My name is Emily Boorstein, a Certified Personal Life Coach, CPCC, and Lucid Living Master Coach, LLMC. I maintain a virtual private practice based in Northern California and frequently offer Inner Fitness Programs at Rancho La Puerta. I received my BA in Psychology at UC Berkeley, and became a Certified Life Coach in 2001. As the daughter of a Psychiatrist and a Psychologist/Buddhist meditation teacher, I grew up “swimming in the waters” of self-improvement, spirituality and personal growth.

The coaching style I use comes primarily from the teachings of Lucid Living (www.lucidliving.net) and the Coach Training Institutes Co-Active Coaching model. I incorporate Buddhist philosophy, meditation, modern psychology, spiritual and metaphysical thinking, scientific brain research, practical coaching techniques, the wisdom of Eckhart Tolle, Martha Beck, Jill Bolte Taylor, Brené Brown, Esther Perel, and so many new voices in this field of wisdom and growth, along with my own personal journey to support and guide you.

I describe my style of coaching as working from the Inside-Out — combining the wisdom and spiritual traditions of the world and current scientific and psychological study, creating tangible techniques and practices for healing, awakening, and living your “sweetest” life.

My Coaching Practice

My goal is to fill your Life Toolbox with practical wisdom and skills for how to best navigate your inner and outer worlds with integrity, authenticity, more joy and less suffering. Together we laugh, cry, explore and make sense of your inner world of thoughts and feelings, building the muscles of self awareness and self acceptance. We will sort through negative beliefs and attitudes that

Here are some specific tools and techniques that I use in my coaching practice:

Dominion vs. Domination: This part of my coaching model articulates and teaches the differences between "living from love" versus "living from fear". When we can see and experience the difference between the two paradigms, we are then in a powerful place of choice. "Choice" is a significant part of living an empowered life and therefore plays a large role in my coaching practice.

The 4 Stages of Awakening: These are stages of evolution that we experience individually and collectively. I believe we are at a very exciting time in the human experience. As more and more individuals awaken, collective consciousness will evolve. These stages are: Commitment to Powerlessness, Commitment to Overcoming Challenges, Commitment to Power via Ownership and Responsibility, and Commitment to Receiving for No Reason. Through a process of self-discovery and loving-kindness, we can move out of powerlessness (stages 1 & 2) and live from our true power (stages 3 & 4).

The Multi-Dimensional Self and Living from your Joyous Adult: Although we are accustomed to referring to ourselves as a singular I or me, we are actually multi-dimensional beings with differentiated selves within. Significant healing happens when we are able to listen to the wounded voices of our "inner" child and adolescent, parent, and Negative Ego: We can learn to respond to ourselves in a new way, from our Adult voice. The Joyous Adult is the synergy of the natural and healthy energies of the "inner" child and adolescent, Nurturing Parent, Positive Ego, Future Self and Higher Self. Adults are not confined to a fantasy life of wishful thinking, but can creatively generate their heart's desires. The Joyous Adult lives from preference and choice, welcoming both successes and failures, joys and challenges, and takes loving ownership and responsibility for creating all of it. Being an adult is fun, fulfilling, graceful and highly rewarding.

The Nurturing Parent: As opposed to the Critical and Indulgent voice most of us are accustomed to hearing, within and without ourselves, the Nurturing Parent always tells the truth, no matter how grim or how beautiful, from a place of loving acceptance. Your "inner" Nurturing Parent will always inspire and motivate you to be your best, most authentic self. Building a healthy Nurturing Parent is like building a muscle; it takes commitment and practice. This process is incredibly healing and leads to a greater sense of peace and personal value.

The Valued Self: I believe that we all have the same inherent value, and we can never lose it. However, we have learned to experience ourselves as having lesser or greater value based on arbitrary factors such wealth, physical beauty, strength, achievements, career, fame, etc. We get caught up in the endless and painful cycle of "better than" and "less than".

The seven aspects of The Valued Self that I work with are: Self-awareness: the awareness that I have impact. Self-worth: my value that is given just for being. I cannot increase or decrease my self-worth, but I can increase my experience of it. Self-esteem: The love I earn from myself based on criteria of principled action. Self-love: The love I give myself by choice, for no reason. Self-confidence: The ability to cope with anything that comes my way. Self-respect: Honoring my emotions honestly and appropriately. Self-realization: Consciously directing my impact from the bounty of my love.

Emotions: Although there is significant cognitive and behavioral work in my coaching practice, there is also an emphasis on learning to trust emotions and "feel your way". We are always feeling something, even if it is numbness, so part of the process of becoming fully present means becoming aware of, and honoring, our emotions. I believe that our emotions need to be expressed as part of healthy processing. However, I do emphasize a very important distinction between expressing (feeling your emotions) and communicating (sharing your feelings with others). The coaching relationship is a safe space to express, communicate and explore past emotions that have been suppressed as well as honor current emotions.

Responsibility: Through a 4 step process of taking responsibility for all of our life, both positive and negative, we are able to regain and retain our personal power, be aware and responsible for our impact, and awaken to our most optimal self.

Empowered Relationships: An empowered relationship can happen when adults come together. A mature personal relationship is a place to give of your bounty, and to embrace the vulnerability required for true intimacy. Skills of the empowered relationship are also useful in healing family issues, even when true intimacy isn't (or doesn't appear) possible. The work environment is also an important place to cultivate empowered relationships. The focus here is not on creating intimacy between people, but rather on creating the most mature, effective and supportive working relationships where individuals communicate with clarity and have a positive impact on the business.

Creation and Manifestation: We create and manifest the reality we live every day. By becoming aware of our raw materials (thoughts, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, choices and decisions) and learning to change the negative ones, we can embrace the fun of conscious reality creation.