Karla Koop bustled into our meeting at the Kaffehaus in downtown San Mateo on a blustery Wednesday morning. After getting her coffee (and a chai latte for me), she sat across from me, her lively eyes lit up and excited as we talked about our ideas for collaboration between The Well-Crafted Mom and her Baby Boot Camp location (Redwood City/San Carlos/Belmont.)
A year ago, Karla was my life coaching client and her life felt very different. The mother of two young children, Karla had left her project management job to stay at home while her daughter was a baby. The demands of parenting – especially with a high needs/attachment parenting baby – left Karla feeling down and frustrated with her life. She didn’t know what to do to make things better.
“I was feeling lost in this life with my children,” recalled Karla as she warmed her hands around her mug. “And by staying home, I had lost purpose. My identity was completely gone.”
Karla had worked with a psychotherapist after her first child was born three years previously to help manage the transition into motherhood. Karla found that although counseling was helpful, it didn’t provide her with practical tools to make changes in her life. Karla heard about The Well-Crafted Mom from a friend who was a satisfied coaching client, and arranged a phone conversation with me to learn more about how life coaching works. My problem-solving approach appealed to Karla’s practical project management background and she signed up.
When Karla began coaching, she was physically drained from trying to do household chores while caring for her active son and daughter, who wanted to be held all the time. In her coaching sessions, Karla learned ways to apply self-coaching tools to her daily routines. “Using these tools helped me to create time for myself physically and mentally to think about what I wanted for me.”
A year ago, Karla was my life coaching client and her life felt very different. The mother of two young children, Karla had left her project management job to stay at home while her daughter was a baby. The demands of parenting – especially with a high needs/attachment parenting baby – left Karla feeling down and frustrated with her life. She didn’t know what to do to make things better.
“I was feeling lost in this life with my children,” recalled Karla as she warmed her hands around her mug. “And by staying home, I had lost purpose. My identity was completely gone.”
Karla had worked with a psychotherapist after her first child was born three years previously to help manage the transition into motherhood. Karla found that although counseling was helpful, it didn’t provide her with practical tools to make changes in her life. Karla heard about The Well-Crafted Mom from a friend who was a satisfied coaching client, and arranged a phone conversation with me to learn more about how life coaching works. My problem-solving approach appealed to Karla’s practical project management background and she signed up.
When Karla began coaching, she was physically drained from trying to do household chores while caring for her active son and daughter, who wanted to be held all the time. In her coaching sessions, Karla learned ways to apply self-coaching tools to her daily routines. “Using these tools helped me to create time for myself physically and mentally to think about what I wanted for me.”
“The biggest shift for me is that coaching gave me the tools to help me think outside of the box. I found more creative ways to deal with the frustrations in my life.”
After creating the time and energy to look at her life from a holistic perspective, Karla uncovered deeper issues of feeling disconnected, not challenged, and wanting to be of service in a bigger way. In one of our coaching sessions, I encouraged Karla to take small steps to build relationships with other moms, to reach out to other women and connect with them, to build authentic friendships.
In doing her “coaching homework,” Karla became closer friends with another mom, who confided she was moving and selling her Baby Boot Camp location. “I was the first person to say that I was really interested. She knew me and trusted me but she never would have thought of me if we hadn’t spoken.”
Because Karla had already built the foundation of managing her time and energy at home, she had the mental, physical, and emotional resources to take on this new challenge. Through her Baby Boot Camp programs, she supports moms and builds a strong community for families.
“I’m continually making choices so that I’m balanced – not perfectly but overall – in what I bring to my family home and business. Otherwise, instead of playing with moms and their babies in my fitness and wellness programs, I’d be playing catch up with my children every day,” says Karla, leaning back in her chair and smiling. “Life coaching helped me to create the time and mental space to build a business.”
Karla owns and operates a Baby Boot Camp location serving the Redwood City, San Carlos, and Belmont communities. Baby Boot Camp is an innovative stroller fitness program designed to balance the fitness needs of moms while spending time with their children. Baby Boot Camp strives to help moms regain or enhance their pre-pregnancy fitness levels and meet the physical challenges of parenting by emphasizing strength training in a supportive environment. Find more information about Karla and Baby Boot Camp classes here:
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Kathleen Ann Harper is a certified life coach for moms and the author of the Amazon bestselling book The Well-Crafted Mom, a resource for moms that’s been described as a “motherhood survival kit.” In her coaching practice, Kathleen helps moms figure out what comes next when it's time to transition back to work or to a new job, discover what to do when they feel like they're giving everything only the leftovers, and learn self-coaching tools to keep from drowning in all of the to do's. She integrates crafts into her coaching work with moms because she believes new habits stick better when moms can sprinkle a bit of creativity into the mix. See how it works by downloading a free coaching + crafts guide to help you manage your inner bank account so that you can spend your time and energy on what matters most.
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