We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Lala recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I have been a social worker for over 25 years and had my own practice that I owned with several business partners for over 10 years. Due to a particular situation, I parted ways with my business partners and made a significant pivot in my practice. I continued with my counseling practice for about another year full time but then realized I was being called in a different direction. I have always been a counselor who has focused on helping clients find a solution more than on the diagnosis this may have. Well, I learned that this is more about coaching an individual than counseling them. So many people don’t actually have a mental health diagnosis but need some guidance in dealing with situations. This is where coaching comes in. So I made the decision to move from counseling into life coaching. I also have created a focus to work with businesses in order to help them develop their staff resiliency. So stepping away from what I have been doing for a very long time and stepping into a different business and into a new way of approaching business has been a huge risk for me. I have had to learn more about myself and find some confidence that I wasn’t paying attention to previously.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a life coach and mental health consultant. I have been a social worker for over 25 years and for the past 14 years, focused on individual counseling. About a year ago I made the official switch over the Life Coaching. Although these are very similar, I entered into life coaching in order to better help women in the “now what” stage of life, especially Christian women who are trying to better understand how to use their God given gifts. I realized that in doing counseling I was limited on doing what fell under a person’s mental health diagnosis. We are so much more than that and many women simply want guidance and assistance to figure out how to move on to the next stage of life. This “now what” stage may be there kids are all out of school and they have an empty nest, maybe they are preparing for retirement, maybe they have just finished college or graduate school and they are learning how to adjust, maybe moving to a new city or into a new career. We all have these stages where so many doubts and questions start to appear. As Christian women, we are also often trying to find ways to determine our gifts and find ways to use them that fit our stage of life. This is a particular group of women that I have a passion for working with.

The other service I provide is teaching people how to manage situations that can impact our mental health. It is about building resiliency. I love to do this with first responder departments and businesses. It is about employee development in order to better prepare them for the things they may deal with both at home and at work. Some of the topics I have covered range from anxiety and depression, building self confidence, suicide prevention, to the sandwich generation. The better we equip the people who work for us the more supported they will feel and the more the better employee retention a company will have. I work with first responder departments and some businesses to create peer support programs again to help with building resiliency.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The short version of the story is that I was in a business partnership for about 10 years and I made some poor decisions regarding the business. I could have very easily let that control me and get me down. I could have decided to walk away from what I was doing, but I didn’t. I was resilient. Although it is still difficult at times, I don’t let it pull me down. I make sure that I am still moving forward. I have allowed myself to pivot in my business and have allowed myself grace. This has been what has allowed me to be more and more resilient.

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

I think I absolutely would choose the same profession of social work which is what led me to life coaching. There are a few steps I would have taken differently but I wouldn’t change the positions or things I have tried. The variety of jobs I have had since getting my degrees are what has led me to being passionate about helping people build their resilience. I have been able to reflect on what I have seen over the years and what skills I used and also what I can use moving forward. This profession and the jobs I have had are all a part of my story and what has made me who I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.resiliencycoachconsult.com wil be live in a week or so
• Instagram: resiliency_coach_consulting
• Other: Email: [email protected]