It was in the late 90's I felt frustrated over my work situation in the advertising industry and wanted to change career. I wished that I would have someone to talk to about it, a professional guidance counselor of some sort but not just someone who would tell me to do this or that or just point to different educational directions. I already knew how to do that. But how do you know which way to choose or how to make a good decision?
When I watched the Oprah show, I saw a couple of episodes of the Lifemakeover-series and got really inspired to do the same exercises she had posted online on her website. I soon learned about Personal coaches and read my two first books about this subject by Laura Berman-Fortgang and by Cheryl Richardson. Meanwhile I had been stressed out and found a need to improve my health and increase my wellness so I decided to become a Lifecoach myself.
Soon I learned that there is a couple of issues that are more important than others, defining the use of the profession in how to:
* Become more authentic
* Find a purpose for our life
* Live our passion
* Follow a dream
* Get into the flow of life by recognizing synchronicity
* Create good conditions
During spring 1999, I came up with the seed of my business idea for Telluselle Living Center during a course in Project Management for Cultural workers that I called "The Gazebo" and proceeded with pursuing a university degree in subjects that would create a solid foundation for becoming a Professional coach. It turned out that the field for Human resource managers had seen a decline and a new approach and interdependent academic institution had just been founded at Malmö College called "Workscience" which I studied alongside other relevant courses for four years.
In 2002, I started my freelancing agency as a Lifecoach called Balansfokus/Balancefocus and focused my research papers on this profession, its tools, approach and working methods. My paper for the Bachelor's degree included a brief interview with then President of International Coach Federation in Miami and was later used in the education at Malmö university (a college awaiting credentials).
In 2003, I pursued a Master's degree when I felt like the market wasn't quite ready for me to work full time with it and for me to practice some more with my own clients first, which I did. During spring I went to New York City and did interviews with two Lifecoaches found thru ICF, one of them using NLP, the other allowing me to listen in to one of her sessions by phone for me to understand the interview technique used. I also visited the Career center at Columbia University and learned about their assessment tools and activities for their graduating students, something I felt was missing in Sweden, wherefore I wrote a possible plan on how to create one within the existing framework for Malmö university.
Later in the fall after my paper about "The Dialogue as a tool for professions" was done, a new course was formed as a continuation of conversation technique specializing on coaching and mentoring that I attended where we included Co-Active coaching with live recordings of sessions that we were given feedback on.
During the course of giving coaching sessions and starting a business, I also shared this with public speaking for student entrepreneurs and unemployed people in use of inspiring motivation for change in 2004 which became a paid project. Of course I also did the same exercises myself to clarify my competence and joyous interest and soon found myself getting reconnected to living my passion, which is to be on stage in a pretty puffy skirt and expressing my creativity. Soon, I started dancing again too...
Read more about my journey here and what was featured in public media here. Photo from Honolulu 2010.