my journey

When I ran an organization in the mid 90s to early 00s, one of my favorite things was to craft job responsibilities and positions to naturally support a person’s unique strengths and abilities, then watch them flourish. More work got done with less effort and the organization reaped the benefits. The individual was much happier and more fulfilled.  

I spent years studying and playing with Senge, Learning Organizations, Systems Thinking and PPC, the healthcare version of the Toyota Production System. I started seeing patterns and other issues that were perplexing and not addressed by my previous learnings. My curiosity grew in regard to why some people: 

• appear more “slippery” than others – committing, yet not committing or following through.

• get shaken with feedback, while some take feedback as gold.

• get what they need without asking, while others struggle to articulate their needs and don’t get what they need and others appear to not need anything.

• become visible “heroes” while others become almost invisible.

• “play well with others”, while others go it alone, appearing to prefer an isolated, not connected approach.

It was clear to me we needed all of these people and their varied capacities. What wasn’t clear, was how to create a highly effective coherent team with this level of individual operating system diversity. I began to investigate other approaches and perspectives, which lead me to look at myself and what I was seeing in those around me.

I’ve come to deeply appreciate the self-as-instrument view of working with people and groups. I’ve delved into adult development, and seen how it’s easy to mistake those who appear to operate more smoothly as those who “can” – sadly missing key elements regarding what is happening on a greater level. 

I’ve seen the importance of relating for healthy, productive individuals and engaged work environments. Relating can feel threatening for many adults, even when that is exactly what many yearn for most. Telling people they need to relate when, at some level relating is threatening, is rarely effective.

So what does work? I am studying and learning at the intersection of Adult Development and the Healing of Early Developmental Trauma in Adults. I study these things because as a coach and facilitator, these issues and challenges often get in the way of individuals excelling and in the way of creating coherent, highly effective teams.

I am interested in how we can support the surfacing of latent capacities in individuals and groups. Supporting people in finding their full YES, their capacity to commit fully, their capacity to discover that today it is safe to see clearly and to articulate what they see. This growing capacity leads to significantly increased effectiveness and coherence, while minimizing suffering - in both individuals and groups.

Currently, my work is 80% individual coaching and 20% with groups and organizations.

individual coaching

An attentive and intuitive coach, Martha assists clients to discover and make visible what gets in the way of living their hearts desire. 

Through a collaborative journey, inviting clarity, gentle inquiry, reflection and discovery, clients begin to realize their own breadth of resiliency and depth of resourcefulness. Clients begin relaxing more into themselves and their life, despite the atmosphere of their current or past external contexts. As clients begin to see their lives and their unconscious strategies more clearly, they discover increasing possibilities and expanding capacities to connect with themselves and those around them.

organizational consulting

Martha helps organizations get unstuck. She supports participants to discover previously unconscious movements that get in the way of the team's ability to bring their desires to fruition. 

This collaborative approach reveals blocked streams that create pressure, like water against a dam. This pressure signals areas that are calling for illumination. Through the embodied inquiry, teams begin to realize underlying capacities that currently lie dormant. It’s crucial for an organization to bring these dormant capacities “online” in order to successfully navigate today’s complexities.