the FAQ
about Personal Growth Coaching
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Personal Growth Coaching is ideal for folks with mostly stable emotional lives struggling to make the changes they want. Coaching can also provide additional support to folks with less stable emotional lives when they are in the regular care of a licensed mental health professional.
Coaching is a peer-to-peer approach to supporting your growth. Coaching is not intended to replace counseling, treatment for mental illness, psychiatric interventions, professional medical advice, financial assistance, legal counsel, or other professional services.
As a coaching client, you can have one area to work on or a couple of them. At every session, my goals are to meet you where you’re at, validate your experience, and ask curious questions about how you’d like to move forward.
Together, we can gather ways forward, identify your values, create action plans, and support you as you grow. -
There are two significant distinctions between Personal Growth Coaching and therapy: where we start and who we are.
The first difference is that I don’t work from a medical model as a Personal Growth Coach. That is, I don’t try to label or identify what’s wrong with you according to some book somewhere written by a bunch of white guys intent on perpetuating productivity and capitalism.
A time and place exists where medical labels are helpful, particularly when we’re in crisis or need to access health insurance. As a Personal Growth Coach, however, I don’t diagnose, prescribe, or provide medical advice beyond referral to a medical professional. In fact, it can be helpful to have both a therapist and a coach in the most challenging parts of your path.
By not starting with what’s wrong, we can work together to understand how you work in the world and what shifts you can make in your environment and relationships to support your continued growth.
The second difference is that as a Personal Growth Coach, I am a peer a couple of steps ahead of you rather than an authority figure a couple of miles ahead of you.
As a peer, there can be more self-disclosure and recognition of the challenges walking a growing path. As a peer, I know about the frustration of the spiral path and the courage it takes to be messy. I also know my path isn’t necessarily going to be yours. I still ask curious questions and support your growth in the direction you want to move. (I also have tools available to help you define that direction if you need them.) -
From Life Coaching to Career Coaching to Mindset Coaching, there are dozens of types of personal coaches out there; what makes Personal Growth Coaching different from all of these approaches?
Most other personal coaching approaches look only at their clients’ current conditions and future desires. As a Personal Growth Coach, I ask questions about where your current beliefs and behaviors come from. This digging into our developmental history often leads to insight into why we do something, which can lead to compassion and grace for ourselves.
Many other personal coaching approaches work with just one or two parts of the human system. I approach the system holistically. By recognizing the inherent and often overlooked connections between the body, mind, and spirit we can use different approaches when the getting stuck thing happens.
I provide you the space and support necessary to focus on self-compassion and self-grace. I share a multiplicity of tools during our conversations to aid you in growing the life you want. -
Personal growth happens quickly within the context of supportive, safe relationships. The Personal Growth Coaching relationship serves as the primary cornerstone of our journey together.
Our time together is tailored to providing what you need. There is no master workflow, just a meeting of you where you are as an individual.
Personal Growth Coaching can address all your parts. We are whole humans with a body, mind, and spirit; coaching can address all those areas. There is not a one-true-way growing path. Instead, allow me to listen to you and offer caring, hope, education, and experience as you do you.
You set your goals for our work together. Some of my Clients have SMART goals, others use a mushier “that way” approach, and still others play it by ear. There are blessings and challenges in all of our approaches, and my job as your coach is to fully support the type of goals that work for you.
Often, our lives feel unmanageable, overwhelming, and dangerous. Many of us have had way too many difficult experiences, and we expect to see life this way. Working with a Personal Growth Coach gives you a space to be who you are and experience what functional and manageable can feel like. The safety offered within this peer-to-peer coaching relationship can shift your perception of the world.
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Coaching clarifies the directions you’d like to grow.
Coaching illuminates a framework for cultivating your identity.
Coaching allows you to practice grace and compassion as you complete the change work.
Coaching gives you an outside perspective that believes your experiences and wants what is best for you. As your coach, I can also remain separate enough to limit the influence of my personal experiences when I share my perspectives.
