Purpose & Livelihood
Uncovering and bringing your unique gift to the world
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
– The Gospel According to Thomas
You feel the stirring within gaining momentum, and life’s status quo no longer holds up.
Something from your depths is calling you to embrace different aspects of yourself that no longer want to stay buried or on the sidelines.
What used to give you a sense of security and even pleasure is now feeling unfulfilling and empty.
You want your life and work to have more purpose and meaning.
You’re tired, burnout even, trying to do things in the usual manner, juggling the symptoms, but not getting to the cause.
You’re feeling this because you have a more profound gift that wants to be birthed through you.
Keep listening with curiosity to this inner voice because it will lead you to unexpected possibilities.
Do any of these resonate with you?
- You’re a creative seeker and a mystic, and you want to align your purpose with your livelihood without losing your soul.
- You’re a multi-passionate creative with many interests pouring out of you, but you struggle with how to weave it all together in a focused manner.
- You’ve been gestating a business idea for a while, but you’re struggling to give birth to it due to struggles around overwhelm, unsure how to articulate your vision, and how to put yourself out there.
- You’ve leaped and given birth to your own business, answering the call of your inner vision and purpose. Still, you’re struggling with our culture’s idea of what business is ‘supposed‘ to be done, leaving you challenged on how to craft and build your business without compromising your vision.
- You’re unsettled, even dissatisfied with your work and the career you’ve built for yourself, and want to do something different but aren’t sure what that is because knowing what your ‘thing‘ still escapes you.
- You’re a bonafide Jill of all trades, with a work history that covers the gamut, but you want to weave it all together and bring forth something that is your own, either via a creative endeavor or a business.
- You’ve got your accolades, professionally and otherwise, following the prescribed steps as dictated by our culture, but now you find yourself wondering if this is it or if there’s more to life and work.
Creative seeker & mystic
who wants to align your purpose with your livelihood without losing your soul in the process.
Multi-passionate creative
who is struggling with how to weave it all together in a focused manner.
Idea in mind, but no follow-through
who is struggling to give birth to it due to overwhelm, not sure how articulate your vision and put yourself out there.
SOULpreneur
who is challenged on how to craft and build your business without compromising your vision due to our culture’s ideas on business/livelihood.
Questioning Career
who is feeling unsettled, dissatisfied, wondering if this is it, and questioning what your ‘thing’ is.
Jack/Jill of all trades
who wants to weave all your work experience into something that is your own, either via a creative endeavor or a business.
Then you’ve come to the right place.
Getting to the heart of matter
Vanessa really helped me clarify my most meaningful work and let go of aspects that were no longer serving me.
I walked away with exciting new ideas for the way I’ll shape my business going forward and aspirational possibilities to explore further.
Her approach was intuitive, gracious, and wise; by holding gentle space and leading me in conversations that dove to the heart of each topic, she cultivated potent and positive growth!
– A.L.
Artist & Public Relations Consultant for Creatives
A personal note on purpose & livelihood
The search for purpose and desire to align it with how I ‘earn a living‘ has been with me since I got my first job flipping burgers at a fast-food chain as a teenager.
While I believe that our purpose in life is to become more fully who we are, the question of how to align purpose with livelihood has continuously stirred me. I wanted to align my talents, what felt natural to me, with what gave me joy with my livelihood.
This desire led me to explore many different aspects of my life’s wheel, having two careers and following the thread of my multi-passionate curiosity to unforeseen possibilities.
At each unfurling stage of my quest, I’ve learned that purpose and livelihood are vehicles of expression of something that wants to be birthed through me.
I understand the pain, inner agitation, and ennui of not knowing what one’s ‘thing‘ is. I also learned about the different creative struggles one faces when aligning it all with one’s livelihood.
As our world navigates this liminal space between the ‘old ways‘ and the new ones that are rising now, we’re all feeling discombobulated, lost, but also inspired and even invigorated to find our role and place in helping usher the new.
