Coaching helps clients cut through the whirling chaos of life to find clarity and action. The best coaching recognizes the client as creative, resourceful, and whole.

The coach brings
an open-minded, compassionate, and empathetic mind
a presence that is alive to each word and every nuance
broad knowledge of best practices in the service of the client

Coaching means being there for my clients, no matter what. I listen to my clients with unconditional positive regard, whole-heartedness, and deep attention, holding the space for them to bring their wisdom to bear.

I’ve been a practicing coach for over two decades, working at York School, a coed independent high school in Monterey, California. In that time, I’ve partnered with adolescents on everything from the challenging (like resolving a dispute with a friend, managing a healthy breakup, or choosing the right college) to the overwhelming (like grieving a death, recovering from an assault, or coordinating the steps of transitioning)…and many shades of experience in between.

At the same time, I’ve worked with parents on a similar range of experiences. As a parent myself, I know the value of being able to check in with someone who is knowledgeable, trained, and well-versed in the art of raising an adolescent, and who can understand the needs and feelings of parents while at the same time understanding and empathizing with the needs and feelings of teens.

Since going into private practice, I’ve committed hundreds of hours to coaching adults on many topics, including making a career change, caring for their aging parents, strengthening their intimate relationships, developing their creativity, and so much more. Over the years, I’ve taken extensive coursework in psychology, and I’ve completed the comprehensive training needed to become a certified professional coach through the International Coaching Federation, the gold standard in coaching certification.

These inspiring classes have not only added to my knowledge and expertise but reinforced my belief that my clients are creative, resourceful, and whole.

Before I became a coach, I was a professional actor. My training in this profession enables me to quickly engage with others in an authentic and heart-connected way. My experiences in accessing and expressing emotion, and in analyzing and evoking characters give me a unique ability to see situations from others’ perspectives while maintaining objectivity and clarity. I am comfortable with others’ emotions.

As director of theatre at a high school for gifted adolescents, I worked with hundreds of teenagers, helping them to see the world and other humans from different perspectives; to get in touch with, name, and manage their own emotions; and to identify the values they were proud of and wanted to live by.

My current private practice is the true realization of my vision: to be a partner in supporting my clients in developing a sense of agency, capability, and autonomy; building life skills, including resilience, self-compassion, and self-advocacy; and finding purpose and meaning in their lives so they may become their authentic best selves.

It’s as though all of my experiences were leading me to this calling. The truth is, I am passionate about being an advocate for my clients; I want to be there for them in their dark hours.

I engage my clients with these values in mind:
forward motion
authenticity
unconditional positive regard
serious playfulness

Yael is a graduate of Mindfulness Coaching School, and a former psychiatrist with a doctorate in theology, and over a decade of experience in higher education. These experiences provide her with a wide variety of knowledge, tools, and spiritual practices to help students and clients alike connect to their own deep wisdom and sense of purpose.

Through all each these career and academic transitions, she has been inspired by a vision of helping people awaken to the divine spark within themselves. It was finally when she took her first course at Mindfulness Coaching School that she felt she had “come home” professionally, recognizing her calling as a mindfulness-based coach.

Yael is passionate about cultivating the highest potential in each student who crosses her path, no matter the subject matter she is teaching. She feels intensely grateful to teach students at Mindfulness Coaching School, with its mission to help others adapt, integrate, and flourish in a world that is reinventing itself on a daily basis. This sort of inspired world-building is a project near and dear to her heart.

Yael now works exclusively as a mindfulness-based coach at her own private coaching practice, Bechira Coaching, where she helps people improve their relationships with their careers, their inner selves, and their romantic partners.

“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”
Ann-Marie lives and breathes her quote. As a result, she leads a rich and colorful life pursuing her interests and passions in her coaching practice and as Founder and Director of the Mindfulness Coaching School in Santa Fe, New Mexico

In the mid-seventies Ann-Marie traveled nationally with Ken Keyes facilitating consciousness growth workshops called “The Science of Happiness” based on his book Handbook to Higher Consciousness. When not traveling, she lived as a resident trainer in Ken’s educational communities of Berkeley, California and St. Mary, Kentucky. It was at this time that Ann-Marie mindfully began her journey of contributing to the lives of others and to the planet.

Taking a sabbatical from “the real world” in the early 1980’s, Ann-Marie retreated alone to India. There she lived and studied various philosophies and religions – particularly Buddhism, a tradition she has been intimately involved with ever since.

As an international coach and teacher, psychotherapist and Buddhist Chaplain, she is known for her 12-Step Wisdom, Jungian flavor, and Buddhist perspectives. While coaching, Ann-Marie utilizes Positive Psychology and Contemplative NeuroScience applications, cognitive modalities such as EMDR (for peak performance), Nonviolent Communication (for needs assessment and communication), as well as art, humor, nature, and her client’s creative transformative juices.

Ann-Marie is the Founder and Director of Mindfulness Coaching School. She coaches, students, and clinicians worldwide through webinars and individual sessions.