Hello and welcome to Self Love Atlas Coaching’s 2022 update! 

I’m proud to say that I am changing a number of things about the way my business functions this year. Some changes improve the quality and flexibility of coaching relationships with my clients, while others are transitions being made to ensure that the way I run my business is in integrity with my personal values and heightened standards of quality in my industry. 

I want to do my best to ensure that all clients and readers are kept in the loop as these changes are being made. If at all possible, I want to avoid surprises, and ensure that there is no confusion. 

So in this post, you’ll find details for all the upcoming changes and updates including…

1. Clarification on clients’ power to adjust, pause, or end our coaching relationship
2. Adjustments to the standard duration of coaching relationships through SLA
3. 3 new signature coaching packages being added
4. The new pricing structure, and why my prices are changing
5. New discounts available for a range of financial circumstances
6. Updates for Founders (people who helped me get started)
7. How I’m continuing my education as a certified life coach
8. A note about the new website 🙂
9. Unlearning during Black History Month
10. My plans for the near future of SLA and my personal life

The clients’ power to adjust our coaching relationship

After taking an additional coaching ethics course through the International Coaching Federation, I decided to add a few clauses to my coaching agreements to give clients a clearer understanding of their power to change, adjust, or even end our coaching relationship whenever they choose. 

Although clients usually enroll in multi-session packages, I want everyone to know that if they at any point feel like the services are no longer benefiting them to their satisfaction, they may end the relationship at any time and not be bound to finishing out a package or paying for future sessions. 

It is my hope that this will take some of the pressure off of the commitment to a coaching relationship, and ensure that my clients know that whatever best benefits them is my priority. I will always support and respect a client’s decision to do what is best for them, even if they feel that what’s best is something different from my services (although I have yet to have any clients express that!)

Another clause being added to client contracts is…

Clients may pause the relationship once, in the event unexpected circumstances arise, at any time, for up to 3 months. 

I do understand that life is complicated, and sometimes things happen that we cannot plan for. So I want to ensure that our coaching relationship can flex with the changes and allow space for the unexpected. 

I also have noted that all clients have the power to schedule free “check-in” calls in which we can talk openly about our coaching relationship, discuss what clients would like to get out of the relationship, how I can make it even better, and how we can ensure that our time together stays aligned with the client’s priorities and goals. 

I noticed that, as clients quickly achieve their goals after our sessions, they tend to refine and move on to new personal and professional goals, which calls for a reassessment of the role the coaching relationship plays in their lives. 

The check-in calls will help me adjust and support the client’s focus as it changes, provide another space for open discussion and brainstorming, and save us time. This way, the coaching sessions can remain focused and we can use our time as efficiently as possible. 

If you’d like to know exactly what kind of language appears in SLA’s coaching agreements, check out this example agreement.

Adjustments to the duration of coaching relationships

Similarly to working with any kind of helping professional, clients get the best results when they have an ongoing relationship with a coach. 

If you hired a personal trainer, how often do you think you would need to see them to get the best results? Once a week? Once a month? Probably somewhat regularly, right? 

Coaching is similar. It is most effective over the course of multiple sessions, and the more consistently you work together, the quicker you see the benefits and results in your life. 

For this reason, I’ve transitioned from offering small packages to slightly longer ones. I believe this will greatly increase the overall quality of SLA’s coaching relationships. 

P.S. Packages will typically last anywhere from 3 months to 1 year in duration.

3 new signature coaching packages are available starting in February of 2022

The three signature packages I’m adding each serve unique client goals that I feel especially excited to work with clients on. Their descriptions can be easily found on the services page, but here’s a quick description of each. 

1. Wayfinder: This package is for people looking to map out their path to achieving a large personal or professional goal/vision 
2. Activist: This package is for people who would like to connect with their power to make a difference, expand their positive impact, and fuel their energy to avoid burnout, and 
3. Explorer: This package is for people who want to add more of a sense of purpose, fulfillment, and joy to their lives. It involves exercises meant to get you in the mindset to receive more joy and more easily locate/recognize what is uniquely fulfilling for you.

I’m also offering totally custom packages: 

These involve having a free initial talk about what you’re looking for in a coaching relationship and what your personal goals are. Then, I’ll give you an estimate for how long I think it would make sense to work together on that topic to achieve what you’re looking for. However, you get the final say in how often you’d like to work together and for how long. Once you express your preferences, I’ll structure that package and pricing uniquely for your needs. (Details on this also can be viewed on the services page)

The new pricing structure, and why my prices are changing

When you look at the services page, you’ll likely notice that I’m adjusting my rates. Typically life coaches charge anywhere between $75 and $300 per session, and business, financial, and executive coaches typically charge even more, sometimes thousands of dollars per hour. 

I’m opting for between $80 and $100 per session, this also includes access to free check-in calls, package planning sessions, free e-mail and text support (during business hours), and exercises/activities to practice on your own time. The per session rate depends mostly on how often people would like to work together (the more frequent we see one another, the cheaper per session!).

Why am I adjusting my rates? For three main reasons. 

1. My initial rates were designed to reflect and respect that I was still finding my groove as a coach, but now that I am certified (and close to achieving a second certification). I am no longer a coach in training. So, I am pricing my services in a way that is more standard in the coaching industry. 
2. I wanted to find a balance between affordable services and prices that communicate that my services are of high quality. If I charge less than what is standard for the profession, what I’m really saying is “my services aren’t that good,” but they are. All of my clients thus far seem happy with the services they’ve received, and I am committed to providing the best quality services I can. 
3. Through working with dozens of clients over the last year, I’ve learned what kind of coaching I love to do most, what structure of services seems to benefit clients most, and what I feel I’m especially good at helping people achieve. So you can trust that any services I agree to offer will be focused and have proven beneficial to others.

