We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erin Merrihew. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erin below.

Erin, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

There have been a number of defining moments in my career, several of which happened before I even became a coach—but in hindsight, I can see that they were instrumental in shaping my professional path.

The first was my choice to leave my undergraduate studies after freshman year and backpack solo through 13 countries in Latin America for 8 months. I was 19 years old at the time. I can’t explain it as anything but a calling: I felt unhappy and restless in school, and I craved experiences that would expand my heart and mind in ways a classroom couldn’t. Those 8 months powerfully influenced who I am today. When I look back at taking that leap to take time off from conventional education and explore the world, it feels like a symbolic choice. It was the first time I found the agency to guide my life according to my deepest longings and intuition.

My next big defining moment was leaving a long-term relationship with my ex-boyfriend in my mid-2o’s, along with the business we were building together (a youth hostel on his family’s property in Bolivia). I look back on this as my greatest heartbreak, and also the beginning of the most intense transformational period of my life. This abrupt loss was a catalyst that propelled me to seek out healing resources and deep personal growth for the first time. I connected with a therapist. I started taking communication classes, attending personal growth retreats, and devoting much of my spare time to my own inner work. I found a community of people doing the same. This was what led me to connect with my first mentor—the person who ended up being the reason I developed the skills, confidence, and courage to leave my day job and start my own business!

Which leads me to my last defining moment: leaving my job as a research assistant in Native American public health to become a coach in 2015. I had such a strong emotional drive to succeed as a coach, mostly because I was so in love with the work itself. I lived in a friend’s parents’ basement for 7 months rent-free while I built the business. I poured my heart and soul into it. I took every gig I was offered, coached anyone who would hire me, shadowed and co-facilitated with my mentor every chance I got, and gained so much valuable experience. It was a grind and I was uncomfortable a lot, but I’m so grateful I stuck with it!

Erin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an Empowerment & Connection Coach. My clients would probably describe me as a mix between an emotional educator, a therapist, and a spiritual healer. I help people experience new levels of well-being, fulfillment, connection, and joy—all by unlocking the inner freedom to simply be who they are.

I coach with individuals and lead transformational group programs. I have a podcast called Aligned Inside, and a physical product called the Mantra Card Deck with 52 phrases for healing and empowerment.

My work centers on everything we never learned in school about the art of being human—how to connect and thrive as our authentic selves. My areas of greatest passion and expertise are boundaries, codependency, and worthiness, but my work truly runs the gamut.

People often seek out my work because they notice themselves engaging in patterns they want to break free from but don’t know how—things like people-pleasing, taking on other people’s feelings, insecurity and self-doubt, negative self-talk, trouble speaking up for their needs, fear and scarcity thinking, inertia in pursuing their desires, never feeling “good enough,” fixating on how others perceive/react to them, difficulty identifying and communicating their boundaries, etc.

My approach is intuitive, compassionate, and direct. I get straight to the crux of the issue: maximum truth with maximum love. People who are drawn to my work have often tried many other forms of self-help with mixed results, and are yearning for something that takes them deeper. Many clients have referred to me as the “missing piece” in their healing journey. I have a knack for illuminating and unlocking patterns in people that they have been struggling to shift.

I like to say that coaching chose ME, not the other way around. I didn’t set out to be a coach… but so many mentors, colleagues, and friends reflected to me I had a gift that it pretty quickly became clear to me that I was meant to coach! Deep listening has always come naturally to me. So has seeing deeply into people’s challenges, intuitively sensing the most efficient path through their inner obstacles, and bringing genuine warmth and compassion where they feel most vulnerable.

My work feels like a genuine expression of love and creativity I get to share with others on a daily basis, and I’m so grateful for that.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I originally grew my business by sharing a framework called Nonviolent Communication (NVC), but as time went on I found it had significant pitfalls and shortcomings that didn’t align with my values.

One pivotal moment in this discovery process was when I gave a training to a group of nurses who were interfacing with new mothers from diverse and underserved backgrounds. Something felt “off” inside me through the whole training. Afterward, the participants provided specific feedback about the ways that the framework not only fell short in addressing the lived reality of the women they served, but could even be damaging in some cases. This gave me pause. Every single piece of their feedback was valid! I had some honest reflecting to do.

That training was the last NVC training I ever gave, and I have since let go of my NVC credential. It wasn’t in integrity for me to continue sharing a framework that was fraught with so many caveats, and at risk of being irrelevant or even harmful to people in marginalized groups.

This period of reevaluation is what influenced me to create my own body of work, informed by a broad array of teachings and approaches. I wanted to share tools and resources that got to the root of helping us shift our conditioned patterns and were relevant to all populations—especially those most affected by systemic oppression. I was less inspired to teach people specific tools for communicating, and more interested in helping them access a grounded, empowered energy inside that would naturally guide them toward healthier and more authentic ways of navigating their experiences in life.

I changed my title from “Communication Coach” to “Empowerment & Connection Coach” and built my signature programs on boundaries, codependency, and worthiness—the topics I’m still most passionate about coaching on today.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Prioritizing my own physical, mental, and spiritual well-being has been absolutely essential to my success in business. I imagine this holds true across industries, but especially because the work I do requires so much emotional presence and focus, there’s a direct correlation between how well I’m caring for myself and how authentic and effective my coaching is.

It’s been such a worthwhile journey for me to find support for my own trauma healing, consistently tend to my emotional and spiritual needs, and structure my work in a way that flows with how I personally thrive. I’ve had to let go of a lot of conventional notions about productivity and success, and embrace my own intuitive path!

I attribute so much of my business success to my willingness to set radical boundaries, ask for and receive help, and examine the belief systems driving me so I can consciously choose how I want to embody my work and life. This hasn’t always been easy, but it’s paid off exponentially.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.erinmerrihew.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/erinmerrihew
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/erinmerrihewconsulting
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/erinmerrihew

Image Credits
Juliann Itter, Ana Raab