Hello,
My name is Amy Cole and I'm a Board Certified Life Coach and a Licensed Professional Counselor.
When I was a young girl in junior high, I took a career assessment test that reported I might be most suited towards the helping profession or teaching. I didn't "think" I wanted to do either. As a matter of fact, I didn't know what I wanted to do, and was a long way from learning about personal choices. I went to high school and graduated and didn't go to college. During this time, I always had a gnawing in me that there was something more, and a set of strong personal values that were emerging, that I didn't yet know how to identify. After college I ended up in the finance field and worked to try and accomplish something in that arena. I had minor successes, wasn't necessarily focused, and lacked meaning in my life. I did have a lot of interests and hobbies, one of which was reading. I would frequent bookstores often, and curiously, I would always, without fail, end up in the self-help and psychology sections, as though I was drawn there, through no will of my own. Reading material from this area was a passion. I did it for the sheer fun of it. I also spent a good deal of my time volunteering to "help", yet, a void was still present. I made several false starts to go back to college, majoring in business, with mediocre results. My heart just wasn't in it. Then one day, I had an insight, I really did look in the mirror and I said, "If I have the privilege of being alive at the age of 40 (the age of 40 was old to me at that stage in my life) I want to be doing something I love and something I'm passionate about." At that point, I set my personal course to figure out what that was. I did a lot of soul searching, more lamenting than what I would like to admit, had many "dark nights of the soul", sought personal values clarification and self discovery, and realized that what I needed to do, always existed inside me, and was even calling out to me, I had just failed to really listen to what was being said.
I knew that it would be work and the road before me was going to have challenges, but I enrolled in a four year program in psychology, that I completed in three years, followed by a masters in counseling program. The interesting thing is, for me, the class work was not work. I desired to hold on to every bit of knowledge that was being given out. My cup was actually being filled for the first time in my life. I wanted to immerse myself fully in what I was learning, but most importantly, I wanted to use it. I was beginning to tap into a personal passion.
I have spent the year’s since that time, learning and working in this field. Over the course of time, I began to realize what my personal passion is and what I have to offer and give in this life. From my vantage point, I have had the opportunity to work in mental health and life coaching. I have seen severe and persistent mental illness, people and families struggle with addiction, children and adolescents cope with unfortunate life situations (through no choice of their own), people coping everyday with less severe mental health issues, and average individuals who struggle every day, with a general sense of unhappiness, lack of clear values, and living a life that they would not necessarily create for themselves if given the choice. But, herein lies the dilemma—we do have a choice. We have a choice everyday to create for ourselves a life we desire. That is my passion; to teach people how to figure out for themselves what their passion is and to live a meaningful and joyful life. My personal mission statement is; I want to assist others in creating, inspiring and knowing, reverence for life, for personal development.
I still work toward honing my passion, I’m not sure that will ever cease, and I know I don’t want it to. I still read from the self help/psychology section for the plan joy of it. I choose to be a student of this life and embrace people where they are, right now, with no judgment, and help them to create a plan for where they want to be. A plan, through choices they make. I don’t think I could choose anything more for myself, because in that is when my heart sings.
I didn't arrive at my chosen profession easily or necessarily by choice, but believe I am called to do the work I do, from life experiences, and also from the talents I have been given. One thing I know, the talents you are given do not stop nagging at you when ignored, but persist in the demanding that you own them. You can either own that voice and those talents willingly, or you can continue to deal with those persistent feelings within you, in some uncomfortable way, throughout your life. The choice is yours. My vision is to be a part of your journey.
