Debra Hickok (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Since starting her life-coaching practice over a year ago, Debra Hickok has helped busy executives bring better balance to their personal lives, worked with at-home mothers making the transition to an empty nest, and helped a number of entrepreneurs start their new lives as business owners. Partnering with people to create a new vision for their lives is what her business, Featherstone Personal and Professional Coaching, is all about.

Hickok said that work as a life coach is both meaningful and incredibly rewarding, and the best part is watching a client blossom as they grow into their vision of the future.

“I think the heart of it is being part of how people become more fulfilled,” she said.

A certified professional co-active coach, Hickok is certified by the Coaches Training Institute. Training for the profession, which is relatively new but expanding rapidly, is rigorous and thorough, she noted. It emphasizes a mutual partnership between coach and client, and coaches are taught specific skills in collaborative goal-setting in an effort to help their clients define their dreams and goals, as well as the steps needed to realize them. A good life coach will work with someone to examine their deepest values, and whether or not the decisions they are making are in line with those values, she explained.

Many clients investigate life coaching when feeling uninspired or stuck in some area of their lives, she explained.

“It can be any area where they feel like they need some movement, and they’re not sure how to be pro-active and get that movement in their life,” she said.

Sometimes the problems are very specific and require practical solutions, and a life coach can help with defining concrete steps and a sense of accountability. Sometimes the challenges are more broad and intuitive, and require exploration before a client is able to articulate a vision for the future, she explained.

Hickok said she enjoys working with people in any life stage or profession and has a particular affinity for women and the different challenges they face throughout the many phases of their lives.

Recently, Hickok worked with a client who was very unhappy professionally, but felt unable to leave her job. Working together, the women came up with a plan for the client to be able to support herself financially and leave the job to explore other possibilities. The plan also allowed her to spend more time with family and friends and rediscover some of her own outside interests as well. It was a significant transformation, Hickok said. “She moved from feeling unable to make a new choice to feeling excited about all kinds of choices and possibilities.”

Coaches and clients usually work together for at least three months, she said, although in her experience, letting the timeline conform to the client’s individual need has been a successful approach. Some clients can meet their goals within a shorter timeline, and some need six months or more to get the most from the experience, she explained. Typically, the coaching partnership is established with an initial consultation, which usually lasts about two hours. The consultation focuses on what is currently happening in a client’s life, Hickok said, with a look at particular patterns or places where he or she feels stuck. After this, coaches and clients usually talk about three times a month in 45-minute sessions, with additional follow-up by e-mail. While coaching can be done in person, Hickok has found it to be equally successful over the phone. The process is always completely confidential, she added.

According to Hickok, fees for life coaching generally begin at about $60 per hour. While some charge a great deal more, most coaches maintain openings for clients with financial need, and do a great deal of pro bono work as well.

While maintaining her private practice, Hickok will soon start a year-long leadership program that will allow her to become a coaching instructor and help those new to the profession. A 12-year resident of Harvard, she balances her career with busy weekends of soccer games, hiking, and skiing with husband Jonathan and their three children. Having achieved her own career dream of becoming a coach for others, she is thrilled to be able to help clients achieve their own goals as well.

“My favorite part of this work is after a period of time, clients will cross a threshold and make new decisions about how they want to be in the world and in their own lives,” she said. “It’s such an honor to be part of that.”

To reach Debra Hickok and Featherstone Personal and Professional Coaching, call 978-456-6804 or e-mail debrahickok@gmail.com.