The question of purpose and livelihood have deeper repercussions than our individual lives because work is the pilgrimage of SELF.
It’s the realm where we give shape and form to that which wants to be birthed through us.
A personal note on purpose & livelihood
The search for purpose and desire to align it with how I ‘earn a living‘ has been with me since I got my first job flipping burgers at a fast-food chain as a teenager.
While I believe that our purpose in life is to become more fully who we are, the question of how to align purpose with livelihood has continuously stirred me. I wanted to align my talents, what felt natural to me, with what gave me joy with my livelihood.
This desire led me to explore many different aspects of my life’s wheel, having two careers and following the thread of my multi-passionate curiosity to unforeseen possibilities.
At each unfurling stage of my quest, I’ve learned that purpose and livelihood are vehicles of expression of something that wants to be birthed through me.
I understand the pain, inner agitation, and ennui of not knowing what one’s ‘thing‘ is. I also learned about the different creative struggles one faces when aligning it all with one’s livelihood.
As our world navigates this liminal space between the ‘old ways‘ and the new ones that are rising now, we’re all feeling discombobulated, lost, but also inspired and even invigorated to find our role and place in helping usher the new.
The question of purpose and livelihood have deeper repercussions than our individual lives because work is the pilgrimage of SELF.
It’s the realm where we give shape and form to that which wants to be birthed through us.
Helped me clarify a vision for moving forward
Vanessa helped me clarify a vision for moving forward into the next chapter of my life.
Like the ideal midwife or doula, gently coaching thru the birthing process, she knows exactly when to push and when to breathe.
Her style of support is highly intuitive, intelligent, humorous, and very wise.
I loved our time together and would recommend her to any women questioning their next steps in their career and clarifying their purpose in life.
– Nikki Fenix
Creative, Women’s Mentor & Photographer
The benefits of doing this work
The last few years have taught us tough lessons about the critical state of our relationship with work, business, and livelihood.
But crisis also gifts us with awakening and creative possibilities.
Each of us is a node in the collective fabric; thus, society also benefits when we address, heal and bring forth what is meant for us to do so.
Part of the solution to the issues we face collectively is intimately tied to how we can courageously bring forth what needs to be embodied through our work in the world because each of us is born as an answer to a question of our times.
When we align our livelihood with purpose, we serve as the creative seedlings of change for our collective economic and structural systems of ‘making a living.’
Your inner work ripples further afield than you can imagine. Inner work is the catalyst for social and cultural change and healing.
Where are you on this journey?
This is not a one-size-fits-all program
When it comes to exploring the themes of Purpose & Livelihood, each journey is unique.
Who you are, where you came from, what you’ve done and learned in life, and the mindset you bring to this process inform your journey’s uniqueness.
In the Divine Comedy, much like Dante had the poet Virgil as his guide, imagine me as your guiding company on this journey.
My job is to help you find the gold hidden in your story, the opportunities awaiting your action, and call your attention to what beckons to be expressed in your life.
Custom-tailored to where you’re on this journey
The labyrinth phase
There are two distinct phases in this archetypal quest for our purpose, and each has its unique needs.
The labyrinth phase is filled with questions about who one is and what has informed and influenced their lives, accompanied by confusion over why the status quo is no longer satisfying and an anxious need for clarity.
This is a liminal stage where the old ways of doing things no longer serve, but the new is still unclear, untried, or yet to show itself.
During this stage, it’s essential to have active patience through taking small but iterative steps toward what beckons and widen one’s perspective to see beyond what has been the norm.
The alignment phase
During the alignment phase, one is amid their return from the labyrinth of discovery.
One has a sense of who they are and now carries a vision of what they want to bring into the world.
The challenge during this phase is in transforming the dream into reality and engaging with the messiness of giving birth to this vision.
Because it’s at this stage, the vision is put to the test, and the untapped inner resources and commitment to one’s purpose are needed.
