FAQs

Coaching is a unique discipline aimed at generating and supporting inner transformation in order to change how you experience your life. Coaching comes in a lot of varieties, but the end-game is always self-determination — the ability to take ownership of your own life and destiny.

This can absolutely be in pursuit of specific, tangible achievements (like professional, personal, financial, health, relationship, or creative output goals). But we certainly don’t need big goals to precipitate a desire for a richer and more aligned life. Wanting to feel more like yourself, and more autonomous, is reason enough to get coached! Success in your life will almost always flow more easily from this place. Coaching helps you tap into this while reaching your peak agency, engagement, creativity, and resilience.

At its core, coaching typically focuses on a few facets:

• Cognition (your thoughts)
• Emotions (your feelings)
• Behavior (your actions and habits)
• Outcomes (the results in your life – whether tangible/external or intangible/internal)

A coaching session might maintain a core focus on cognitive work, like rewiring your thought patterns, while incorporating somatic exercises, visualizations, meditations, and values-based explorations. My approach blends most of these tools, with emphasis on deconstructing and transforming your beliefs and thought patterns.

My clients come from all backgrounds but are often creative, entrepreneurial, and/or multi-faceted. They might have specific results and visions they want to create, or they might seek to get unstuck and have clearer direction.

Regardless of their specific goals, they tend to appreciate a coaching style that is both analytical and intuitive, one where they'll be pushed out of their comfort zones and have compassionate space held for their unfolding. If that resonates with you, this might be a good fit.

Here are some things I don't do as a coach (and because the coaching industry is unregulated and full of a lot of unhelpful practices, I have a longer blog post on this):‍

I’m not a therapist. Coaching and therapy have different goals, and you can certainly benefit from both at the same time. If our conversation ever goes in a direction that would be better suited for therapy, I’ll be transparent and immediate in letting you know. You can still get coached if you experience anxiety, depression, ADHD,  or other psychological challenges, but our scope will stay limited and we won’t veer into psychotherapeutic territory.

Of course, everything in our psyches and consciousness is intrinsically connected, and sometimes the boundaries of past, present, and future become blurred — but I will keep us in the general direction of future-oriented goals, rather than past-oriented processing. Whereas therapy is (sometimes) a more stream-of-consciousness way of relating, coaching asks more of the client in terms of co-creating expectations and direction.

I don't “give advice” (unless you ask or I get your permission), and I'm not an authority figure on your life. Good coaching is actually not about giving advice at all, but about reflecting your mind, actions and emotions back to you. I might point out (based on my own perception..there is a subjective component here) what I see, how something is holding you back, and the ways you could implement changes to better serve you and align with your deeper goals.

But my specialty is in guiding you (back) to your own solutions, not telling you what to do. We'll work on this together by transforming your mindset and dismantling your blueprints and limiting beliefs. And, we’ll certainly get tactical sometimes, e.g. focusing on tools, habits, or daily practices as well as new thought patterns. The point is that we co-design solutions together. I see you as the expert of your own life.

I’m not a member of the prosperity gospel/manifestation/life coach pyramid scheme-industrial-complex. Look, we all live in capitalism, but I’m trying my best not to be part of the problem. I’m eternally skeptical of dogmatic beliefs that claim to hold all the answers to success — and I strive to be mindful of this rhetoric in the language I use.

There are certainly coaches out there much more rooted in social justice, anticapitalist principles than I am...but my practice is rooted in strong convictions and beliefs. I'm not neutral, and I won't shamelessly perpetuate patriarchal, supremacist, or excessively capitalist messaging. (I don't see how anyone working adjacent to the mental health field can not grapple with these complexities...this period of history is too vulnerable not to.)

Anyway, I also can’t say for sure if manifestation works (although I’m not saying it doesn’t work..), I’m not confident that the universe unequivocally “has your back”, and rest assured I will never tell you to just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get on with it. But I do believe you have more agency than you think, and I will push you in that direction.

Non-hierarchical coaching is a relational approach that treats us as equal partners, and it’s the framework I draw from. I am not here to give you unprompted advice, have an agenda for your life, or believe that I have all the answers. I’m here to guide and support you in uncovering your own answers, with the assumption that you are powerful, generative, creative, and already whole as you are.

