TurasLife Coaching

A Trusted Guide on Your Journey

As a Certified Professional Coach I have the training and skills to start you on your journey to a life that aligns with your meaning, purpose, and values. I keep your unique needs, objectives, and aspirations in mind, and support you as you create the change you desire. I help you start fresh, recommit, improve, transform, or simply get unstuck. ‘

With a background in the arts, and a major life transition under my belt, I am particularly suited to working with women who are writers, visual artists, creators, arts administrators or workers – anyone who wishes to express themself through creative acts.

Book a Free Powerful Coaching Conversation

Email me today: barbara@turaslife.com for a complimentary one-hour conversation.

I’d love to hear from you.

Why Coaching?

Focus | Illumination | Movement | Transformation

A new path calls you. Developmental coaching supports you in identifying what you want, getting insight into what’s been holding you back, providing measurable steps to take to reach your destination and transform your life.

Right away, you begin to:

• Work toward something positive in a proactive and consistent manner
• Use key insights to make transformative changes
• Practice useful new behaviours and actions that strengthen your mental muscles

Developmental coaching is practical, personal, and empowering. A developmental coach helps you refine your goal and co-creates a plan of action.

Whether your topic is personal or professional, a new interest, or long-held dream, developmental coaching leads you on a path to build your capacity and take strides forward.

Your topic is likely to fall into one of four broad categories.

Shift Your Direction

Who you are right now? Who do you want to become?

What really matters to you? Can you create a life that expresses those priorities?

Creatively navigate major life changes, such as graduation, a career change, or retirement

Awaken Your Potential

Gain confidence in who you are; overcome imposter syndrome

Build relational and interpersonal skills to support your “hard” skills

Recover from and prevent burn-out and stress

Become Your Best Self

Discover, develop, and activate your inborn creativity

Learn new habits that free you to move forward

Grow in empathy, connection, and authenticity

Improve and enrich your relationships with others

Follow Your Own Path

Understand, value, and “own” your individuality in all aspects of being

Align your path to your life’s purpose

Launch your unique self into the world with inspiration, passion, and confidence

How Coaching Works

Coaching is positive and pro-active. It is not therapy, but can work well as a complementary activity to therapeutic counselling. We look forward in a way that is transformational, creative, and effective. The Integral Coaching™ method is a tested, rigorous system that helps you identify ways that your current thinking, actions, and beliefs might block progress. Integral Coaching™ helps you achieve brand new insights and build capabilities that allow for lasting change and a more integrated path forward.

First, Consultation

• We meet for a complimentary, confidential get-to-know-you conversation • We discuss your coaching topic and why it is important to you right now • We work together to refine the topic so that it really says what you want it to say • I explain my approach and address any questions • We decide if we’re a fit and want to move forward with no obligation to continue

Pick a Program

• Using the Integral Coaching™ method, I share key insights from our introductory conversation • I propose the specific capabilities you'll need to get you where you want to go • I offer a coaching program customized to your topic, schedule, and life circumstances • Together we develop clear and achievable next steps • You provide commitment; I provide compassionate, non-judgmental, good-humoured support

Do the Work

• We meet every two-three weeks, in person or by videoconference • You talk, I listen and contribute insights or ask questions when appropriate • I assign customized exercises and reflection practices • You do the practices and exercises regularly, in a way that works for you • You log your own observations and insights as you go • Together, we continue to focus your program for maximum effect • We wrap up and celebrate your progress at a final session

2-4 Weeks

Perspective: Quick-And-Simple Support

Together, we address a short-term or immediate need. We work on quickly building some awareness, building your mental fitness, and establishing moves that you carry forward independently.

This program consists of an exploratory conversation, an analysis, and a steps-forward conversation, and is also suited for “check-ins” for former clients to refresh their focus.

2-4 months

Insight: Compassionate Awareness and a Foundation for Change

More in-depth and transformational, we meet every two weeks, identify the change or development you desire, and the roadblocks or saboteurs that may be in your way. In incremental cycles, you develop deepening awareness of the current thoughts, actions, beliefs, and fears in relation to your topic that may no longer serve you or actively hold you back, limiting your growth. Together, we develop powerful new practices to get you moving along on your new path.

Up to 6 Months

Transformation: Profound, Empowered Development and Lasting Change

This in-depth program continues the work you have undertaken in the Insight program, for clients who are seeing new avenues to explore in their coaching topic, and are eager to continue to build insights and capabilities. Through the Transformation program, you gain access to grounded awareness, deep creativity, and powerful tools and competencies for profound, lasting, embodied change. Photo: Wayne Goranson

6 WEEKS

Mental Fitness: Supports Personal Growth

This program gives you better access to the expansive, holistic, creative part of your brain, and gives you the mental muscles to improve your daily experience at work, at home, and in all your relationships. Building these muscles using Positive Intelligence expands your potential.Together, we examine the internal messages that hold you back. We look at new ways of thinking, believing, and acting that help you grow in confidence, ability and overall happiness. Photo: Eric W. Bell

About Me

I coach from the belief that we are creative beings with tremendous inborn capacity to bring about change, at any age.