P.S. I’m also happy to make payment plans available upon request.

That being said, I’ve decided to honor the old pricing for any packages purchased before February 11th to smooth the transition.

To purchase a package based on my former rates before February 11th, 2022, send me an email at morgan@selfloveatlas.coach. Let me know whether you’d like to purchase 1, 4, or 7 sessions, and I’ll send you an invoice. 

Discounts available for a range of financial circumstances

To be consistent with my personal values, I’m adding new discounts for various financial circumstances including…

• Anyone with student loans (even if you’re currently a student)
• People with a disability or high medical expenses
• Individuals with past or future gender affirming expenses
• Those with incarceration history or incarceration related expenses

If anyone has an issue with my decision to offer discounts to any of the groups mentioned, I don’t want your business anyways. And if you think I should offer a similar discount to a group of people not yet listed, contact me and we’ll talk more about it. 

Updates for Founders 

There is a select group of people who helped me get my business started called “Founders”. These people know who they are, and have separate standard rates. I have updated the founder’s deal to now be 35% off of coaching packages, and friends of founders get 15% off of their first package. 

How I’m continuing my education as a certified life coach

Mentorship

I’ve recently begun a coaching mentorship relationship with grief and eldercare coach and certified end-of-life Doula, Cindey Olney Phd. This relationship is training me to use a whole list of new coaching tools, and it is also equipping me to hold space for especially difficult/troubling emotions clients may face in their lives, even in the challenging and confusing topics associated with the Covid-19 Pandemic. 

I was totally blown away by her expertise in our first two sessions together and I cannot recommend her enough to anyone who is experiencing any form of loss at this time. 

Cindy also offers free initial calls for anyone who would like to talk about anything relating to loss or grief, and encourages people to reach out even if they aren’t interested in coaching. So if you happen to want someone to talk to around any topic of that nature, I highly recommend reaching out to her. She has helped me before, and I fully believe in her ability to bring people relief even in a short conversation.

My Next Certification

I am now pursuing my second certification as a coach: ICF Certification, this will certify that my coaching practices align with the gold standard of ethics within the coaching industry. My hope is to have this certification complete by May of this year.

If you’d like to learn more about the ICF, ICF certification, or ICF certified coaches, you can check that out here.

SLA’s updated website

If you haven’t already noticed, I’ve completely revamped the Self Love Atlas website! This process took me over a month of diligent self-teaching and work to complete, and I’m proud to say that this site now looks exactly the way I dreamed it would. 

I’d like to give a special thanks to my talented photographer, Quinn Kirby (they/them) from Quinn Kirby Photography for making all of this possible. They really captured the energy I wanted Self Love Atlas to represent, and I’m blown away by their artistry.

I’d also like to thank my partner, Bradley, and my parents, Sue and Fred, for giving me feedback and encouragement throughout this process. 

Unlearning during Black History Month

Today is the beginning of Black History Month, and I’ve been looking into ways to celebrate this month appropriately and respectfully. In that searching, I stumbled across a book titled “Me and White Supremacy” and a free reflective workbook also titled “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F. Saad.

Saad describes the workbook as follows…

“This work is a 28-day truth-telling journey to guide people with white privilege to discover, examine, unpack and dismantle their inner white supremacy and their internalised racism. It is a workbook that is based on a 28-day journey that I ran for free with thousands of participants on my Instagram page between June and July of 2018. It is a one-of-a-kind resource for people with white privilege to do the internal, personal work of anti-racism. Its purpose is to educate people with white privilege as to their internalised racism, and facilitate personal and collective change to dismantle the oppressive system of white supremacy.”

I plan on going through this workbook over the next month, but mention it here primarily to share Saad’s work and this opportunity with others, in case anyone else is interested in exploring it for themselves.

Saad explicitly asks those who work through this book to NOT post their reflections online, so I will not do so. But I invite any and all comments/questions/conversations/criticisms anyone wants to offer around this.

My plans for the near future both personally and professionally

In 2022, I am prioritizing two things. 

1. My relationship with my extended family, as I haven’t been able to see them much over the last few years, and have many older/aging family members 
2. And my relationships with my clients, as I want them to feel as supported as possible throughout our work together, and I want to hold the highest of standards for the quality of services I offer. 

This means my energy will not be spent on keeping up a constant social media presence or following a strategic marketing plan. Instead, I will focus on really “showing up” for the people currently in my life.

I want to place the highest value on the relationships I already have. So I’m allowing myself the grace to invest in/enjoy those relationships fully, rather than people pleasing and spending energy on building a perfect public image.

Energy conservation is key.

In conclusion,

I’ve had a blast updating all the nooks and crannies of Self Love Atlas Coaching, creating new client journeys (i.e. packages), and building relationships with all of you both through this blog and through my offerings. I can’t wait to see the growth and the wins you collect for yourselves in 2022! 

If you’d like to catch up with one another 1:1, please schedule a free call with me here. 

And if you’d like to talk about potentially beginning a new coaching package or relationship, schedule a kickstart call with me here (also free). 

Thanks again for reading, and for your support in the beginning stages of Self Love Atlas Coaching :).

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Did this post resonate with you? If so, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment or send me a message to share your thoughts. For more uplifting content, check out some other posts on my blog, follow me on instagram @morgan_barbret, or sign up for the Self Love Atlas Newsletter!

Cheers, 

Morgan Rita Barbret