This is when the rubber meets the road, and it’s common to experience self-doubt, challenges around articulating one’s vision, visibility, and overwhelm that fog up one’s sense of clarity and perspective.
Your birth chart is our compass on this journey
Astrology is a potent tool for self-discovery and understanding where you are in your developmental journey of individuation.
By exploring the archetypes that inhabit the landscape of your birth chart, we find richness in life themes that help unveil your life’s purpose and the gifts and oft-untapped talents that await you.
But also, the growing edges and creative challenges give you ample opportunities to claim more spokes of your life’s wheel.
My role in this process is to facilitate the conversation between you and the archetypes inherent in the birth chart.
My intention & approach
My intention for doing this work is to help folks find joy and fulfillment in the work they do in the world. As poet Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet wrote: Work is love made visible. I wholeheartedly believe that one of the ways we express our love for ourselves, others, and the world is through our work.
My approach to this work weaves depth psychology and imagination with a therapeutic touch.
While coaching isn’t psychotherapy, I believe that by examining our past from a broader perspective and listening deeply to the images that arise from the stories we tell, we’re better able to find the gold hidden in our stories.
The future we desire has its seeds in the past. But the past isn’t static because each time we explore it with fresh eyes, we’re reimagining and expanding our stories and thus our potentials and possibilities.
My approach isn’t to tell you what to do or focus only on your future desires and dreams. It’s about understanding who you are, where you came from, how you create and relate, and how you express your beingness by serving your wider community through your work.
What to expect
Through our time together, I’ll blend my coaching and astrological consulting approaches.
I’ll help you access the answers that await inside of you through deep and reflective listening and questioning. To me, coaching is a blend of in-depth conversation and a container, a vessel that welcomes with curiosity what rises.
Often, what is touched on during our time together continues to percolate between sessions, and new insights and inspiration come into consciousness. What happens during our sessions goes way beyond those minutes spent together.
Because when we sit with another who is listening intensely to us while reflecting on key elements of our in-depth conversation, seeing things more clearly and shifting our perspective happens with more ease.
But I’ll also put my consultant hat on to provide you with strategic and practical recommendations of how you can best approach the situation or issue you want us to focus on during our time together.
However, remember that I’m not here to tell you what to do – as that isn’t empowering to your growth and self-sovereignty.
Any recommendation I bring forth is only to serve you as a springboard of exploration and measured by how it resonates and feels in alignment with you.
What to expect
Through our time together, I’ll blend my coaching and astrological consulting approaches.
I’ll help you access the answers that await inside of you through deep and reflective listening and questioning. To me, coaching is a blend of in-depth conversation and a container, a vessel that welcomes with curiosity what rises.
Often, what is touched on during our time together continues to percolate between sessions, and new insights and inspiration come into consciousness. What happens during our sessions goes way beyond those minutes spent together.
Because when we sit with another who is listening intensely to us while reflecting on key elements of our in-depth conversation, seeing things more clearly and shifting our perspective happens with more ease.
But I’ll also put my consultant hat on to provide you with strategic and practical recommendations of how you can best approach the situation or issue you want us to focus on during our time together.
However, remember that I’m not here to tell you what to do – as that isn’t empowering to your growth and self-sovereignty.
Any recommendation I bring forth is only to serve you as a springboard of exploration and measured by how it resonates and feels in alignment with you.
This bespoke 12-session coaching program is for U$1,995.00.
Once you purchase, you’ll receive our Client Agreement for your review and signature, our Pre-Coaching Program Questionnaire to help us prepare for our work together, and the Zoom links for our sessions.
Our 12 sessions are 60 minutes of in-depth conversation – a mix of coaching & astrological consulting.
All sessions shall be done within 6 months, with us meeting twice a month, with light email support in between.
Showing up consistently to our sessions and engaging with the in-between session work and practices will keep our focus, boost any changes through the action steps taken, and help you keep your transformational momentum.
Details & Logistics for this journey
Important FAQs
All classes, programs, consulting sessions, and coaching packages have a no-refund policy.
