"I've known A.J. for years now, as a friend, and not in my professional capacity as a social worker, and she is one passionate ball of energy! She believes in paying forward all that she has learned on her incredible journey so far in her life. She has lead an amazing life of recovery, positive change and transformation. - Becky Moslov M.S.W.

A.J. now offers Emotional Mastery Coaching You can also read more from A.J. about Emotional Mastery on her blog on this subject and area of her coaching at emotionalmastery.net

What Qualifies A.J. To Be a Coach?

While I don't have any degrees because, despite having taken courses at the University level, I have not chosen to pursue any specific degree, I do have first-hand life experience in the trenches of recovery, healing, and creating and maintaining personal change. I know what it means and what it takes to actively engage the process of change needed to find emotional freedom and peace - to find one's promise, purpose, and passion.

There is a lot to be said for working with someone like myself who thinks and lives outside of the confines of the academic and scientific box of what often amounts to rigid "group-think". I am a much more creative and free-thinker who can apply my own creative and intuitive strengths and astute awareness gleaned from my vast life experience to being a compassionate and open sounding board for my clients.

While I am determined to maintain my "thinking-out-of-the-box" approach to things I am currently studying at University to now get a Bachelor of Arts degree. In future I will also be taking a Bachelor of Social Work degree program. I have attended college many years ago and taken a Social Service Worker course as well.

The main answer is an obvious one - her ability to meet incredible life challenges with an amazing attitude that has led her to always look for the silver lining in any and all clouds in her life. A.J. has learned that it rains in every life and that what matters most isn't whether or not it is raining but how one thinks and perceives that rain. It is much more important how we react to the reality of the rain than the fact that we have encountered the rain itself. As A.J. says, "What matters most in meeting the challenges and obstacles that life presents us with, in the rainstorms of what it means to be human, is that we find an umbrella or a way to come in from the rain and that we do not continue to choose to adhere to maladpative ways of coping that will just leave us standing out in the rain, unable to cope or effect the change we so need, standing there getting soaking wet, freezing, lost, and very uncomfortable and unfulfilled."

What qualifies A.J. Mahari to be a Life Coach is her own life experience and journey. There is nothing as rich, empowering, or even as educating, really, as having taken the journey of recovery from many difficult and challenging things in life and of knowing the lay of that land first-hand, from the inside out. A.J. is, of course also, extremely well-read. While A.J. has not sought to attain a degree she has studied Social Work at the College level as well as taken several University courses in Religious Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, and Psychology.

A.J. has been throughout most of her life, thus far, on the journey of living an examined life. Circumstances in her life gave her essentially two choices. She could keep her head buried in the sand of suffering or she could find a way to transcend that suffering. A.J. has found her way to a positive, balanced, healthier way of being and of engaging life. It is from this experiential education in her life that A.J. has found a wealth of ability to support others through their own process of engaging the living of an examined life.

On her own journey of recovery she has educated herself a tremendous amount about many aspects of healing, recovery, grief work, inner child work, moving from polarized thinking to the paradoxes that are everywhere in life and much more. She has had to go through all of those things and many more in the course of her life. A.J. Mahari has faced many challenges and she always manages to not only come through those challenges, meeting them head-on, and being much stronger, wiser, and empowered for their lessons but she also is dedicated to paying-forward her unique style of being able to communicate her experience and insight to others in ways that help them then to find more awareness. The kind of awareness that leads those who work with her to the heightened insight that motivates them to further help themselves.

As A.J. also says, "I know what it is like to be down in the trenches, or the pits, if you will, of victimization - of not only having been victimized but of having taken on this victim mentality that just keeps you stuck in such pain and suffering. I know that feeling of hopeless helplessness personally from the inside out. I know what it took for me to walk across the bridge from victim to survivor - from victim to victor - from that helpless victim mentality to an empowered responsible emotionally mature way of being in the world that is defined by me and the boundaries I set, the goals I set and achieve, the choices that I make and the application of evolving-change based upon the lessons that I embraced and learned and continue to learn in life. So much of the toxic relating that people are stuck in today has all to do with unresolved issues from the past. But, what is even more important than those unresolved issues is what you do or don't do about them and the choices that they have motivated you to make so far - choices that likely aren't working well for you in your life. The difference between living a life with codependent issues of enmeshment for example and learning to live a well-bounded yet flexible independent life have all to do with letting go of the victim mentality - a mentality that when we are in it we often aren't so aware of - that affects the way we perceive and experience most aspects of our lives."

