulfilled relationship... the list can be endless of large or small aspects of our lives that leave us feeling like we could improve them to improve ourselves. The goal of a coach is to never let the client settle for less than they desire but rather motivate and support them to find the action steps needed to strive for what they deserve.

My Clients

My clients have come from all walks of life, professions, situation and needs. They have been able to benefit from my structured but flexible coaching methodology to make positive steps in their lives. I've worked with clients from other states as well as countries, always enjoying what each client brings to the space of a coaching session. I've dealt with business, relationship, parenting, health, organizational and motivational issues to name just a few. My goal is to create a relaxed and easy relationship built on trust to help my clients find the success they want to achieve.

She was understanding and very patient with me. She had me try new ways to reach my goals that I haven't tried in the past. What I've discovered will support me in knowing that it is ok to make mistakes, that life can get crazy and stressful to then to make sure I take a step back, take a deep breath... Marilu has been a huge change in my life that I will never forget. These changes have also helped make life with my husband and children less stressful. She has helped me get my confidence back.

- Heather

Marilu has been great - I get off track sometimes but she helps me stay focused on my goals. She brings up topics that I try to avoid and helps me come up with solutions to improve my life - which ultimately is helping with my mental health. She gives me ideas and sometimes they are simple ideas on how to reach a goal but they are ideas that I would not have otherwise thought of. She never judges me and encourages me and helps me think of solutions to my situations that I need to change.

- Kelly

She is amazing as person and as coach. In our sessions I could feel the passion she has got to help others. I really appreciate the respect and flexibility she is got. ... She established trust and intimacy with me since the first moment, ... has the ability to be focus on what I was saying in each session ... and respected my agenda and pace; is very intuitive; has the ability to ask powerful questions (the ones that allowed me to get the maximum benefit from each session); and can communicate effectively and was very patient with me because English is not my first language...

- Catarina

When I started coaching with Marilu, I wanted to gain confidence in the areas of diet, exercise, and relationships. I am excited to report that I have made progress in all these areas! I have learned to embrace the idea of cooking new meals for the first time; I've bought some exercise equipment and have committed to a weekly workout schedule, and recently began dating again! Thanks Marilu! One additional takeaway from Marilu's coaching is the realization that even taking a baby step in a particular direction is often enough to start things moving. I have taken away a lot of valuable perspectives from the coaching with Marilu...

- Leasa

Marilu Garofola, CPC

About Me

I discovered coaching about five years ago when a friend of mine was talking about this new profession she discovered. The concept was Health or Wellness Coaching. She had read an article and immediately decided I would be perfect in that role. I tucked the thought away but never completely. As time went on articles on coaching began to catch my attention and I was realizing that this was a fascinating growing field. Having a long history working at a fitness club, a background in English and Communications and a general ability to gain immediate comfort and trust with those around me eventually led to my undertaking the vigorous program at the International Coach Academy.

As a divorced mother of three attending classes and working two part time jobs was exhausting but within the program I was required to have my own coach. She was invaluable to me and my success. There is no way to explain how a coach supporting you through life's challenges or hiccups can be the catalyst for finding your direction. Writer and Poet Maria Robinson said: "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." What do you want your story to be? Maybe I can help.

The Coaching Process

Coaching is normally the most effective if carried out over a block of time, this allows the process of coaching, challenging assumptions and setting priorities to evolve and grow, helps clients reflect on the potential changes and the impacts that they could have on their lives, and re-evaluate both one’s own choices and reasoning, as well as helping me learn how you are visualizing choices and goals, and hopefully come up with new and more effective ideas over time. Thus, my suggestion is always to encourage investing in a block of coaching sessions, normally the most effective coaching processes are accomplished by clients starting with blocks of 6 or 12 sessions.

My coaching methodology and personal experiences have encouraged me to be flexible with coaching sessions, as we all have amazingly busy lives and must fit time for ourselves in between often harried days and nights, family responsibilities and un-planned events. This commitment to flexibility has also allowed me to embrace new technologies like video and audio conferencing, traditional phone calls and email. This lowers the cost for my clients, and allows us to have more flexibility in planning sessions.

Coaching Tools

Successful coaching can easily and cost-effectively take place remotely with the great online tools available for communication and collaboration today. I regularly use email, audio and video-conferencing software, chat applications and the phone to plan and hold sessions with clients. This saves time, money and energy, allows for flexibility and also helps me help people in very remote areas. I recommend a simple (free) set of easily downloadable tools to get started, including:

Skype - Multi-language audio, video and chat communications tool for Windows, Mac, Linux PCs, as well as Apple, Android and Symbian phones and tablets. Skype also caan send and recieve calls from normal phones world-wide.
Google Talk - Free messenger, audio and video app for Windows, Mac of Linux PCs.
Email - Any paid or free email service will do, including Gmail, Yahoo, AOL or Hotmail.

Speaking on the phone is naturally also an option, and fully supported - so just let me know what you feel comfortable with and we can get started.

Sessions & Pricing

Costs for coaching are based on agreed hourly rates, with a discount of 10% for commitment to blocks of 6 hour sessions and 20% for blocks of 12 sessions. Group coaching is also available at attractive rates, which can be provided upon request.

In addition to tools like Skype and telephones, I have a comfortable coaching office space available at a convenient location in Lancaster County for clients who would feel more comfortable with face-to-face meetings and coaching sessions. I also am willing to travel to meet clients and am open for these opportunities, but will need to discuss with you personally the timing, locations and travel. Both of these options are available to all clients, but would naturally incur more costs, pricing for which can be provided upon request. Please email me for more information about these options.

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

- Nelson Mandela

Sandpiper Client Portal

We provide a fully online communications, scheduling, relationship management and payment portal for all of our customers. Here you can view your history, agreements and even schedule coaching sessions. All of your notes, personal data and information is strictly confidential.

To access your personal portal, simply click here.

fs

You can also find me
on Facebook

Feel free to contact me to request more information, ask a question or set up a free-of-charge consultation to see if Life and Wellness Coaching can help you.