No. As long as you are open to trying and learning, no previous experience is necessary. In fact, these sessions are a great, guided way to start your mindfulness & compassion practice.

Mindfulness and compassion coaching and therapy are highly complementary; many of my clients do both simultaneously. The difference between the two is blurry, so let's name a few common myths directly.

The most fundamental and transformational part of mindfulness & compassion coaching is the relationship with your coach. Giving you a safe space in which you feel seen, heard, and supported. The practices, skills, tools are all built on top of this foundation. In that sense, coaching resembles therapy.

‍"Therapy is about the past, the story, what happened. Mindfulness coaching is about the present moment." Not fully true. In mindfulness and compassion coaching, there is an emphasis on the present moment: what is happening here and now, can we allow it, what insights are emerging, can we be kind? That said, we can talk about the past and the story of what happened as necessary. It might feel good to share it (it might help you release emotions), and it might help set the context of what we're currently practicing.

‍"Therapy involves more talking. Mindfulness coaching is more practice." Not fully true. In mindfulness and compassion coaching, the focus is on practice and skill-building. That said, we still need to talk, to understand and clarify your needs, to discuss what's happening in your life, and to debrief on what you're learning or finding challenging. But there's less of a sense of constantly circling around the same topics, and more of a focus on the body, on movement, and on the development of your skills and capacities. This is why these practices can be especially helpful if traditional talk therapy wasn't helpful for you, or even increased your suffering rather than easing it.

‍"A therapist doesn’t give advice. A mindfulness coach does." Not fully true. How much advice is given, and how prescriptive the coach or therapist is, depends on their approach, modality, and style. Personally, I don’t believe I have the answers. Only you have the answers. I therefore like to connect you to your own inner wisdom and help you learn how to access insight, sit with questions, or receive answers on your own. I might ask you to consider different views if necessary, and I will more directly challenge you and be a thought partner to you if that’s what you prefer.

‍"Coaching is about taking action. Therapy isn't." Not fully true. Mindfulness coaching is not life coaching, where there's an expectation that you take certain actions. But as you practice mindfulness, you'll find yourself naturally taking more action. Contacting your pain, being compassionate toward yourself (wanting to reduce your suffering), reflecting on who you are, what your values are, what is the life you truly want to live, will naturally move you into action. This is part of why many senior mindfulness teachers and coaches are also activists, working on some of the most complex conflicts and issues around the world. Mindfulness is not removed from the world (we’d all be super happy in an ashram in India away from all our problems!); mindfulness is about finding your grounding in this chaotic world, meeting your needs, intentionally building the life you want to live and creating the world you want to see for the next generation. Therapists, depending on their style, can also ask you to take actions or invite you to do certain practices during or between sessions.

In short: mindfulness and compassion coaching is not therapy, but it can feel therapeutic. It's coaching that helps you:
- slow down, tune into the present moment, grow your awareness and kindness
- bring awareness to the unique challenges of your life, and shift how you relate to your experiences (thoughts, emotions, body sensations, events) so that you are more calm, open, curious, kind
- connect to your own sense of who you are, what most matters to you, your values, your own inner wisdom
- find clarity on your next steps and take wise action.

‍If at any point during your coaching journey, you want to pause or stop coaching and start working with a therapist, we can openly discuss that, and I’d be happy to share some references with you!

I might also ask you to consider therapy if I sense it will help you, especially with past trauma.

Life coaching tends to focus on goal-setting, accountability, and forward momentum. Mindfulness and compassion coaching works differently: we slow down, turn toward what's actually present, and use the challenges and content of your life to build your mindfulness and compassion skills. The emphasis is on how you relate to your experience (your thoughts, emotions, body sensations), rather than on external goals and action plans. That said, sessions do produce clarity and next steps. Through these sessions and continued practice outside of sessions, you begin to see a real, concrete shift in your actions and feelings in your day to day life. The two approaches are not opposites; mindfulness coaching simply goes deeper and focuses on specific skill-building for mindfulness and compassion.

