We were lucky to catch up with Darlene Taylor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Darlene , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Moving across the country from Ohio to Los Angeles at the request of my ex-husband so that we could co=parent our daughter in the same city. This prompted my shift from therapist to coach and was the impetus for writing my book “It’s Not About Us”.

Darlene , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was a clinical social worker for about fifteen years, working with children and families in various positions. I was working as a therapist and decided to make the pivot into coaching in 2019. I have always wanted to write a book and in 2021, realized that dream when I published my first book, “It’s Not About Us: A Co-parenting Survival Guide to Taking the High Road”. With the release of the book, the focus of my coaching has shifted to supporting people through their co-parenting journey. My coaching is strengths focused and aims to help parents identify their strengths and use those to improve their co-parenting relationship and bolster their parenting skills. We also focus on building a healthy relationship with your parenting partner as well as healing yourself.
I love helping people be the best version of themselves in every aspect of their lives and value the oppportunity I have to impact children and families in a positive. way.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Shortly before I moved to California in 2019, I had decided to stop doing therapy and shift to coaching. I used the move in August of that year to as the perfect opportunity to start to build this new business. Initially, I wanted to focus on life transition coaching, specifically supporting all levels of athletes who were coming to the end of their competitive careers and the stress that can bring. By early 2020, I was slowly gaining traction and beginning to build a client base, then the Covid pandemic changed everything. Coaching now took a back seat to health and survival for most people, so the business ground to a halt. I had to decide what my next move was going to be and if coaching would still be in my future. Like everyone else, I had a great deal of downtime during the pandemic, so I found myself with a lot of time to revisit old hobbies and began to write. In the coming months, I threw myself into writing my memoir/self help book about my co-parenting journey and the lessons I learned through it. As I worked toward publication of the book, I decided to pivot my coaching practice to focus on supporting parenting through their divorce and co-parenting journeys. This has been a great fit for me because I feel very passionately about co-parenting in a way that is healthy for your children, and this shift has given me the opportunity to help parents do just that.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I have thought about this a lot, and I always come back to the same truth: my purpose in life is to help people be their best, life to their fullest potential and see the strength in themselves. Every job I have ever had has somehow connected to this mission, which is probably why I always say I have never had a job that I didn’t love. I think I I would have taken a different career path, it would still fit into this mission of helping people and making lives better. I love what I do and feel humbled to be a part of people’s journey to living their best life.

Contact Info:

• Website: darelenetaylor.com
• Instagram: @thedarlenetaylor
• Facebook: facebook.com/thedarlenetaylor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachdarlenetaylor/

Image Credits
Headshot by Dana Rubin