Meet Coach Linda Ratcliff

Linda Ratcliff

Tell us about your background and what brought you to coaching.

I was born in Washington, DC, and have lived there or in its suburbs all my life. Looking back, it was a great place to grow up. I was surrounded by all types of people, from our nanny, who took wonderful care of me and whom I loved deeply, to my parents who were both mathematicians, to the scientists and professors from all over the world who visited our family and sometimes lived with us for months.

After college, I taught for 30 years, fully enjoying primary age children and then, later, teaching learning-disabled children. Their parents often dropped by for a conversation, and I learned to listen to their problems. I loved that part of the day and took courses in counseling to improve my ability to help them. After some years of retirement and feeling unsettled, I looked into counseling again and discovered life coaching, a way to help people who are capable of learning, recovering, and taking action. I love that life coaching is about the coach and the client working together, rather than the therapeutic model where the client needs help and the therapist gives it.

I’ve had lots of life experience. I’ve been single, married, divorced, and remarried. I’ve experienced family with dementia, cancer, mental illness, and death. I’ve experienced being a grandmother, a sister, and a wife. I’ve gone through hard times; I’ve had amazingly joyful times.

What is your definition of coaching?

Life coaching is a chance to plan your future rather then to just be washed along as things happen. It is a way of focusing on a future that you really want. It allows you to evaluate your goals and direction with a fine-tooth comb! It allows the client a chance to be held accountable. Life coaching is about continued growth, regardless of age. As a life coach I am there to raise the bar, to love and to support you.

Who most benefits from your style of coaching?

Men and women begin to rethink their lives around 35 and often make major changes. They get married, they may get divorced, and they may change jobs, when they start feeling that the job their parents pushed them toward isn’t what they enjoy. This is where I come in and why I called my business Life Stages Coaching.

My clients are serious about improving, even transforming, their lives. Most of them have not yet discovered their life purpose and are floundering, wondering why they are not content with their life or work. Once we begin the process of discovering their purpose, their life becomes easier, more productive, and more fulfilling. I love clients who are enthusiastic about our work together and who work collaboratively with me to achieve their goals. I love to help people who are in pain and need to find their direction and who begin to feel empowered as we work together.

I offer free consultations to see if we can work well together. Together, we design our alliance, our plan of action. I charge by the session (currently $115) and my clients do not sign agreements that force them into plans they must pay off. Most alliances last six months to a year, with check-ins as needed and desired.