“Creativity is activism.” Composer/pianist, Max Richter

I live, work, and play in Kingston, Canada (Katarokwi), on land that is the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat Peoples.
I’m interested in creative exploration of the big questions: Why am I here? What is my purpose? How do I live my most authentic life?
I specialize in helping mature, educated women develop their creativity in whatever form with confidence and a sense of legitimacy. I love working with writers, artists in all discplines, arts administrators, and creatives.
As someone who transitioned in late mid-life from a professional administrative role into the freedom, creativity, and independence of a full-time coaching practice, I have the practical experience to assist women in making this kind of jump.
I practice mindfulness meditation and yoga. I am fascinated by neuroplasticity.
I am currently enrolled in a certification program in Positive Intelligence, which harnesses the powerful neuroplastic abilities of the brain, and brings another elegant tool with which to help my clients improve their mental fitness and achieve their goals.
I am aware of my position of white colonial privilege, and mindful of the urgent need to nurture and protect the environment and all living things, and to create safe and equitable space, particularly for women, Indigenous people, Black people and people of colour, and members of the LGBTQ2S community.
I am a creative: I love to write, to act, to make art and music. I am deeply connected in my local arts community, and spent 12 years administering a literary festival, including seven as artistic director.
Family and friends are precious to me.
Read what some of my unique and valuable clients say about me, below.

News

July, 2021

I am currently enrolled in a training program with Positive Intelligence to help clients develop mental fitness, and soon will have a special offer for anyone interested in a six-week online training course to silence your inner judge, and learn empowering skills like empathy, gratitude, curiosity, creativity, self-confidence, and calm, clear-headed, laser-focused action. If you would like to know more, please contact me:

barbara@turaslife.com

April, 2021

If you’re curious about what it’s like to be coached, I have just added a “quick and simple” coaching experience (see the Perspective: Quick-And-Simple Support program, above.) This program is quick, inexpensive, and includes:

A one-hour exploratory conversation
Individualized analysis performed after the exploratory conversation (which takes me approximately 1-2 hours)
A one-hour discovery conversation where I offer insights based on our previous conversation and my analysis. The client receives a small “toolkit for change” and one new practice to try.

If you’d like to know more, please contact me:

barbara@turaslife.com

What Clients Say

Working with Barbara caused me to think about the concept of myself and the goals I aspire to with the creative parts of my brain where wonder and bravery live. Today, I have committed to pursuing my dream of working in the costuming/garment industry by accepting an offer into a full-time fashion design program. I probably would have agonized over the decision for a long time if it were not for the work I had done with Barbara. She is compassionate, perceptive, creative, authentic, and a great listener.

Currently studying couturier fashion design

Barbara is an extraordinary life coach. She has a deep understanding of others, huge compassion, and remarkable wisdom. She is unfailingly supportive, professional, and understanding. I emerged happier, more relaxed, more focussed, and better able to say yes to the things I want to pursue, including work and friendships, and no to the things that aren’t as relevant. I view my experience with Barbara as one of the most profoundly positive, helpful, and transformative experiences of my life.

Award-winning author

Coming into the process, I wasn't sure what to expect. After a session or two, however, with Barbara's support, I found my stride and ended up gaining much from the exercises and general self-reflection. As a coach, I found Barbara to be insightful, receptive, and an all-around pleasure to work with.

Graduate of law, now articling at a law firm

Barbara is incredibly kind and thoughtful. I felt the practices she gave me were tailored to my individual needs. Barbara provided a safe space and a set of tools that allowed me to deeply explore my topic in each practice and coaching conversation. I now have the opportunity to take these tools into the world, supported by all the new abilities that Barbara and I built through our collective exploration. Barbara is truly a great life coach, whom I would highly recommend.

Visual artist, building an arts teaching practice

As someone who is not naturally assertive, I found Barbara’s encouragement helped me to trust in my own capabilities and develop the confidence to take the lead and accept increasing levels of responsibility. Never directive, but always able to find the humour in things, and warmly professional, Barbara is someone whom I trust and respect. If you are ready to do the work, Barbara is exactly the kind of coach you want to support you along the way.

Arts administrator

Free Consultation

A complimentary meeting provides the opportunity to discuss your goals and to see how we can work together.

Flexible Schedule

I understand how busy life can be, so I’m happy to work together to fit within your schedule.

Fully Confidential

I respect your privacy and will never share any of your information or any details of our sessions together. An agreement will be presented in advance for your signature before beginning a coaching program.