Life Coach Helps Clients Unlock Their Potential
by Sheila Julson
Personal life coach Debra Rossi grew up in a lively household in Michigan. With five siblings and constant activity, she developed a curiosity about people at a young age. As a teen, she was often the person her sisters and friends would turn to for advice about their problems. “I didn’t have all the answers, but I enjoyed helping them put things in a new perspective,” she remembers. “It never felt like a burden; I loved being a support system for them.”
As
an adult, the field of human resource
management parlayed her
passion for personal development into the business world. About 11 years ago, she felt a yearning for more and began questioning aspects of her
life. She started exploring, praying and journaling in an
attempt to find guidance about the next direction to take.
Through
her church, she learned about a six-week book study group called Find Your Strongest Life. “That spoke
to me,” Rossi says. The
group was facilitated by two life coaches that turned out to be the catalyst
for change she had been seeking.
Through
those life coaches, Rossi met
Dr. Jayne Gardner, a psychologist who developed the Mindset for Success
coaching program that Rossi uses for her clients. She trained in and became certified in the
program and is accredited
through the International Coaching Federation. Her personal life coaching practice
opened in 2014.
Life coaching provides the tools for change, she explains. “Life coaches help people think better and maximize their innate potential. Coaching helps them go beyond their limitations, break down their walls of fear and remove blockages to become a higher version of themselves.”
She
emphasizes
that life coaching is not therapy; it does not diagnose or treat, but helps
people focus on the present, set
new goals and become unstuck. The Mindset for Success program is
specifically designed to help people transform old, negative ways of thinking
and replace those thought patterns with new attitudes and positive energy. “This is a six-month coaching
program based on neuroscience and spirituality,” Rossi says. “It’s a great process that initiates lasting change
because it’s a brain-based approach that gets your brain circuitry connected on
many different levels.”
Part
of the program includes The Dialogues, which takes a person back to childhood
to reflect on their life growing up. Clients are presented with questions to
answer, followed by discussion with the life coach. The program encourages
journaling. “Journaling helps a person explore their emotions and feelings
surrounding the type of change they want to make in their lives moving
forward,” she explains. “We lead such busy lives and easily fall into autopilot mode. The Dialogues and the
journaling piece help people truly gain
self-awareness, which is the first step toward emotional intelligence. Journaling helps us to pause,
reflect and think about the changes we need to make in life.”
When people grow spiritually, they have the tools to create positive new changes in their world. She affirms that change is not easy, and people tend to stay in their comfort zones. Life coaching focuses on step-by-step tools developed in the Mindset program to promote growth and change. Clients learn to let go of limiting beliefs, sadness or relationships that are no longer serving them.
Rossi has noticed an increased demand for life coaching services during the ongoing pandemic. “COVID has affected everyone in some way. I think it caused us to pause and reflect on life. People started to ask themselves how, where and with whom do they want to spend their energy on in this ever-changing world.”
She shares her journey of spiritual growth in a book, Embrace the Moment: Rediscovering the Powerful Woman Within. Her life coaching workshops will resume post-pandemic. “Making a positive, long-lasting difference in someone’s life is a wonderful feeling. For me, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Rossi affirms.
Debra Rossi offers life coaching via phone and virtually for clients in Texas and beyond. For more information visit DebraRossi.com.