Career Design & Leadership Coaching
Offered virtually to clients around the world. Based in Portland, Maine, USA.
ICF Certified (Associate Certified Coach).
“Rebecca has a true gift for coaching. At the time that I hired her, I knew I needed to find a new career, but had no idea what I wanted to do next or what the possibilities were. I had been feeling very stuck, and very lost, for quite some time. A mere ten minutes into my first session with Rebecca, I felt excited and hopeful about my future working life, for the first time in years!”
“Rebecca was like a life raft for me when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my career, and how to get there.”
My Coaching Focus Areas
career DESIGN: clarity & confidence ABOUT CAREER DIRECTION
Feeling unsure what you want next out of your career? Rebecca’s use of design thinking provides a structured, grounded approach to figuring that out.
Clients seeking Career Design Coaching describe themselves as feeling “lost,” “confused,” “stagnant,” or “unfulfilled.” They want support addressing questions like:
Should I stick with my current career trajectory or should I make a change?
I know I need to make a substantial change in my career and/or life trajectory, but where do I want to go? How will I be certain the new path is the right fit for me?
Is there a way to make powerful incremental changes rather than a giant, life-altering change? How do I decide which route is going to work best for me?
It typically takes about 8 to 12 sessions of coaching to complete the clarity and change arc (assuming the client commits to doing Action Work between sessions).
Leadership coaching
I help executives and managers double down on what they do best in a manner that feels natural to them, leading them to be optimally effective, engaged, and inspiring. By focusing on specific work challenges the client brings to the session, collectively brainstorming the ways they could be handled, and then creating actionable next steps that can be put into practice immediately, clients’ confidence, impact, and satisfaction at work increase.
In sessions we work together to strategize possible solutions to your challenges and then thought partner around iterations on approach as you attempt and troubleshoot implementation. Progress is best made by bringing real world, current work situations into sessions and then generalizing the solutions to a variety of future situations.
Leadership coaching is offered in six-month increments, which includes up to three sessions per month.
More information about my leadership coaching can be found on this page of my website. The remainder of the current page focuses on Career Design Coaching.
“Rebecca is the best! Truly instrumental in navigating career ambiguity and helped me tremendously in honing in on what gives me energy, passion, and purpose. For anyone (of all ages/career stages) looking to make a next step that provides meaning and fulfillment in their career, Rebecca will help tremendously. ”
My Career Design Coaching Philosophy and Approach, in audio form:
“Rebecca’s warmth, attentiveness, and expertise made me feel at ease, and she helped me identify my core values and strengths, aligning them with my career goals. Her focus on career fulfillment and the impact was refreshing and inspiring, and with her guidance, I developed a clear plan of action.”
“I discovered myself again because of Rebecca. I only wish I found her sooner.”
my process for career design coaching:
I have been trained in the four-step design-thinking-based Pivot Method to change, created by author Jenny Blake, which is used iteratively on both a micro (within session) and macro (across sessions) level with my career design coaching clients
Plant: Who are you and what do you uniquely bring to the table?
Scan: What opportunities or approaches are out there that fit who you are?
Pilot: In what low-cost ways can you actively test out the opportunities or strategies that seem like the “best bet” for you?
Launch: How do you dive all-in on a direction that you’ve found to be promising through both introspection and real world testing?
Populations:
I’ve worked with people of all genders and just about every ages and career stages, but most of my clients are mid-career professionals between 29 and 59 years of age.
Over the past decade I have worked with hundreds of coaching clients from a wide range of backgrounds, in addition to thousands of college students and alumni who were figuring out their career paths. The professionals with whom I have worked include:
Creatives, like novelists, essayists, composers, editors, and visual artists who have been reviewed widely, including in the NYTimes, and who have been featured at major events like SXSW
Executives through interns in countless fields, working at or transitioning into small to large corporations, including Apple, Meta, Spotify, PayPal, Citi & Goldman Sachs
Employees & executives at nonprofit organizations and in social services & health, including at national nonprofits like Planned Parenthood and Teach for America
Entrepreneurs & business owners
People from all walks of life taking a planned sabbatical
“This woman is incredible! Rebecca coached me through an intense period in my career and helped steer me into my dream job, into the perfect role at exactly the right time in my life. She doesn’t have magical powers, but what she does have is a seemingly endless supply of compassion and empathy, backed by FACTS and research (which she shares with you). I have honestly never felt so supported or “heard” before.”
Other key notes:
I do not have an industry focus; the methodology to change is the same across all industries - and the true experts in the ever-changing fields of work are the people doing the work. Given this, if you’re exploring a new industry to you, I work on helping you identify and utilize your network to talk to people doing the work you’re most curious about.
I am an expert on the “how” of change and deep career engagement. You are the expert on you, what’s available to you, and the people and opportunities that are around you that can help you. I help you unlock your own expertise and empower you to act on that knowledge.
