Evolving Into Your Best Coaching Self: The Inner Work of Transformational Coaches
What if the key to becoming a more effective coach isn’t found in your next certification—but in your own nervous system?
This question lies at the heart of a powerful conversation featuring Michele Rae, Karen Lawson, and Mark Roizika—three leaders in the integrative health and wellness coaching field. Their shared belief is simple but profound: we cannot guide our clients where we have not yet been ourselves.
As coaches, we’re often trained to master tools, frameworks, and behavioral strategies. But the real transformational power? That comes from presence. From learning how to regulate our own systems. From nurturing our worldview. From expanding our consciousness so we can hold space for clients to do the same.
Here are a few of the key insights from their dialogue:
🌿 Transformation Begins With the Coach
Coaching is not just about behavior change—it’s about belief change. And beliefs live deep in the nervous system. Michele Rae shares how foundational practices such as mindfulness, breathwork, movement, and nature-based rituals help her return to a regulated, grounded state. When we bring that regulated presence into a session, we create an environment where clients feel safe, seen, and supported.
It’s a ripple effect. “Our electromagnetic field extends six to eight feet beyond our bodies,” Michele notes. “When we intentionally cultivate coherence and high-frequency awareness, we change the energetic quality of the coaching container.”
🤝 Co-Regulation is a Coaching Superpower
Mark Roizika reminds us that we are social beings—wired to co-regulate. When we’re grounded and attuned, our presence has a calming, balancing effect on those around us. This isn’t just woo—it’s neuroscience. Functional MRI studies show that trusted social connections help regulate stress, lower cortisol, and boost empathy.
In essence, we become the intervention.
“Sometimes we don’t even have words for it,” Mark reflects. “But when we’re with someone who just gets us—we feel it. That’s co-regulation at work.”
🌀 Expanding Your Worldview Expands Your Impact
Karen Lawson emphasizes the importance of ongoing inner work as a professional responsibility—not just a personal one. “Who we are informs how we coach,” she says. “We attract clients based on the energy we carry. If we’re stuck, we’ll see it reflected in our coaching.”
That’s why the panelists encourage exploring altered states of consciousness—whether through breathwork, meditation, time in nature, or yes, even psychedelic integration (with appropriate boundaries and training). These practices disrupt habitual thinking and expand our perspective.
“Transformation happens when our truths fall away,” Michele says. “When we loosen the grip of our limitations and open to what else is possible.”
🧘♀️ Presence Over Prescription
At its core, coaching isn’t about fixing—it’s about being with. It’s about expanding your capacity to sit in discomfort, hold space for emotion, and trust your client’s wisdom.
The panel closes with a powerful visualization guided by Mark, inviting coaches to connect with their future selves—the part of them that is already thriving, aligned, and whole. It’s a reminder that the path forward is not about striving. It’s about remembering who you already are—and letting that version of you take the lead.
Reflections for the Journey
As you reflect on your own evolution as a coach, consider:
- What foundational practices help you return to center?
- Where are you called to expand your perspective or challenge your beliefs?
- What lights you up—and how are you making space for joy and play in your work?
There is no final destination on the coaching path. Only a continued unfolding—toward clarity, coherence, and deeper connection with yourself and others.
And when you evolve, your clients do too.