Please see the Refund Policy of the Terms of Use for Online Programs and Products.
Once you purchase this coaching package, I’ll email you our Client Agreement for your review and signature, plus a link to our Pre-Coaching Program Questionnaire to help us prepare for our work together.
During our first session, we will review your Pre-Coaching Program Questionnaire and your answers to get us situated.
If we meet twice a month, we will be able to complete our 12 sessions roughly within six months.
This allows you to have a breathing space between sessions to engage with the in-between-session practices and take action in what you’ve decided to take action on, and it also allows for integration time.
Now, if you want to dive in, we can do the 12 sessions between 4 to 6 months. This would depend on how much you want to take action and stay focused.
But generally, folks need more time to integrate and allow new insights or ideas to percolate.
Now, these sessions ARE NOT to be rolled over past six months.
Unless it’s something we both agreed on due to outstanding circumstances on either of our parts, all 12 sessions will be completed within six months from the date you signed the Client Agreement.
You may be able to reschedule (once) during the month.
No sessions will be rolled over to the following month to prevent scheduling confusion.
Please give me more than 24 hours of notice when rescheduling unless it’s an emergency.
If you know you will need to take a longer time off during our coaching engagement; please let me know as soon as possible.
Part of the effectiveness of this work is to keep our meetings consistent, to show up on time and ready for it, and to engage with the in-between-session practices or action items – action leads to clarity and momentum.
You take from this work what you put in.
If you wish to have your individual session recorded, please let me know, otherwise, they will not be recorded.
If you want them to be recorded, you will receive your recording in MP3 (audio file) format via email after each session.
You will be responsible for downloading the file upon receipt of the email with a link to the recording.
After 7 days of sending you the recording, it will be deleted.
For your individual sessions, you can choose if you want Zoom or a phone call.
Just know that if you choose phone, we will not be able to record the session in case you want that. If you prefer your session via phone, you can call me at the number I gave you for our session.
Please be sure that you have a good-quality internet connection for your sessions. Make sure you’re in a place that’s appropriate for the meeting and where you will not be disturbed.
If you want me to also work with your birth chart for our coaching engagement to explore transits and progressions, it’s essential to have the exact time of birth (and if it’s AM or PM.)
It’s very important to be sure you are giving me the exact time of birth and location. If you make a mistake about your birth time, please let me know as soon as possible.
If you don’t have your birth time AT ALL, we can work with a NOON chart, where we can see the position of the planets and their main aspects, but not the astrological houses.
Please note that the NOON chart helps us with the overarching themes but doesn’t have the fine-tuning that a chart with an exact time gives us.
If you have any further questions, please get in touch with me.
If I have to reschedule our sessions, I’ll be sure to communicate with ample time unless it’s an emergency.
Any missed sessions because of some emergency or calendar conflict will be rescheduled.
I can’t recommend her coaching work enough!
As an entrepreneur, I appreciated Vanessa’s practical information throughout my work with her. It was so enlightening, and I was able to make marketing and strategy decisions that increased my bottom line.
On the personal side, I loved the reflection she provided on my journey here on the planet. Her deep knowledge of archetypes, astrology, and myth provides poetic insight into the big picture of my life–what I am doing, why, and how it matters to me and others.
– Laura Rowe
Intuitive Healer, Spiritual Seeker & Mentor
Reflect on this
The question about the work we do in our lives through the jobs, careers, businesses, and creative endeavors we give birth to are symptoms of a much larger question about self-development and individuation.
It has more to do with WHO WE ARE than WHAT WE DO.
As C.G. Jung wrote, how we approach the matter of our vocation – our unique calling – is really about HOW WE FOLLOW THE PROMPTINGS OF OUR SOUL, emancipate ourselves from the herd, and carve our distinctive path towards becoming more fully who we are.