In mindfulness practice, you’ll experience many moments and states of calm and ease, and if you keep practicing in steady fashion, these states will also build into traits. You will become more aware of all the beauty and good fortune in your life.

That said, you will also become aware of the pain and suffering, both in your life and in the world, more so than you were before. In that sense, you may see that things get worse before they get better but this is only because you are now paying more attention to your inner processes (emotions, thoughts, sensations) and the true nature of things (the world).

The intention in mindfulness isn’t to relax or to feel good. It is to be present with whatever is here, and to hold it with kindness. You will see that each time you practice is very different. Sometimes we may go into a state of calm and peace, sometimes we may be restless or bored or sad or angry during the entire practice. We are practicing and we are benefiting from the practice nonetheless.

If you are surprised by how much more pain you feel now that you’re practicing mindfulness, trust the process. Trust that this is the beginning of a healing process for you, and that you will heal and learn how to hold your suffering.

People come into mindfulness with intentions such as “I want to be calmer, manage stress and my emotions better, reduce my anxiety, get over my burn out, help chronic pain, grieve a loss, be kinder to myself, enjoy life more...”

These intentions can absolutely come true, and mindfulness is backed by a large body of research in all these areas and more. But real change takes time and practice. The shift won't happen overnight. It takes months, sometimes longer, of practice: in our sessions together, and at home in between them.

Mindfulness and compassion won’t work with only an intellectual understanding, you need the mechanisms of practice. This is why you can read 100 books about mindfulness and still not be mindful, or read 100 books about playing the piano and still not be a great pianist. You need the hours of practice to accumulate.

I see many clients come into these sessions hoping for changes in a matter of weeks and without much home practice, and I see them get disappointed or disheartened, so I want to be upfront about this.

Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhism, and I'll sometimes bring in Buddhist concepts or stories to introduce an idea. But at no point am I inviting you to take on a particular belief or join a particular tradition. I'll also draw on modern scientific research, and I try to bring in a range of sources, staying as multicultural as I can.

If you're spiritual, you may find mindfulness enriches your own practice as you grow more familiar with steady attention, loving-kindness, compassion, gratitude. One client told me “mindfulness deepens my prayers."

If you aren't spiritual, that's completely fine too; you don't need to be. And if there are moments where it feels spiritual to you anyway, that's welcome as well.

Apps offer guided meditations. Coaching offers a relationship. In sessions, we apply mindfulness and compassion directly to the specific stories, relationships, and challenges of your life, not to generic scenarios. You have an expert coach who has lived the multicultural experience herself and understands your context without needing it explained. You walk away from sessions with concrete next steps, meditation recordings, conversation scripts, handouts or other resources, which provide the accountability and support you need between sessions.

Feel free to bring a notebook — many people find it helpful to jot down insights or things they want to remember.

You may find it supportive to be in a calm environment where you have privacy.

I like to call it “home practice”.

It’s not “homework” in the sense that I expect you to do it. There's no performance involved, no daily streak to protect, no pushing yourself to practice on a day you're already completely overwhelmed. It’s practice - you do it because it will benefit you. You do it as much as and as regularly as you can, so that it benefits you more.

It’s also not “homework” in the sense that it’s an assignment you can “complete”. Mindfulness and compassion aren’t things we complete or attain; they can always be deepened. Eventually they become like a way of life, a particular lens through which we choose to see life.

At the end of each session, I will make suggestions for your home practice, and I will trust that until the next session, you will sense into which practice will support you each day, how much to practice, etc.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic framework developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. It works with the idea that we all have different inner parts, such as an inner critic or a younger burdened self. This isn't a new idea: mindfulness and Buddhist tradition point to the same concept, and my teachers speak to it directly. What IFS does is take it further, offering a structured way to become aware of these parts and approach them with curiosity and compassion. This helps you stop being the part, and rest as the bigger self, the larger awareness that holds it. In our sessions, I may gently invite you to notice and turn toward your inner parts.