My Coaching Practice Feels Like My Studio Practice

photo by Agnethe Glatved

Over the past 30+ years, my ceramics practice has been my teacher and guide. It’s where I first learned how to stay—with uncertainty, with imperfection, with not knowing. This creative space is held with care; there’s room to breathe, to explore, to shift, to learn.

Porcelain demands presence. You have to work with it, not against it. Force it or rush it, and it cracks. But meet it with attention and curiosity, and it reveals something you couldn’t have planned. During the slip-casting process, I partner with porcelain, glaze, and kiln firings. I offer my attention and awareness, and the final form is the result of a collaborative journey.

I bring the same presence to my coaching practice.

I’ve learned not to control the coaching process, but to partner with it. To allow room for surprises, insights, and emergence. To follow the thread of focus—or feeling—wherever it wants to lead. To trust that something significant will take shape—even if we don’t quite know what it is at the start.

In the studio and in a coaching session, this is my practice:

• Staying with whatever comes up.

• Not forcing a result.

• Creating a brave space where something new can appear.

This is how creativity is supported, and how change happens—not through pressure, not through “shoulds,” but through presence, exploration, and awareness.