Jeannie Forrest • PhD
I approach coaching as exploring a path to your most powerful contribution, then making the implementation of next steps feel almost effortless.
Sometimes that means finding new places for you to shout “yes!” Or having the courage to stand firm with a “no.” My job is both to encourage you to see your ordinary leadership through fresh eyes and to probe the known to know it more deeply or differently.
A posse ad esse— from possibility to actuality —is the center of our work.
Occasionally during coaching sessions, I think of Dr. Ignaz Simmelweiss, who painstakingly figured out that he and his colleagues were killing women in childbirth with their dirty hands. Once he got clear, he fiercely took steps to change the system—we owe him for introducing hand disinfection--but first, he had to figure out his own role in the process.
Most of us don’t have jobs like Dr. Simmelweiss, but we all can deepen our self-awareness and bust old patterns to become more powerful and joyful in our roles. My coaching partners with you to play scientist and strategize about growing new patterns.
My complex work-life experience informs my coaching as much as my credentials.
The first decade or so of my adult life was on a Montana cattle ranch — many of the skills and metaphors I acquired from that time still linger. (And yes, I’ve seen Yellowstone and, other than the scenery, no, it’s not like that.) A long stint as an AIDS educator/activist shaped much of my philosophy about life and death. I completed my clinical psychological training while I was working with elite law schools (and those are quite different from pop culture portrayals, too). I’m a mom with amazing adult children, beautiful grandchildren, and a stubborn dog named Cookie Minerva Prune.
Through it all, I developed the power of noticing and making connections. Clinical work further convinced me that absolutely anyone can generate insights that will shift their behavior for good.
My coaching philosophy is definitely all tangled up with being a psychologist. While coaching is different than therapy (I won’t wander into your childhood trauma or family drama, for instance), there are some perks of working with a shrink as a coach. In addition to surfacing invisible patterns to make them seen and manageable, it really is the most opulent, luscious experience to be really heard.
I’m committed to these things in our co-creation conversations:
That what we do will be of practical use to you;
That it will cultivate your relationship to your own wisdom;
That it will inspire you to fruitful action.
And for reference, the credentials…
Member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF)
Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) certified
Talent Smart Emotional Intelligence certified trainer
Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, NYU Steinhardt
Vice Dean, NYU School of Law
Associate Dean, Development and Alumni Relations (led $400 million capital campaign)
Communication Theory at the University of Utah