At Your Service
Would You Like to Know Some More About Your Life and Adoption Coach?
If you have already visited the “Why Choose Iris” page of this site, you will have learned a bit about who I am. If you have clicked directly to the Adoption Coaching Section, here is some information you might wish to know. Some people want to hear the personal story and others want more details about work and accomplishments. I am glad to provide a little of both.
For me, a person’s style and core values are ultra-important, and I have to feel a strong connection and confidence. We’re all different, and need different things to help us when we are thinking about forming relationships, whether these are business or personal relationships.
Expert Adoption Coach is part of Vision Powered Coaching. The personalized, compassionate licensed adoption agency I founded and directed for about 30 years, is a true example of the caring, client-centered approach that is also part of my life and coaching practice at Vision Powered Coaching, and Expert Adoption Coach. I always told prospective adoption clients that all agencies are not alike. That is true of personal coaches, as well. The coach must feel like a good fit for you, in terms of knowledge, style, integrity, and a number of other factors.
I’ve had years of experience living through, and helping others through, loss of many types.
Survival Skills
I would not have chosen some of my personal trials, but I am quite proud of my survival skills, and even more so, of learning how to get past survival, and to embrace life. I was widowed quite young and eventually lost all of the members of my immediate family, as well as some very close friends. My many decades of work in the adoption field, and as an adoptive parent and foster parent, have contributed much to my high sensitivity to issues of loss, and to my understanding of the joys and challenges of adoption. I get the perspectives of the different parties involved in this legal and emotional process.
I have been both a married and a single parent, and I remember well what it was like parenting solo. I lived through a marriage challenged by the chronic illness of my spouse, and then his tragic death in a fire. I have experienced both long-distance, and hands-on caregiving, for my sister and my mother, and have traveled through various life transitions. I was married again to a wonderful man when in my late forties, after grappling with a lot of fears and anxiety, and even sometimes questioning whether I would ever get to have an easier life and a quality love relationship.
I am a parent of four adults, adoptive parent, parent by birth, grandparent, and have been a poet/writer all of my life. The creative, imaginative side is really a huge part of the real me.
I have always been known as a “Possibilities Person”. I have raised a multicultural family, and have been involved in promoting and fighting for human and civil rights since my youth. I adopted my fourth child as a single parent, after realizing that expanding my family was still important unfinished business for me. I did all of this while directing the non-profit adoption agency I founded.
My life coaching niches very much reflect my life, my training and expertise. My personalized approach and compassion for others are qualities for which I have been known in my long career working with adoptive families. I carry this over into my coaching practice. Helping people live happier, more productive lives in a practical, but deeply caring way is very fulfilling to me and is aligned very much with who I am. Coaching has made a big difference in my life and I know it can in yours too.
Oh and one other thing….I am proud former mom to two Scotties, Charlotte and Danny Boy, and now my little Scottie pride and joys are Emily MacMischief and Laird Elijah the Bruce.
Anything else you need to know to make you feel comfortable about the prospect of working with me, just ask and I’ll do my best to answer.