From the age of five when I began piano lessons, I was fortunate to have dedicated, knowledgeable, and wise teachers. Reflecting from today’s view, they were more than teachers helping me learn technical piano and flute skills. They taught me how to learn and grow through practice and study, to bring my best self to goals and opportunities. Their feedback, mentoring, and support were essential to my success, and they served as my coaches. With their partnership and lots of hard work, I landed a dream position in a world-class orchestra.

Fast forward through life’s hills and valleys, wins and losses, and I hit a particularly rough patch in my early fifties. I began managing my mother’s serious health conditions and memory loss, I was raising two young children, my marriage fell apart, and my orchestra job went into labor stoppage for a full year and a half. With the fear that I would never be able to return to my work in the orchestra, I began working with a career coach.

After a variety of assessments, I learned that the top recommendation for my next career was that of a health coach. I didn’t know what that meant, but I had always wanted a post-flute career that didn’t have such great physical demands. Instead of relying on the complex coordination of my lips, air, and fingers, I had dreamed of work that would engage my mind, heart, and wisdom learned from life experiences. Fortunately, the orchestra returned to work, and I put the idea of being a health coach on the back burner.

Jumping ahead ten years, the pandemic struck, and I realized that life in the orchestra would not be the experience I loved in an unknown future. With rheumatoid arthritis taking a greater physical toll, I planned my retirement and enrolled in the Mayo Clinic’s Health and Wellness Coach Training Program.

I still didn’t know exactly what being a coach would mean, and I was quite surprised to learn in the first week of training that I would not be advising anyone as a coach - my future clients would be the experts in their own lives. I would be supporting and partnering with them, building on their dreams, strengths, and values.

I have continued training to expand my knowledge and skills in areas where I have developed deep compassion and understanding. Working with clients through challenges of health, losses, and transitions, we work together to manage stress and develop healthy routines. We sit with uncertainty and build confidence, we seek purpose and our authentic selves, all work that is forward-leaning and hopeful!