It has been proven that the most effective behavioral change (even by non-coach, counseling-adjacent professionals, such as doctors, nutritionists, and fitness trainers) comes from a place of co-creation and collaboration, not from an authority / recipient dynamic — imbalanced power dynamics like this strip us of our perceived agency and motivation.

In working together, we’ll leverage our unique positions as coach and coachee, where I’m the expert in the coaching process and you’re the expert in your life.

Showing up! You’re investing financial and energetic resources into this process, so the only real requirement is to take that as seriously as you can and want to.

Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself:

Am I committed to the process? Can I be present, implement meaningful changes, and understand that the majority of the work occurs outside of our sessions?

Do I have a desire for transformation? Whatever transformation looks like for me, am I open to the ways in which I will be different in 3 or 6 months?

Am I open to accountability? Am I ready to be held accountable to actionable takeaways in between sessions, knowing I will never be judged or critiqued, but pushed out of my comfort zone?

Do I have courage to face the hard stuff? Am I prepared to potentially run into difficult emotions like shame, resistance, grief, or anger, knowing that’s totally normal and I will be supported each step of the way?

And, logistically speaking, my main request is that you carve out an hour (giving yourself a little buffer before + after our 50-minute session) where you can be calm, present, and undistracted. I exclusively do phone sessions, so sometimes clients will take our calls walking outside. Some still take them at their desk/on their computer so they can take notes. Do what works for you, just show up ready to be focused.

No two sessions are the same, and the tools and frameworks we explore will be different depending on a lot of factors (i.e. the topic at hand, your emotional state at that moment, etc.).

Most sessions you'll bring a topic you'd like to be coached on, we'll probably focus on it through the lens of your mindset, beliefs, and perspective, and I'll ask you a lot of questions to get to the heart of the issue. (Be warned, this is going to lead you to feel your feelings. That's inevitably the key to lasting change!)

Sometimes we'll get tactical about things like routines and habits, somatic exercises, visualizations, naming of values and desires, and more.

For the most part, here is how you can expect our conversations to be structured:

• We'll discuss what topic(s) you'd like to focus on (this means you should come relatively prepared). If you have a few topics in mind, no problem. I'll ask you some guiding questions to highlight what's most pressing for you at that moment.

• We'll dive in to that topic. Maybe it's (seemingly) acute, or maybe it's something way bigger and juicier, like life big planning decisions. Regardless, one thing will almost always lead to another. Even smaller issues tend to be wrapped up in larger challenges and themes, so we'll toe the line between staying in scope and digging a little deeper.

• We'll talk about what outcome(s) would support you best right now. Do you need practical tools to experiment with in your daily life? A decision-making framework? A perspective shift on a thought pattern that's keeping you in a place of shame or anxiety? The session is collaborative pretty much the entire time, and we'll decide together what will be most helpful for you to work through the challenge at hand.

• We'll wrap up and get tactical about takeaways, homework, and/or anything you want me to hold you accountable for the next time we meet.

You have complete reign over what topics you want to bring to coaching, and the purpose of our sessions is for you to move toward whatever version of your life and self you most want to inhabit.

The secret sauce is this: most of the time, there's an issue a few layers underneath the main issue. And usually, that issue is an emotional block fueled by a painful thought pattern, and that's the thing keeping you stuck or in conflict.

Sometimes, we'll come back to those main challenges time and again. It's completely normal if our conversations get repetitive sometimes — change doesn't happen overnight.

The real benefit is when revelations reverberate in your mind and body days, weeks or even months after a conversation. Coaching is  meant to be a catalyst for change in your lived life, and that means your work (and the impact of our sessions) extends beyond just our individual conversations.

Sometimes :)

Short answer: Yes.

I completed a 6-month certification program in 2021 at The Life Coach School, and I am always continuing my own self-study and pursuing new trainings. I draw especially from cognitive behavioral theory, intersectional feminism, and humanistic psychology.

Long answer: Coaching is an unregulated industry, and certifications don’t mean much. This is a good and bad thing. It allows for a huge spectrum of approaches, modalities, niches, etc., and it also can cause real harm to people due to a lack of standardization, training requirements, or a unified code of ethics. Whether you’re thinking of working with me or another coach, keep this in mind — trust your instincts more than a list of credentials!

