What is a Contemplative Coach?

A contemplative life allows us to slow down, reflect, and examine life as it is.  It creates space to breathe into our life experiences, and find meaning in the midst of what can often be a chaotic life.  However, carving out space to allow for that contemplation is easier said than done, and walking with a coach can provide the space, the tools, and accountability we need.  This coaching pulls from a multitude of spiritual and religious traditions, digging deep into the roots that have formed some of our most insightful and grounding leaders and teachers across the ages.  A contemplative coach can walk with us as we uncover our inner wisdom, helping us discover the stillness that we possess.  When we can find our inner stillness we can engage the world in a more grounded and centered way.

About Shannon

I’ve spent my life wandering in and out of spiritual and religious spaces, looking for answers and gathering tools.  This world can be so broken and heavy sometimes, and I’ve been on a life-long search for peace and meaning.

For a long time I made my home in institutional religion, but in many ways it wasn’t quite enough. At other times in my spiritual pursuits things seemed fleeting and I found myself longing for something tangible and grounding. 

For more than 20 years I’ve wandered between what has often felt like two extremes, but never feeling at home on either side.

Then it all came to a head. I had a crisis of identity when I quit my career to start a family and I felt ill-equipped to center and ground myself to ride out the storm that was raging inside.  I was in love with my family, but raising children is HARD, and often lonely work. There were many days that I didn’t even recognize myself.  I didn’t know who I was, but I knew I wasn’t who I wanted to be.  I knew I no longer wanted the career I had left behind, but I had no idea what I wanted to do in the world.  I desperately wanted to live a life of purpose and meaning, but it seemed to be out of reach.  I found myself sitting in the middle of a forest one summer screaming at the top of my lungs for someone, ANYONE, to give me some answers. I couldn’t understand why someone who wanted SO BADLY to be of use in the world would have such a hard time connecting with others, and connecting to herself.

It was then that I began the slow steady work of digging deeper.  I began to utilize some of the ancient practices I had learned along my way, but never really engaged.  I began to connect with my body in ways I had never connected before.  I began to weave together all of the education I had chased over the decades.  Slowly I pieced myself back together, that most authentic sense of self, by integrating body, mind, and soul.

What I’ve found has been beautiful.  I never found the answers I was looking for, but it turns out I never really needed those.  What I had actually been chasing was a sense of peace, a sense of calm, the understanding that I was enough, that I know who I am, and that I have all of the tools to weather the storms.

It took me years to sort it out, to compile the pieces, to put the tools to the test.  If you have experienced some of this disconnection to self, then let me offer this to you:

It’s easier to do this work in community.  It’s easier to do this work with a framework and some direction.  It’s easier to do this work with a guide and a partner who can stand with you as you take the hard and beautiful steps back to yourself.

I’ve found that my place, the sacred space that I tend, is standing in the middle between institutional/ traditional religion and what some call “woo-woo” spirituality.  Many people are passing through this space, and I stand in the middle with arms open, inviting all experiences and expressions of the sacred without judgment to engage in the very holy work of calming our souls and reclaiming our lives.

It would be an honor to guide you back to your most authentic self.