Sometimes life cracks us open.
Other times, it calls us deeper.
Either way, the invitation is this:
to set down what's no longer ours and move closer to what is.
To create a life that feels like ours and allows us to be of service with our unique gifts.
To speak and act from a grounded center.
To feel at home in our own skin.
To tend relationships that are generous, generative, and reciprocal.
To live more boldly, more bravely - in full color.
Maybe you're at a crossroads in your work or life. Navigating complexity that defies simple answers. Ready to question inherited patterns and live in greater alignment. Wanting to be led by desire rather than fear and to reclaim who you are beneath the shoulds, musts, and have tos.
Wherever you are is where we begin…
What Is Coaching?
Think of coaching as thought partnership for navigating fundamental questions about how you want to live and lead.
We’ll work together over months, weaving together deep excavation, creative exploration, and wise action. Sometimes you’ll need to talk things through. Sometimes we’ll explore through making or writing. Sometimes we’ll just sit with what's emerging.
I'm not here to give you answers or fix you. I AM here to help you discern what's true, question what you've inherited, and figure out what you actually want to do about it.
We go deep. We get creative. And then we figure out how insights become action in your real life today, tomorrow, next week.
Together we might explore…
Your Work and Leadership
Maybe you're stepping into a bigger role and your old playbook is calling to expand. Maybe you’re finding your voice in spaces that weren't built with you in mind. Maybe you want to lead in ways that feel like you, not like someone else's template.
Your Life & Identity
Maybe you're at a crossroads where the life you built doesn't fit anymore. Or trying to integrate the different parts of who you are - your cultural identities, your professional and personal selves. Maybe you're ready to design what comes next with intention instead of defaulting into what’s familiar.
Your Expression and Contribution
Maybe you want your work, your writing, your leadership, your creative practice to actually feel like yours. Or you're tired of performing or playing small. Maybe you want to contribute meaningfully without burning yourself out.
Coaching might be for you if…
You're at a genuine inflection point - questioning not just what you do, but how you want to live and lead;
You want to go beneath the surface, not just collect tips and tactics;
You're tired of compartmentalizing - leaving parts of yourself at the door and choosing between authenticity and effectiveness';
You trust your intuition and your body's knowing, not just your thinking mind;
You care about alignment between your values and how you actually live and lead;
You're ready to unlearn what no longer fits and curious about what becomes possible when you do
What People Are Saying About Coaching
"Working with Alice helped me integrate aspects of leadership I had been taught to suppress particularly my intuition, my emotions, my lived experience as a woman of color. By reconnecting with my inner wisdom, I've become a more effective and authentic leader."
-Victoria, Founder & CEO
"Alice sits with me in beautiful and uncomfortable realities. She helps me imagine possibilities I can't yet see. Working with her is one of my greatest joys. She enriches my life, “gets” me, and asks fabulously intuitive questions."
-Jenn, Consultant, Author, Mother
“Trough insightful questions, provocative exercises, and an earnest ear, Alice has helped reveal new dimensions to my values, holdbacks, and dreams. She challenges and affirms me in equal measure. Through our work, I’ve become a more grounded human, father, and leader. I’m navigating the sometimes heartbreaking realities of the world with more hope, compassion and creativity.”
-Rob, Founder, Strategist, Father
The Practicalities
How it Works
Start with a consultation to explore whether we're aligned. Investment varies based on scope and length. We'll discuss this in our consultation.
If we work together:
Meet every 2 weeks for 55 minutes
Typically 3-6 months minimum
Video and/or phone calls with asynchronous support between sessions
Our rhythm evolves based on what you need.
Are you the coach for me?
It’s a good question, and I'm glad you asked.
My style and approach often resonates with women, leaders from underrepresented backgrounds, third culture individuals navigating multiple worlds, and people who've spent years overriding their inner knowing.
If you're walking in two worlds at once - the one we're living in and the one we're trying to create - and you know that personal transformation isn't preparation for collective change but part of the work itself, we might be made from the same fabric. Let’s chat and see.
-
I'm Alice Chen, and I've been in human development work for 18+ years—starting in education and community organizing before moving into leadership and personal development.
I hold a Bachelor's degree in History, Geology, and Theatre (yes, all three) and a Master's in Education. I'm a Certified Professional Coach (CPC), a yoga teacher, and I have certifications in everything from trauma-informed coaching to strengths-based development. I'm also a mentor coach, which means I train other coaches in their craft.
I've worked with Fortune 500 executives navigating complex leadership challenges and with people rebuilding their lives after major transitions. My clients have ranged from tech founders to mothers reentering the workforce, third culture individuals to leaders of color in predominantly white spaces.
But here's what matters most: I'm also a creative with my own daily making practices. I sew most of my own clothes, knit, create art, and approach life as an ongoing design project. This isn't separate from my coaching work—it's integral to how I think about transformation. I believe we become different by doing different things, not just thinking about them differently. So my approach weaves together reflective practice, creative exploration, embodied work, and multiple wisdom traditions.
