Pacific Life Coach

I worked with Amber in weekly phone appointments for several months. I was looking for a life coach, because I wanted help transitioning out of a career that left me feeling chronically overwhelmed. In our appointments, Amber helped me to unravel that there was much more than just work contributing to my unsustainable lifestyle, including worries about family health issues, etc. She helped me to identify the issues I can control, the issues I can influence, and what is out of my hands. She also helped me to identify my core values. At first I was somewhat dismissive or reluctant to get into conversations about core values, because I was looking for specific strategies to get into a different line of work (eg. networking, etc.), and the core values conversation seemed too intangible to be helpful. However, Amber helped me to see that identifying core values is a necessary first step in order to ensure that any changes I make in my career, personal life, etc. will actually bring me satisfaction with my life.
Amber had some specific suggestions to help with my work-​life balance and sanity in the immediate, and she had some general questions and guidelines for making decisions in any situation. Like many a wise guru, therapist, mentor, or coach, Amber helped me to discover that everything I needed was already inside of me. She gave very little direct instruction and instead did a lot of listening, echoing, and asking guiding questions. This sort of teach-​a-​man-​to-​fish coaching demonstrated Amber’s dedication to the principles of her practice, because it gave me a life-​long internal coach and a guiding star of my core principles, but at the same time, she also worked herself out of a job.
Some people would be able to do this kind of work by themselves with a good self-​help book. I am not one of those people. By working with Amber for several months, I made tremendous progress on issues that I had been struggling with on my own for several years. Sometimes Amber assigned me homework, but as I progressed, she coached me to assign my own homework by asking, «What’s the smallest possible step you can take to move yourself in that direction, and when is a reasonable deadline when you can have that done?» Just knowing that I would have that phone call with Amber at 4pm on Tuesday gave me the external accountability and the kick in the pants that I needed to follow through on tasks that I had wanted to do but found excuses to never get around to doing. When I tended to get overwhelmed with how much farther I had to go on major life projects, Amber genuinely celebrated my small steps in a positive direction. Her encouragement helped to keep me motivated, and her one-​small-​step-​at-​a-​time approach was very effective with me, because one success gave me momentum to keep moving forward to the next success.
At first I thought that I would have preferred in-​person meetings; however, I quickly appreciated the benefits of phone meetings. You can’t beat the convenience, and I believe that I made faster progress by working over the phone. On the phone, I felt safer to take risks, open up, and let myself be vulnerable. I am confident that Amber would be just as warm, empathetic, and encouraging in person as she was on the phone, but not having to face another person helped me to feel safe enough to get right to the heart of difficult topics.
In the two years since I stopped working with Amber, I have recommended her to a number of friends and colleagues. I have often used my core values and Amber’s guiding questions to coach myself through decisions. As a public school teacher living in San Francisco, cost was definitely an issue for me, but I was ready to make a big change, and I knew that I needed help, so I was ready to seek professional guidance and pay accordingly. What I have found in the subsequent two years is that working with a life coach is an investment that pays off in the long-​term. I feel that I have received more than my money’s worth in terms of the self-​empowerment, sanity, and improved life satisfaction I now experience. My life isn’t where I want it to be yet, but I have to tools to create the life I want, and I’m well on my way.
One last word– working with a life coach is like anything else. It’s not a magic pill. You get out of it what you put into it. You have to work the steps, etc. So when you’re motivated and ready to put in the effort, give Amber a call.

I’ve been working with Amber for nine months now. With Amber’s help, I have been able to advocate for my self-​worth, gain a work-​life balance, and figure out a self-​fulfilling career that matches my core values. More importantly, I gained self-​confidence. Everyday I wake up grateful in every aspect of my life. I have been able to use my intuition, perspective and attitude to navigate through life’s different situations. With Amber’s guidance, I have learned that happiness is a choice that takes a lot of work.

As a business owner, I need support sometimes on the emotional side of things, and sometimes the practical. have had a couple sessions with Amber, one a coaching session to help sort out some emotional issues affecting my business; and a consulting session to help me expand marketing ideas for my business. In both sessions she was extremely helpful! She seems quite comfortable and competent working in the different roles of coach and consultant, easily navigating the emotional and practical. Even a couple sessions has made a big difference for me!

As a therapist, I wanted some help developing a new off-​shoot of my practice that required marketing expertise and help with business planning. I had interviewed a few other coaching and was put off by how much they talked and how little they listened!
Amber really knows how to listen. She has such a patient, grounded, yet totally engaged way of working. I felt like she was able to give me all the space I needed to think out loud (which is how I work though my ideas and dilemmas). She offered just the right amount of inquiry, support, and encouragement to keep me chugging along.
In my work with Amber, I was able to to clarify my goals, narrow my focus and generate a ton of cool ideas which I am plugging away at with great results.

I can’t recommend Amber highly enough. I was introduced to Amber when my husband bought me a package with her for Christmas. I wasn’t quite sure what a «Life Coach» would do for me but I soon realized that she was transforming the way I not only did things but how I thought of myself. She has helped me with tangible aspects in my personal and professional life that would not have developed without her guidance. As a mother and business owner I have found Amber to be a great asset to helping me with the areas I would like to improve. She listens to what my goals are and helps me develop achievable ways to tackle them so that I can make them happen. From this experience I have found new paths that have opened up because of her style of coaching. I believe that she has enriched my life which makes it a pretty darn good Christmas present!

I worked with Amber during a big transition time in my life. I was deciding between a career shift and going to graduate school. She helped me focus in on what I’d like to contribute to the world and navigate balancing work and personal commitments. Amber is a great listener and was able to reflect back to me my own experience. I can especially recommend working with Amber if you are at a point of transition in life and want someone who is action-​oriented.

I met Amber about 4 years ago, at Promatch in Sunnyvale. Her presentation on Life Coaching inspired me to call and make an appointment with her.
Since that first meeting, Amber has helped me work through two work layoffs, some serious financial problems, more than a few relationship breakups and family issues.
She has helped me identify ways I could potentially resolve the above problems, with role-​playing, by suggesting «homework» assignments, and by encouraging me to look within myself.
Amber has helped me to restore my self-​confidence and «positivity» on numerous occasions and to realize that I DO have wonderful qualities which help me to contribute to the world I live in.
Thank you, Amber, for helping me be the person I am today! –Gaelen–

I highly recommend Amber as a life/​career coach. In our work together focusing on career transition, she’s provided exceptional value in her ability to assess situations quickly and offer concrete tools, processes and plans of action to enable successful growth, change and resilience.

Over the past year I have worked with Amber, and with her coaching I have achieved challenging career objectives, improved personal and professional relationships, and found greater balance in my life. She helped me through several career and life transitions and with her guidance I have gained greater insight into my life. Her objective and reflective approach enabled me to change negative habits and patterns that were limiting me from previous successes and create appropriate professional and personal goals. Her techniques allow your strengths to be realized, your journey to be appreciated, and a greater sense of purpose to be obtained. I am a more confident and fulfilled individual today as a result of Amber’s coaching!