Trudy Kendall, CPCC, PCC
So what makes me qualified to help you? My teenage years were not fun – they were downright painful. In a nutshell, I felt lost, confused, fearful of the future, misunderstood, and, ‘rebellion’ was the name of my game. Nor were those years fun for my mother. I can’t begin to imagine the frustration, anger, and fear that must have driven her nearly insane at times. (Sound familiar?).

When I see the challenges that mothers face today raising girls, I am stunned. Someone should just get a huge supply of Purple Hearts and hand them out at high-school graduations to all the Moms in the audience for all that they go through - and Purple Hearts for those Dads too!

I believe my mother did the very best she could to parent my two sisters and me, and I think she would have benefited tremendously from someone to support her throughout those very challenging years. I believe my life would have been very different had she had some support. Because of my rebellious attitude and actions, I am sure my parents seriously doubted that I’d make anything of myself in this world or be successful.

And, lo and behold, my life is just fine and dandy! I have a very happy life – a wonderful husband, loving friends and family, work that I love, and a sense of myself that grows more powerful and grounded. It took me awhile to get to this place though. I spent years in relationships that weren’t healthy, in jobs that weren’t fulfilling for me, and my spiritual awareness was pretty non-existent – I guess you could say I was asleep at the wheel. I did, however, know that something more was out there for me – meaningful work and relationships – and a journey of spiritual awakening. As I traveled along the path of life changes I had a coach who really helped me get my head on straight and begin to create the life I truly wanted – rather than just putting-up with and struggling with the one I had.

I had spent many years in management in a large, international engineering-construction company in San Francisco working with hordes of people on enormous projects all over the planet. Because I got thrown-out of college when I was 19, and didn’t return until I was 30, I spent many, many years going to school at night while I was working full-time and earned a degree in Business and Humanities – magna cum laude, I might add! (I add that just so you’ll realize that there IS hope for your daughter!) Anyway, what I liked best about my work was the people, and in 1990, in addition to my management responsibilities, I became an internal corporate team coach. It was this work that lead me to become interested in life coaching, to leave the corporate world, to create my own coaching business, and ultimately to coach mothers with teenage daughters.

In 1998 I received my credentials as a coach from both The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and the International Coach Federation. In addition to having my own coaching business, I work as a director at CTI. I also work with individuals in advanced training to become coaches giving them feedback on their coaching, and I am a coaching certification examiner. I have taken advanced coaching coursework with Lucid Living in Northern California, where I strengthened my ability to coach in those extremely challenging places – those places that when we get over to the other side of them – we know something within us has profoundly shifted.

Motherhood Ain’t Easy – and profound shifts of perspective and consciousness can make a world of difference. Read more about profound shifts in About Coaching.