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The goal tender
''I'm so lucky and blessed I found Suzanne and worked with her,'' said Steeves, who said coaching made her open to other possibilities, including a wonderful relationship. ''She is very sharp.''
Often confused with a personal trainer at the gym, Blake, 45, is a coach who helps her clients fulfill their goals and dreams by offering them support and deadlines.
''Personal coaches help people clarify their goals and values, and work in partnership with them to achieve desired outcomes,'' said Blake in her Medfield home on the Stop River, where she has lived for a year with her husband, Stephen, and two teenage stepdaughters, Amy and Lisa.
''We also help people see their gifts and strengths and help clients trust those things,'' said Blake, dressed in a smart purple pantsuit. She said she helps her clients by assigning homework and using different exercises to shift their perspective and let go of old habits, so they will do things differently.
She said coaching has become popular as a way to get more power and fulfillment in otherwise stressed lives. Often, clients are urged to do less and enjoy life more, adding balance to their lives and eliminating energy drains.
''There's nothing that brings me more joy than seeing someone getting something they truly want, and breaking through the barriers,'' said Blake.
She sees clients in her Brookline and home offices, but also does a lot of her work by telephone and sometimes by e-mail. A typical weekly coaching session lasts a half-hour, with Blake focusing on the issues that the client faxes or e-mails to her ahead of time.
Blake asks her clients to sign up for a minimum of three months, at a cost of $225 to $325 per month, which includes a weekly 30- to 45-minute session. She said most of her clients see change in their lives around the second month, but they often stay in coaching for up to six months. Her yearly roster of 60 to 80 clients come to her with issues involving finances, careers, relationships, and life transitions. Most of them, including therapists, artists, and people starting their own businesses, are between 33 and 50. A third of them are men.
''Those are the years everyone wants their dreams to come true,'' said Blake. ''A lot are in a career for 20 years and want to make the jump.'' There are also coaches who specialize in working with senior citizens or teenagers, with people suffering from conditions such as attention-deficit disorder or cancer.
A professional certified coach, accredited by the International Coaching Federation, Blake has been coaching since 1991. Five years ago, she also started telephone-coaching clients, both from nearby and from as far away as California. She received a bachelor's degree in education from Florida State University and has done master's course work in vocational and psychological counseling at Lesley College. She has also taken ''cyber classes'' from Coach University, one of six ICF-accredited coaching schools in the country. She worked at the Judge Baker Guidance Center for six years, in crisis intervention and group therapy with children.
Anyone can say that she or he is a personal coach. The International Coaching Federation, which started certifying coaches in 1999, estimates that there are 16,000 coaches worldwide.
''There were only 1,000 coaches worldwide in 1996,'' said Chrissy Carew, public relations advisor for the federation, which has certified 584 coaches. ''That's dramatic growth.''
Carew, who lives in Nashua, is also Blake's personal coach, helping her by telephone to keep focused on her own goals.
''The more we work on ourselves, the easier we can connect and not project ourselves on others [while coaching],'' said Carew, who describes Blake as ''passionate.''
Blake, who gets most of her clients by word of mouth, went into coaching at the recommendation of her personal coach 12 years ago.
''I wanted to get married, so I went to a personal coach,'' said Blake, who now helps others find meaningful relationships. ''There are tools for anyone to get married. It means they have to change behaviors, because what they are doing isn't working.''
Blake helped a businesswoman from a very traditional background break off an unhappy relationship and develop her spiritual side. She is now in the healthiest relationship she has ever had, and she recommends Blake highly.
Another client felt unfulfilled as a stay-at-home-mother after having a career. With Blake's help, the woman is now volunteering one day a week in the Service Corps of Retired Executives in Boston. After sessions with Blake, one divorced orthopedic surgeon realized that he needed a wife who was a companion rather than ''a babe.''
''A relationship isn't a fancy sports car,'' said Blake, who helped the physician overcome his fear when the right woman showed up. ''It's a cozy bathrobe.''
Sometimes the answer is to look at a career in a new way. One woman went from administrative assistant to publisher of her company's national in-house newsletter, with Blake's support.
Blake said that if a client has deeper issues, she refers them to a therapist. Therapy deals with the past and how it affects the present, she said. Coaching helps people set goals to move them forward.
''A lot of personal coaching is finding out what a person wants and having them come to their own answers,'' she said.
In pursuing her own dreams, Blake has performed improvisational comedy at Catch a Rising Star in Boston. She takes singing lessons, enjoys cooking, gardening, and travel, and does public speaking. She also teaches adult education classes at Brookline High School, runs personal coaching groups for women, and trains others to become coaches.
''I've gotten every dream I've ever wanted, except the radio show, and that's coming,'' she said with a twinkle in her eye. ''I want to give this to others. Coaching helps people grow up, take more accountability and responsibility in their lives. I think more people could use more of that.'' This story ran on page 11 of The Boston Globe's Globe
West section on 12/10/2000. Return to:
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hen
massage therapist Lauren Steeves, 43, of Medford wanted something more
in her life, she turned to Medfield personal coach Suzanne Blake. A few
months later, Steeves, who had never taken an art class, was painting
and selling her own abstract watercolors - and loving it.