"There are so many old patterned and habitual ways that people have learned to be that are not all that difficult to change, really, once a person decides that they have really had enough of all that doesn't work in their lives. It really is about having the courage to get, be, and stay honest with oneself. And having the courage to want to learn new ways of being in the world, and of relating to the world. We truly do, as Kibran said, have to be the change that we most want to see in the world. That change has to come from within each one of us. Each one of us has to do that for ourselves. No one else can do that for us. What I have to offer as a Life Coach is supportive, nurturing, understanding and validation for the client's journey that will reflect back the nature of what he or she needs to become more aware of to empower him or herself."

Some people allow their circumstances and challenges to define them - not A.J. Mahari. A.J. has taken the ample lessons from past circumstances and challenges in her life and re-defined her self, her passion, and her purpose. She has learned how to find and turn on that coping switch that lets hope and faith flow no matter what life presents her with. A.J. is a firm believer, as she says, "in the power of hope, faith, and determination. Each one of us has so many choices that we can make. Choices, that while not easy, are so empowering. Each one of us has his or her own power to bring to bear on any and all challenges. So much of what experience comes down to is all about choice. A major part of my work as a Life Coach and Strategist revolves around helping others to unlock this awareness within them that can then empower them to start to make the kind of new choices that can just change everything, really. There is no magical answer for anything. But, choice is the root of all experience. Choice is the root of all change. What most often hinders choice is a lack of awareness and/or a lack of understanding. That's what I am here for. I am the one, who when consulted, can provide the feedback, support, and validation that will empower the client to be able to gain more awareness and insight in ways that then empower him or her to truly help themselves, regardless of what the particular issues or challenges are."

A.J. now offers Emotional Mastery Coaching You can also read more from A.J. about Emotional Mastery on her blog on this subject and area of her coaching at emotionalmastery.net

Why Work With A Life Coach?

Many will find professional psychotherapy necessary at some juncture of the journey and invaluable in their recovery. A.J. Mahari's life coaching services can be helpful for those in therapy and those who have had therapy and are still questing for more self-understanding. There are many aspects of the journey of recovery, healing, and/or continued personal growth, regardless of what your challenges have been or still are that can be well-addressed with a life coach in a self help and peer led model of support, motivation, validation, and understanding. That's where those who work with A.J. Mahari via the online or phone (and in person where possible) services she offers have realized incredible benefits.

Many others just find themselves at different junctures in life that present obstacles to personal growth and change. Working with a life coach can help you to identify ways of creating change in your life and/or ways to cope more effectively in the process of the many "endings" that are the new beginnings in your life. New beginnings that are seeking to increase your conscious awareness to the ever-unfolding process of further awakening to your own personal insight and personal enlightenment, a step at a time.

Working with a life coach can help you to gain a new perspective from which you can shift major challenges into incredible growth opportunities and welcome what challenges you into your life instead of fearing of challenges or allowing them to hold you back.

My clients find that life coaching can also be very helpful in developing strategies to cope more effectively with on-going challenges in life as well.

Benefits of Personal Growth

• Increased Awareness
• Increased Understanding
• Self-Acceptance
• Peace of Mind
• Connection
• Goal Setting and Goal Achievement
• Perspective
• Enhanced Coping
• Defined Boundaries
• Finding Your Personal Power
• Finding Your Own Voice
• Positive Change
• Adaptation Strategies
• Transform from Victim to Victor
• Authentic Self Reclamation
• Strengthening Your Connection to Authentic Self

As a life coach I provide a caring, compassionate, safe, confidential, non judgemental, validating and supportive relationship within which clients can feel empowered to explore their present-day needs. I essentially act as a human mirror for my clients. I share with my clients an outside and unbiased perspective as to what I observe in listening to their feelings, experiences, and concerns.

Personal Coaching is not counseling, therapy or consulting.

If you would like to get more information about my life coaching sevices on the above listed issues or an issue in your life that isn't listed above please email me at: touchstonecoaching@rogers.com

as of June 15, 2003
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