wisdom of the whole

Featured Graduate Brooke Shepard

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

Brooke Shepard, DNP, BSN, RN, APRN-NP, FNP-C, HNB-BC, HWNC-BC Brooke currently works as a health coach on a University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing study (funded by the National Institutes of Health), to test a virtual health coaching intervention. The study is designed to support heart failure caregivers and was recently expanded to include frontotemporal dementia caregivers to help improve their self-care. Brooke has also recently taken on the role of Medical Director and practicing provider for LIVE Hydration Spa, and utilizes her coaching skills…

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Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

  Most of you are probably familiar with this book by Dr. Seuss. Linda remembers gifting a copy of the book to her daughter for her high school graduation…and now she is gifting one to her granddaughter for her high school graduation! (Linda also referred to the book during class and graduation ceremonies when she was teaching at JFK university!) We’ve been thinking about the book recently because there are many people starting new things right now. Many of our students and graduates are starting…

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Integral Assessment

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

  Overall, how aligned do you feel your life is with your sense of purpose and values? Fifty percent aligned, ninety, or maybe only ten percent? We have been noticing many people expressing desires to live a life more aligned with their integrity, authenticity, and with meaning…and making substantial changes as a result. We’ve updated our former Holistic Assessment to a new Integral Assessment because we are addressing this issue as well. It’s a tool to help you identify which area(s) of your life need…

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What Does Justice For All Really Mean?

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

  With the recent verdict surrounding the George Floyd case here in the United States, we’ve been thinking about the world we’ve been envisioning for years; a world with a solid foundation in kindness, understanding, equality, fairness, and justice for all. (And we’ve worked hard to weave these principles into our coach training for years.) What does ‘justice for all’ really mean? And how do we create it? The conviction in this case was so rare that it made headlines around the world; it makes…

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How Are You Listening?

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

For those of us that have taken our coach training, we know all too well how easy it is to forget and/or get out of the habit of deep listening…because deep listening really isn’t the norm in our society; it’s up to us to make it the norm. Deep listening involves truly being present to what another person is saying without judgement, without an agenda, and without thinking about your response while the other person is talking. Different types of paraphrasing (like what we teach…

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Featured Graduate Kelley Giaramita

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

Kelley Giaramita, RN, BVEd is a Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach and Certified Cancer Journey Coach. As an Associate Nursing Program Director, Kelley offers coaching to both nursing students and faculty. In the position as a Nurse Peer Coach with Vital WorkLife Inc. national behavioral health consulting firm, Kelley empowers front-line nurses with a new vantage point to view the challenges of second victim phenomenon, burnout, and compassion fatigue. In addition, she is currently co-authoring a book and collaborating with health professionals to address…

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What Changes Do You Want To Keep?

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

Being a coaching school, talking about change goes with the territory…it’s what we do best! And we know that no matter how things may seem at the present time (whether we are talking personally or globally), we can count on our current circumstances changing. What’s important to underline though is that we can respond (with awareness) to our current circumstances and make choices to support the most positive outcomes available to us. Over the past year, many people have experienced lockdown, quarantine and/or social isolation…

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Stop, Start, Continue

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

Well, here we are in 2021! We know it continues to be a strange and difficult time in the world at large, and when the clock turned midnight on New Year’s Eve it didn’t magically turn right-side up. It will take our fortitude and resilience to keep moving forward and make positive changes in both our lives, and the world. We think a simple process of identifying what you would like to “stop, start, and change” this year can be a tremendous help, and make…

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After the Election

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

It seemed as though most of the world was watching the recent U.S. election with bated breath. There was good reason for this, because (from our perspective) the past U.S. administration didn’t operate from a coaching culture and had no plans to do so in the future. We are now optimistic that the new administration here in the U.S. will put forth a culture of respect and listening, direct feedback, fairness, inclusivity, and collaboration. Our hope is that all the structures of consciousness will also…

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The Multiple Perspectives of COVID

Posted on by Charlotte Nielsen

As our alumni and students have experienced, our coach training has it’s foundation in Jean Gebser’s Structures of Consciousness, or ways of thinking and being. In simple and practical terms, this means looking at situations/scenarios/relationships etc. through multiple perspectives/structures. The Archaic Structure: The perspective where all is well, where you are connected to all that you need. A place we try to inhabit when we meditate. All is one. There is no time or space. The Magic Structure: The perspective where tribe is important. Intuition…

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