ESH Coaching

Experience, Strength & Hope to find your way forward

About ESH Coaching

We believe that if deep down you feel broken and beyond repair and your life is overwhelming, you are not alone and there is hope.   We have been there too.  We read books and we listened.  We found therapists.  We went to meetings or found coaches.  Somehow we learned along the way how to grow ourselves up and heal from our wounds.  We believe that the journey to healing is done in community, not alone, and that the sharing of experience, strength & hope is a key step in the process.   

 

At ESH Coaching:

  • We are knowledgeable and experienced, but we are not superior
  • We are honest, but not harsh
  • We are encouraging, without giving people false optimism
  • We understand that there is no single solution that works for everyone
  • We can speak about difficult things with grace and authenticity
  • We don’t pretend to have everything figured out
  • We want people to feel safe admitting what is really going on
  • We respect your time and efforts and endeavor to provide substantive coaching – not just inspirational quotes.
  • We understand that growth and healing are rarely linear.

 

You are welcome here, wherever you are in your journey.  

 

Julia

Julia Calkins

Julia is the founder of ESH Coaching.  She lives in Memphis and Savannah, TN. 

What is Coaching?

At ESH Coaching we are IAPRC certified coaches and we adopt The International Coach Federation’s definition of coaching as follows:

  • Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their personal lives, careers, businesses, or organizations.

  • Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life.

  • In each meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action.

  • Coaching accelerates the client’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaching concentrates on where clients are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future. Coaches recognize that results are a matter of the client’s intentions, choices and actions, supported by the coach’s efforts and application of the coaching process.

Coaching is not counseling and is not a substitute for professional mental health care.   We believe, however, that coaching can be an integral part of your overall process in healing and growing.  

How is Coaching Different from Therapy?

In an over-simplified sense, one of the primary difference between a therapist and a coach is that therapists tend to focus more on the past into the present while coaches tend to focus more on the present into the future.  Said differently – therapists focus on “why” certain behavioral patterns occur, and coaches work on “how” to work toward a goal.

At ESH coaching we are trained in life coaching as well as recovery coaching.   Therefore, much of our work with clients revolves around the “how” of living in recovery.    See our page on Ideal Client too see more examples.  

  

How is Recovery Coaching different from Sponsoring?

Although 12 step sponsors and recovery coaches both mentor and support people in living in recovery, the main difference is that sponsors are in a service relationship with the recovering individual, not a professional one.  Sponsors support individuals working through a specific 12-step program.  They help newcomers learn about the program, how it works, what they can expect, and what the expectations are.   Recovery coaches work with individuals to reach certain goals such as attaining or maintaining sobriety regardless of the method(s) used.    At ESH Coaching we work with recovering individuals to help them develop and follow structured recovery plans.   We help to accelerate progress in recovery by providing greater focus and awareness of choices, activities, and responsibilities.

 

Here are some of the types of clients we work with:

New to recovery/sobriety

ESH Coaching works with individuals seeking to change their relationship with any destructive element in their life.   Mostly we work with those who primarly identify with the “process” addictions such as relationships, co-dependency, food, sex and love, money, work and adult children but many of these also claim chemical additions to alcohol and/or drugs.  

  • You have never been to a 12 step meeting of any kind but think maybe it could be helpful if you knew more about them
  • Your therapist has suggested there addictive patterns in your life but you don’t know what to do next
  • You just got out of treatment and want help creating a new life in recovery
  • You have been to some meetings and think recovery might be helpful but have been having a hard time getting plugged in to your local recovery community
  • You are ready to reclaim your joy, energy and vitality that addiction has stolen from you

 

Seeking Emotional/Sexual Intimacy

ESH Coaching has over 15 years working with individuals struggling with all aspects of healthy relational emotional intimacy.  Whether you are an over-pursuer of romantic and sexual relationships or you withdraw from intimacy of any kind, we can help.   

  • You are ready to stop the endless obsessive and compulsive thoughts about relationships – real or imagined
  • You or your partner have sexually acted outside your own personal moral comforts and don’t know how you got here or what to do next 
  • You love the excitement and sexual “rush” of a new relationship but are now ready to maintain lasting attachment
  • You want to stopping running and pulling away when things “get serious”

Parent of teen/young adult struggling 

If you suspect or know that your child is engaging with addictive substances, it can be agonizing trying to figure out what to do.  If your child is spiraling emotionally, your world starts to collapse. How can you help?  Are you enabling them?  Are you the cause?  At ESH Coaching we have been there and we can help you navigate complex situations within your family.   

 

People learning to improve their relationship with Food

ESH Coaching works with individuals who are actively improving their core relationship with Food.   What we eat and how we eat can be incredibly personal and primal to the human experience.  Those who struggle in this area – disordered eating, eating disordered, anorexic or binging – often feel intense shame about their bodies, their eating habits and at the core themselves.  There is hope to reduce the shame and begin a new relationship with how you nourish yourself. 

  • You are ready to feel comfortable in your own skin 
  • You are ready to stop the endless chatter in your head about food, food, food!!
  • You want to change the underlying way you think about food – not hear about a new diet