Coaching provides a safe enough relationship for you to practice, increasing your capacity for emotional intimacy.
about Kelli as a Coach
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I specialize in holding space for folks who experienced a fundamental mismatch between their childhood emotional needs and their caregivers’ capacity to meet them.
I also support those folks experiencing executive functioning challenges in a world that places a ton of value on productivity and getting things done.
Many of the clients I see have experienced one or more of the following:overly rigid or permissive home
childhood trauma
emotional neglect
interpersonal violence
spiritual abuse or harm
sexual assault
challenges with food
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I received my Advanced Certification for Trauma Recovery Coaching (CTRC-A) from the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching (IAOTRC) in July of 2023.
The International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaches works from a set of Guiding Principles and a Code of Ethics with a formal process for filing a grievance.
To keep my certification, I’m required to attend supervision, expand my coaching trauma knowledge, and pass an ethics test.
Other training experiences:Masters of Social Work from Kennesaw State University
Parts Work Certification Course with Bobbi Parish (CTRC-S) and Aschara Tarfa (CTRC-S) through IAOTRC (in progress)
The Somatic School
Racial Trauma: Putting Your Client on The Path On The Path From Defeatism To Resilience with Dr. Jai Belton (CTRC-S) through IAOTRC
Narcissistic Abuse 101 with Kimberly Weeks (CTRC-S) through IAOTRC
Shame and Trauma with Jennifer Kindera (CTRC-S) through IAOTRC
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My tool collection comes from the education I’ve received, the time I’ve spent in the workplace as an engineer and social worker, and from my time as an amateur long-form improviser.
Personal Growth Coaching centers the relationship between coach and client as the main path to growth.
In addition to cultivating and supporting our relationship, I have access to a variety of tools, including:the Life Support Paradigm
parts work approaches
crafting rites and rituals
keen questions
experiential tools
somatic tools
engineering approaches to problem-solving
experience mapping and adjusting systems
multiple approaches to behavioral change
about the Policies and Procedures
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Personal growth coaching is a 1-hour virtual session that happens over zoom.
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If you’re going to be late for our appointment, please let me know as soon as possible via email at kmurbach@secularshepherdess.life or via text at 470-348-2950. Five minutes after the appointment start time, I will resend the Zoom link via email and attempt to contact you via text. If no contact is made within 15- minutes of the appointment start time, I will close the meeting, and the appointment will be considered canceled – see below for additional information regarding canceled appointments.
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Anything that you say to me, my notes, or any paperwork provided by you or your physician, mental health professional, or legal representative (current or past) will be kept confidential except as noted below.
I will break confidentiality if I feel you are in imminent danger of harming yourself or another person.
As a trauma recovery coach, certified by the International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching I am a mandatory reporter. This means that if I become aware that a minor, disabled person, or elderly person is currently being abused, I am mandated to report the abuse to the appropriate governing agency.
I will break confidentiality if I receive a legal subpoena to release your records.
In the event of my sudden incapacitation, my personal assistant will have access to your name and contact information to inform you of the situation.
I will maintain, store, and dispose of any records, including electronic files and communications, during my coaching business in a manner that promotes confidentiality, security, privacy, and complies with applicable laws and agreements.
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You may email or text me outside of session whenever you like and as often as you like. I regret that I am not able to respond to every email you may send. But I promise that I will read all of them before our next session. While I will treat email and text messages as privileged information, the nature of these communication methods means there is no guarantee of privacy.
You will also receive email reminders prior to our sessions.
I will also use email/text to share information with you that we talk about during session.
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Payment for individual sessions is expected prior to each session and is not refundable. You will be invoiced via Square at least 24 hours before each session. Payment is expected by the completion of each session.
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Payment for packaged sessions is expected prior to end of the first session. You will be invoiced via Square at least 24 hours before each session.
Full refunds are available for cancelations made more than 24-hours prior to the first appointment time. A $850 refund will be provided if the client cancels the package within 7 days of the completion of the first appointment. No refunds will be provided if the client cancels the package more than 7 days after the completion of the first session.