BELLEVILLE - A Belleville woman has taken her love for working with people and her background in education, and has launched a life coaching business.
Linda Letner completed training for coaching in January of this year, but her service, Envision L Coaching, is fairly new to the Juniata Valley. She had her first local client in August, she said.
Letner's approach with Envision L Coaching is ontological, a form of coaching that focuses on the present, according to its website.
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Linda Letner is the executive and personal coach for her new business, Envision L Coaching. Letner, of Belleville, has about 20 years of experience in the education field, which helped inspire her business. Letner’s approach is ontological, a form of coaching that focuses on the present.
"Ontological coaching acknowledges that our emotions, body and language make up our total being, define us, and affect our interactions with others. These elements impact how we experience life and the actions we choose to take because we are what we practice," the website states. "This awareness allows us the opportunity for new learning and growth which supports us in moving through our transitions."
Letner said she got the idea to get into coaching because of her background in education, which spans about 20 years.
Through her career experiences, she found what she enjoyed the most was coaching parents, teachers and children as children were diagnosed with special needs. She appreciated being able to assist people in finding what would most benefit the children, she said.
Letner then started looking into what coaching entailed. She left the education field in 2010, she said, and pursued coaching training through the Newfield Network Coaching Training Program. The 10-month program consisted of various conferences in Washington, D.C., she said.
As a life coach, Letner helps clients navigate through changes, both planned and unplanned, she said.
"I am helping people move through transitions," Letner said.
Though her experiences in education helped inspire Envision L Coaching, it was also Letner's own personal journey that sparked the business.
In the last few years Letner has dealt with health crises of her own, has lost her husband to cancer, and also gone through a career change, she said.
"I realize that life contains, within its natural course of events, many changes," Letner said.
She said many of her clients may feel "stuck" in a particular area of life, whether it be at home, in their jobs, or in the midst of life choices.
Letner explained she doesn't have all the "answers," and will never claim to, but she believes, as a coach, that people can access the answers themselves if they have people in their lives that support them.
Envision L Coaching takes on a holistic approach, Letner said, meaning the client is looked at as a whole person.
"The dimensions of the body, the language and even the emotions ... all contribute to the perspective of what's going on in their life," she said.
Letner said her coaching is generative, meaning once clients learn a new way of living or thinking, they can continue it on their own.
Letner usually sees clients about every other week for anywhere between three and six months. However, the frequency and duration of the sessions is up to the individual. Envision L Coaching doesn't have an office; Letner meets with clients at a location of their choice or speaks with them over the phone.
According to Envision L Coaching's website, Letner received an elementary education degree from Messiah College in Grantham. She completed the master's program in school counseling at Shippensburg University, and is a graduate of the Newfield Network Coaching Training Program.
Letner has experience as a classroom and substitute teacher, assistant and interim principal, and classroom assistant, among other positions, according to the website.
For more information call 320-2719, email linda@envisionlcoaching.com or visit www.envisionlcoaching.com.