There are a ton of certification programs out there rooted in different methodologies and belief systems, all at varying degrees of depth, breadth, and quality. Personally, I chose a program whose teachings draws from CBT (cognitive behavioral theory) because it resonated most with me at the time.

CBT tells us that our thoughts are powerful agents of change, as well as of self-limitation – our thoughts create our emotions, which affect our actions, which produce our outcomes. If we get on board with this, we have a lot of opportunity to reclaim agency and generate change. It’s a theory and tool I find extremely powerful.

And, this theory alone is not all-encompassing. Our psyches, emotions, behaviors, and the world we live in are incredibly complex and mysterious, and I leave plenty of room for that in my coaching approach. Frameworks are helpful, dogmatism is not.

Absolutely. Your job is to show up to this process ready to be challenged, vulnerable, and focused, in order to create change in your inner world and outer life. My job is to provide a container for you to do this.

If you bring things to that container that I am not qualified or able to help you with, or that don’t quite fit within the parameters of coaching,  I will always hold space for you but I will be transparent about our scope and refer you to therapy. (Or, encourage you to take this topic to your current therapist.) Read more about my thoughts on this here.

While you can get plenty of value from a single coaching session, I’ve found that meeting for twelve sessions is the minimum for real transformation to occur. This is why I exclusively offer a 12-session minimum for new clients. In a 3-month time frame, we’ll meet weekly, allowing you to dive right in and commit to a process of transformation in one season or quarter.

If you want to dive deeper right away with a longer-term commitment (e.g. 6 months), we can absolutely discuss that. An up-front commitment might be a good option if you: have specific longer-term goals in mind, need to use up a professional development stipend by a certain date, or have other unique circumstances. Book an intro call and we'll explore options together.

Yes, for returning clients. I offer one-time sessions or smaller ad-hoc packages for past clients with whom I already have a foundation and a starting point.

If you're a former client looking for targeted support with a problem, decision, or short-term goal or change of direction, this could be a good option.

Over the course of 30(ish) minutes we will: get acquainted, talk about your desires and what you’re hoping to gain from coaching, cover basic logistics, and (if you’re interested) dive into a bit of targeted coaching so you can get a taste of the process.

I offer a limited number of slots per quarter at 30%, 50% or 75% of my full package rate. (Kind of like “pay-what-you-wish”, you choose the most doable tier based on your current circumstances — but please choose the level that reflects both what you can afford and the value this will create in your life.)

This might be for you if:

• You can afford your basic living expenses, but are in a tight place
• You live with a chronic illness or disability that prevents you from earning consistent income
• You are committed to the process and feel you would benefit from working together, but are coming out of a period of financial hardship

This is not for you if you are financially comfortable but uncomfortable investing a large sum in your own self-development. If you have scarcity challenges, we can work on them in coaching!

More thoughts: Coaching and personal development are not automatically in our budgets, so we have to make budgets or plans that factor it in. Consider if you can get your employer to contribute via a wellness or professional-development stipend; if your community (family, friends) can lend or gift you money, e.g. for a birthday or special occasion; or if you can make any trade-offs for a few months or plan future anticipated income, like a bonus, around this.

Cosmic Tangent is just two words that I think sound really cool. I don’t really know why we’re here (neither do you), but sometimes I think of Life on Earth as a weird tangent the gods created for entertainment, or something...

Plus, my name is really long, and "Alexandra Mirabella Caturano Coaching" just isn't as easy to say :)

For the love of God(dess), yes! Any person worth their salt in the personal development and/or mental health field absolutely has to "do the work" themselves. If you encounter a coach who has never been coached, please run.

For what it's worth: I do not always, at any given moment in life, have a coach or a therapist I work with. (It's okay to take breaks. These services are time-consuming, expensive, and require a lot of energy from you as a client!).

But for the better part of the last decade I have almost always had a consistent therapist, coach, or both. You can trust that I don't offer concepts, tools, practices, or frameworks I have not seriously tried and tested in my own life.

I'm always working on my own biases and personal challenges, so that I can show up for you as coach from the most grounded and open place. I'm not perfect, but I take this work seriously, and I believe that working on yourself is imperative to showing up fully for others.