Something about the middle passage of our midlife years puts many of our assumptions and beliefs to the test. This happens because we often awaken through an inner or external crisis around meaning, fulfillment, and the stirrings of our unlived lives in midlife.
Astrologically speaking, in midlife, we’re gifted with consciousness shifting transits that beckon us to widen our vision and (re)align ourselves with our Soul’s vision for ourselves.
This middle passage often comes accompanied by a crisis around purpose and livelihood, in truth, a creative opportunity to (re)claim new or forgotten spokes of our life’s wheel.
Answering the call to engage in this process of reimagining how you show up in the world and what you bring forth through you matters now more than you can imagine because you are an answer to a question of our times.
Do you hear the call to embark on this journey?
Reflect on this
The question about the work we do in our lives through the jobs, careers, businesses, and creative endeavors we give birth to are symptoms of a much larger question about self-development and individuation.
It has more to do with WHO WE ARE than WHAT WE DO.
As C.G. Jung wrote, how we approach the matter of our vocation – our unique calling – is really about HOW WE FOLLOW THE PROMPTINGS OF OUR SOUL, emancipate ourselves from the herd, and carve our distinctive path towards becoming more fully who we are.
Something about the middle passage of our midlife years puts many of our assumptions and beliefs to the test. This happens because we often awaken through an inner or external crisis around meaning, fulfillment, and the stirrings of our unlived lives in midlife.
Astrologically speaking, in midlife, we’re gifted with consciousness shifting transits that beckon us to widen our vision and (re)align ourselves with our Soul’s vision for ourselves.
This middle passage often comes accompanied by a crisis around purpose and livelihood, in truth, a creative opportunity to (re)claim new or forgotten spokes of our life’s wheel.
Answering the call to engage in this process of reimagining how you show up in the world and what you bring forth through you matters now more than you can imagine because you are an answer to a question of our times.
Do you hear the call to embark on this journey?
Inspiration & tools to create fulfillment
Working with Vanessa, I not only gained a lot of clarity on the philosophies surrounding the marketing of my business, I also discovered some inspiring things I want to explore outside of business.
I am emerging from our time together with a new inner peace and quiet knowing that I have the inspiration and tools I need to create fulfillment for myself and (hopefully) others.
I would recommend Vanessa to anyone who enjoys visiting things on a deeper and philosophical level, who also enjoys symbolism, mythology and astrology, and who enjoys working on tangents as much as they do the thing they (think) they’re working with her for.
– Tonia Jenny
Creator of Life by Hand – Editor & Designer
Renewed sense of joy and purpose
I really enjoyed the way Vanessa supported my use of creative practices such as painting, drawing, reflective writing, collage, and movement to take a deeper dive into my beliefs about myself and my relationship with the world.
I found the structure of our weekly meetings was the perfect invitation to become more engaged in the richness of my day-to-day life.
By examining the archetypes and dimensions of experience that have played out over and over, I came away with a greater sense of self-acceptance and a bit more objectivity around my family dynamics that remain so influential in my choices.
Vanessa is incredibly generous with her knowledge and experience.
Every interaction was meaningful and deeply personal. She has a gift for tracking the details, large and small, of a person’s life and masterfully connecting the dots.
Through her approach to coaching, including her deep reflective listening and gentle but firm truth-telling, I found a renewed sense of joy and purpose in my simple life.
If you are open to and curious about the intersection of astrology, mythology, art, play, and humor in your life, this powerful approach to coaching is for you.
– Marta L.
Massage Therapist
Greater understanding of my purpose.
I have never had a richer experience working with a coach than I have working with Vanessa.
Every single session was packed full of nuggets of insight and wisdom backed by focused assignments that catapulted me into action.
I have since reactivated my long-neglected email list, begun sharing on social media, have a greater understanding of my purpose, and have a clearer roadmap for how to proceed toward my goals.
For anyone who feels a little muddled about how to invigorate their business, let Vanessa help you sort things out and point you in the right direction.
– Daria Howell
Functional Nutrition & Holistic Health