Alumni Spotlight: Amber

Tell us a bit about yourself! What’s your story?

I am so many things but identify mostly as a plant woman, who feels like our connection to nature is deeply and inextricably linked with our connection to self and other. I am an herbalist, nature connection facilitator, rites of passage facilitator, educator, surfer, writer poet, grief and death doula, acroyogi, yoga and meditation teacher, and human animaI. I have spent years no trying to find the pathways to helping facilitate the healing of ourselves and our planet. I have moved through many different places and modalities to figure out what works, and what medicine I want to bring to this world most. Alternative and outdoor-based youth education has been a passion of mine for awhile, as well as eco-pyschology, plant medicine, somatics, conscious dance, and the ritual arts. I love working with women and young folks especially, in group and 1-1 settings. I also believe death and grief work is an essential piece of our collective cultural healing puzzle, and after losing so many loved ones in a short amount of time, I am on the path of bringing that medicine into my life and the lives of those around me as well.

What drew you to become a coach?

I’ve been trying to find ways to offer my holistic health and somatic therapeutic services to adults but not as a clinical counselor or psychologist, and with more possibility.

What do you say at dinner parties when people ask “what do you do?”

I facilitate alternative, experiential and nature based youth programming that include leadership, community building, and social-emotional skill development. I am also an herbalist and somatic practitioner, as well as yoga and acro-yoga teacher.

What matters to you in life?

What matters most to me is to be able to live in the present as much as I can, through connection to other beings of the world via the gifts of my animal body and senses. My hope is to learn and teach how to come more fully into my/our body(ies) and experience the depths of grief but also of love and joy and play. Creative expression, the movement arts, and nature connection practices are essential, as well as building and living in community grounded in conscious living and regenerative, permaculture practices.

How did you know it was the right moment for you to pursue a coaching certification?

I had this training come to me directly and it was through channels I trusted, and I had the time, finances, and space to pursue it. However it was also the description of this particular training that captured me most and made me say yes right now.

What made you decide to go with Global Focus Coaching? How do your values align with GFC’s programs?

I was drawn to GFC because I knew there was shared values and world views, and I was attracted to a training that centered decolonization and intercultural competence, as well as somatic work since that is already a part of my practice. Also, Jenny and Briana seemed like excellent people and teachers.

What have been your biggest challenges on your coaching journey?

Struggling with the term ‘coaching’, what coaching is to me, and what the preconceptions around coaching are.

What has been the most rewarding parts of your coaching journey?

Seeing clients feel supported and come in deeper connection with themselves, and through this creating positive movement in their lives in an intentional way.

What is the most important thing you learned from the program?

How to come into deep attunement with the client and skillfully reflect themselves back to them, as well as how to stay aware of my own blind spots, biases, and triggers while coaching.

How has coaching helped you so far? Where do you see coaching fitting into your life in the long term?

Coaching has helped me put so many of my skills into a new practice that is very rewarding and pull of potential. I see myself using my coaching skills in combination with my herbal medicine and nature therapy practice, and creating a fuller practice of holistic therapy and somatic coaching.

What did you wish you had known before starting your coaching journey?

That coaching gives you so many important, transferable skills.

Where can we learn more about you?

You can find me at www.amberaislin.com, where I offer somatic & holistic health coaching as well as grief tending work.

.