The people who work with me tend to value this integration—they want someone who understands both the strategic complexity of leadership and the messy, creative process of becoming.
-
Both. I don't separate professional and personal; we work with the whole of who you are…when you’re at an inflection point.
If you're looking for strategic leadership or executive coaching, that work lives at Wayfinding Wisdom.
-
Therapy is clinical healing work with licensed mental health professionals. It’s often focused on diagnosis, treatment, and processing past trauma. Coaching is creative partnership focused on growth, transition, and building forward. I'm not a therapist, and if you need clinical support, I’m happy to direct you to people I know who do this important work.
That said, I'm trained to hold deep emotional work. We'll touch tender places. You might cry. We might work with grief, anger, longing. I can be with all of it. And I'm also attuned to when we might be approaching clinical territory. If I sense you need therapeutic support I haven't been trained to provide, I'll name it and help you find the right resource.Many people work with both a therapist and a coach. They complement each other beautifully: therapy for processing and healing, coaching for building and becoming.
-
The shifts that happen in coaching aren't always the ones people initially come looking for, though they are usually connected.
For example, you might arrive wanting clarity on your next career move and leave with something deeper: a different relationship with your own voice. A willingness to want what you actually want. Or a steadiness you didn't have before.Here's what clients often name when they look back:
Clarity on what they value, what they want, and what they're ready to release
Confidence — less the superficial kind and more the kind that comes from knowing yourself more fully
Language for things they’d been feeling but couldn't quite articulate
Permission to want more, take up space, and design a life that actually fits
Direction — a sense of what's next that feels chosen, not defaulted into
A Plan of Action that's grounded in who they actually are, not who they thought they were supposed to be
A good many also walk away with concrete things: a decision made, a conversation finally had, a next step claimed. What tends to stick longest though is the inner shift. Many clients report that coaching was an inflection point experience for them - one that changed how they moved through everything that came after.
-
There's a container. There's no curriculum. :)
Each session (55 minutes, once a month OR every two weeks) has a natural arc:
We check in. How are you? What's come up since we last connected? What's alive for you right now?
We align on a thread to follow. Sometimes you arrive with something specific. Sometimes it surfaces in the first ten minutes.
We explore it together. Through conversation, reflection, writing, creative prompts — whatever the moment calls for.
We land. With insights that feel true. With one or two things to carry into the week.
What we don't do is follow a workbook or march through predetermined modules. You're a living, breathing human being, not a problem to be solved on a schedule. You're a person in motion, and our work will always follow YOU.
Most people begin with a minimum of six sessions — long enough to move past the surface, establish trust, and actually let something shift. Many continue for several months. The arc of our work together takes shape as we go, evolving based on what you need and what's emerging.
My goal is to create a container for your unfolding that is structured enough for you to feel held, and open enough to go where you actually need to go.
-
Not exactly. AND I'm won’t pretend I don't have thoughts. ;)
Coaching isn't consulting. I'm not here to tell you what to do, and honestly, I don't think that's what you need. Today’s world is saturated with advice, and you’ve probably already received plenty of it. What's harder to find is someone who will help you hear yourself more clearly. That’s my role!
This being said, I'm not a blank slate. I'll reflect back what I'm noticing. I'll name patterns I see. I'll ask the question that's sitting in the room that nobody's asked yet. And when I have a perspective, a framework, or a resource that feels relevant, I'll ask your permission before I offer it, and then I'll invite you to decide what to do with it.
What I'm always working toward is your discernment, not your dependence on mine.
I'll challenge you, not direct you
I'll offer observations, not prescriptions
I'll hold the mirror steady and let you decide what you see
My goal is for you to leave each of our sessions more connected to your own knowing, not more reliant on mine.
-
I hear it a lot: I know something needs to change. I'm just not sure what. But my job is part of it.
This uncertainty is exactly where we begin.
If you're facing a career transition and simply looking for someone to audit your resume, map out a job search strategy, or hand you a step-by-step roadmap, I’m likely not the person for you. However, I can support with all the things that often come first. I can help you:
Get clear on what you actually want — not what looks reasonable on paper, or what you've been told you should want
Name what's kept you stuck, small, or performing a version of yourself that doesn't quite fit and start to unlearn it
Rebuild a relationship with your own instincts, so the next chapter is actually yours
In my experience, the practical usually follows the personal. Clients who do this work find themselves better equipped to assess opportunities, articulate their value, and make decisions from a grounded center rather than from anxiety or obligation.
So yes: I can help you get to the plan of action. And first, we make sure it’s a plan worth making. :)
-
My approach integrates reflective work with creative and embodied practices. I draw on multiple traditions, and I'm not neutral. I'll reflect back honestly what I hear, offer perspective when appropriate all while inviting you to claim what feels true for you.
-
Investment varies based on scope and length. We'll discuss this in our consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to connect and learn more?