During coaching you must put in the work - and it is a good deal of work. No coach is going to offer an array of jump-right-in career opportunities and lay them out before you. Coaches simply can’t do that, to start. Even if I could, you’d be no stronger for it the next time you needed to make a change (which is often in a long lifetime!). My goal in coaching is to help you learn and utilize an “efficient and effective” skillset and mindset that you can rely on repeatedly - whether as you change careers, move up in your professional track, settle into retirement, adjust to variations in your family unit, or deal with unforeseen events on a personal or global level.
Coaching is markedly different than therapy, both in its structure and in its goals. I am trained in psychology but NOT in clinical psychology, nor do I hold a license in therapy or counseling. Most of my clients are in therapy at the same time that they undergo coaching, and the combination is highly effective for making meaningful changes.
All in all, this is coaching for working - and living! - well. If you’re looking for the “something that’s missing” in your work, the Pivot method to change and my personal approach to coaching can benefit you.
My coaching was featured in Business Insider:
“Career coaching left me feeling empowered to go for what I want professionally. It helps to have a cheerleader. Over the course of coaching, I learned that, for the most part, no one knew how much “extra” work I was putting in — except Fraser-Thill, who congratulated me at the beginning of every phone call for making inroads on the action work and wrote things like, “You are on fire!” in her follow-up emails. She couldn’t see me, but I grinned every time.”
Read an unbiased overview of what it's like to go through my career coaching, according to a Business Insider reporter!
How I Work with Career Design Clients:
45-minute sessions on the phone or Zoom video, held approximately every two weeks
Each session is jam packed with clarifying questions, brainstorming, strategizing, prioritizing, accountability, and emotional and logistical support
“Action Work” between sessions
Throughout the call, we discuss the steps you can take between sessions, quantifying and concretizing your most effective next actions
Action Work might include responding to writing prompts about your vision and goals, taking a personality or values self-assessment, or finding a certain number of people to informational interview to see how they’ve crafted their lives to be maximally fulfilling and impactful
At the start of the next session, we check in on how the Action Work went and troubleshoot the process as needed
In-depth and personalized coaching processes:
Application of design thinking and the Pivot method to change and improvement
I was a member of the inaugural Pivot method training cohort of five coaches, through which she became skilled at supporting clients through the design-thinking inspired stages of plant, scan, pilot and launch created by sought-after author and career coach Jenny Blake. Pivot is a method I genuinely believe in because it's natural and intuitive while also being thorough and pragmatic.
Suggestions of resources as needed, including worksheets, self-assessments, books, and templates, carefully chosen for your particular situation and approach to the world
I sift through the overwhelming abundance of information available online and in bookstores and offer you just the ones that will help you make your vision a reality. Think of me as your personal curation machine!
“Rebecca has done nothing short of changing the course of my career. I cannot recommend her highly enough!”
What You'll Gain from Career Design Coaching:
Clarity - and the amazing sense of direction and purpose that come with it
Enhanced meaning and purpose in your work - which will enhance your life, too!
A tactical, strategic plan for both short-term and long-term progress toward your goals, including crafting your existing life and work to better fit your needs and desired impact
Accountability so that every goal is reached - and troubleshooting to get back on track when things aren’t clicking
“I cannot recommend Rebecca enough for anyone who’s struggling with their professional trajectory. You will not regret it! I only wish I had thought to work with her sooner.”
There are a zillion coaches out there. How am I unique?
I constantly draw on my research-grounded background in psychology. I taught in higher ed for two decades and hols a master's in Developmental Psychology from Cornell. Science is my foundation.
I use design thinking to guide my process of coaching, taking a methodical and directed approach to the process of moving from where you are to where you want to be. My approach is grounded and intentional.
I am one of only 10 Pivot certified coaches in the world, trained directly by esteemed author and coach Jenny Blake.
My work has been covered in a variety of outlets, including Bloomberg Businessweek, The Oprah Magazine, The Zoe Report, The New York Post, and others.
We work together to devise concrete and specific "Action Work" to be completed between sessions so that you move forward as efficiently as possible.
I have had clients around the world - in nearly every inhabited time zone!
“When speaking with Rebecca, it feels like she ‘gets’ it. She is an amazing listener, she is engaged, and she always asks thought-provoking questions. I felt that I was at a standstill, and working with her has helped me regain some momentum as she has helped me set short-term goals and keeps me accountable.”
“Rebecca is a great career coach. She helped me clarify my career objectives and brainstorm next steps that are aspirational but still reasonable. After four productive weeks with her, I feel much more confident about where I am heading with my career. I definitely recommend working with her.”
Testimonials Are Available Here
Pricing
Happy to discuss the investment for Career Design Coaching over email and/or in an Intro Call.
Now holding Intro Calls for 2025 start dates. Click here to fill out an interest form
I offer a Buy Now, Pay Later option via PayPal.
I’m happy to bill employers!
Do you have access to professional development funds to pay for coaching? Many of my clients pay $0 out of pocket because of them
Check out my Forbes article on the topic of professional development funds to learn more
“I highly recommend Rebecca for anyone feeling “stuck” and in need of someone to talk to / help structure their approach to their next pivot.”