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Discover Your Joy Today | Dr. Pamela Larde, Ph.D., Author, Professor & Researcher

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#27 Pamela Larde: Joy, Creativity & Visibility in Coaching - The Edge of Coaching

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Dr Pamela Larde is an expert in the science and practice of joy.  Her roles include Professor of Leadership at Anderson University • Director of Education for the Institute of Coaching • Founder of Academy of Creative Coaching and Author.She…

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The Difference Between Coping and Coming Alive in Higher Education

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The Difference Between Coping and Coming Alive in Higher Education

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Source: LinkedIn Article

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coaching-difference-between-coping-coming-alive-pamela-larde-ph-d--ux78e

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Take the Journey of You (JOY) Assessment

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Take the Journey of You (JOY) Assessment

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This Joy of You (JOY) Assessment covers 9 areas that represent a holistic look at the multi-faced nature of your life. Results will be emailed to you.

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This Joy of YOU Assessment contains 9 areas that represent a holistic look at the multi-faced nature of your life. This exercise assesses your level of satisfaction and range of expression in these areas as a snapshot in time. As you work through the questions, you may notice areas of strength and security and areas where you may want to improve your level of satisfaction and joy.

Instructions: Rank each of the statements below on a scale from 1 (Highly Disagree) to 10 (Highly Agree), then total your scores for each area.

Data from this survey will be used in three possible ways:

1. As a self-evaluation tool (results will be sent to the email address you provide)

2. As prep for an upcoming coaching session

3. As data to analyze. With participant permission, surveys will be confidentially and anonymously compiled for overall analysis to better understand patterns of life satisfaction and capacity for joy. Please enter "yes" or "no" in question #1 to indicate permission to include your results in the overall analysis of global results.

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Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

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Online Course: April 14- June 30

Retreat: July 24-28, 2025

www.DrPamelaLarde.com/retreats

The EPIC Joy experience offers two roads for connecting and building with a learning community - one as a stand-alone online course and another as a Costa Rica retreat. Both experiences are a culmination of my own journey to joy, my work as a coach, and research on the power of well-being and joy. This retreat includes 40 ICF continuing education hours.

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Let's get started on your journey! Click here or scan QR code to choose your package: https://buy.stripe.com/aEU4isgYUf4465i6oq

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Here is how you join my email list, contact me, or leave your address to receive my Start Healthy Magazine (yes, in the mail!).

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Introducing, Dr. Pamela Larde and the Practice & Science of Joy

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Pamela Larde

Dr. Pamela Larde, a professor, coach, author, and business owner, is committed to engaging in the work of advancing the reach and commitment of the coaching profession to serve and build up heart-centered leaders around the world. Dr. Larde is intentional about integrating values of belonging, human dignity, justice and care for the whole person into every fiber of her work. As a dedicated member of the global community, Dr. Larde is committed to taking the lead in addressing compelling social issues through the Academy of Creative Coaching, which she founded in 2013 as the first black female-owned accredited coaching school with the International Coaching Federation.
Experience, Affiliations, and Scholarship
Strongly committed to education and research, Dr. Larde spent twelve years in student leadership development at the Claremont Colleges and Marquette University, eleven years as a professor of research at Mercer University's Tift College of Education, and was recently appointed Associate Professor of Leadership for Anderson University's PhD Leadership Program.

Dr. Larde is a certified coach and received training in suicide prevention, motivational interviewing, and substance abuse counseling. She holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, a master's degree in College Student Affairs from Azusa Pacific University, and a Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University.

Her research focuses on race and gender dynamics, self-motivation, joy resilience, and posttraumatic growth. She is a member of the International Leadership Association, the International Association for Relationship Research, the National Association for Student Personnel Administrators, the American College Personnel Association, the National Incarceration Association, and Exceptional Women in Publishing. Additionally, she has written three books, has contributed chapters to publications in education and research, and presents her research for national and international audiences.

Revolutionary Joy as an Approach to DEI Work in Education: INDEX Conference Keynote Address. Chicago, IL. January 2024

Power, Gender, Leadership, and Change: Ethical Implications for Coaching. Coaching Ethics Conference. December 2023

Joyfully Single: A Revolutionary Guide to Enlightenment, Wholeness and Change. Tandem Light Press, Atlanta, GA. 2023

Coaching Joy: Helping Clients Flourish Personally and Professionally Through Change. WBECS 2023 Pre- and Full Summit. 2023

Coaching: The Key to Engaging and Retaining Your Talent. National Association for Student Personnel Administrators. April 2023.

The Science of Joy as a Revolutionary Approach to Coaching. Day of Discovery. Coaching Research Lab at Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland, Ohio. March 2023

Revolutionary and Effective Change at Work: Keys to Flourishing Through Transition. Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Virtual presentation. December 2022

Joy Resilience: Four Strategies for Integrating Joy as a means for Enhancing Quality of Life. Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Virtual presentation. January 2021

Coaching with Compassion: The Intersection Between Cultural Competency and Recovery. Yale University & Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Virtual Presentation. August 2020

How the Role of Educators Can Change the Trajectory for Students Who Have Experienced Trauma. Pre-Conference Workshop. International Leadership Association International Conference. Ottawa, Canada October 2020

The Reverse Domino Effect: How the Role of Educators Nurture Self-Belief, Self-Determination, and Post-Traumatic Growth in Students Who Have Experienced Trauma. National Association for Student Personnel Administrators Student Success Conference. Orlando, FL. June 2019

Foreword. First-Generation College Student Research Studies. Eds. Hicks, Butler, and Myrick. Hamilton Books. Lanham, MD. 2019

We Must Encourage Self-belief, Self-determination for Youth to Experience Post-traumatic Growth. Youth Today. October 2018

Post-traumatic Growth: Hope Is a Strategy, Not a Feeling. Youth Today. October 2018

Why Young People Take Social Action: Self-Determination and Youth Activism. Youth Today. June 2018

Strategies employed by first-generation college aspirants of color to resist stereotype threat and discrimination. In Spirituality Research Studies in Higher Education. Ed. Hicks. University Press of America. 2015

Misconceptions of family support among first-generation African American and Mexican American students who pursue higher education. In College student-efficacy research studies. Eds. Hicks & Pitre. University Press of America. 2014

Letters to the brokenhearted. Tandem Light Press, Atlanta, GA. 2013

How African American first-generation students make it to college. In Research studies in higher education: Educating multicultural students. Eds. Hicks & Pitre. University Press of America. 2013

Community Engagement
Dr. Larde has remained committed to serving the community through initiatives such as working with Morris Brown College as a partner in their successful, unprecedented re-accreditation process. Her team provided training for board members, developed their all-online program in response to COVID-19, and assisted with the writing of the accreditation documents. Her podcast, The Joy Whisperer is a platform for discussion that covers issues concerning humanity, intellect, change, and of course... joy.

IOC Resources by Pamela Larde

Advancing the science of coaching is core to the mission of the IOC. In this session, IOC directors Drs....

Opening & Ellen Shub Award for Coaching for Social Good

Advancing the science of coaching is core to the mission of the IOC. In this session, IOC directors Drs....

In this CoachX Conversation, the Institute's Executive Director, Dr....

Given the long history and global prevalence of oppression, you may have wondered about coaching models for oppression....

Only in recent years (emerging in the 1950s and resurfacing in the early 2000s) have researchers focused on the value of play and playfulness for adults....

Upcoming Events with Pamela Larde

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Dr. Pamela Larde, a professor, coach, author, and business owner, is committed to engaging in the work of advancing the reach and commitment of the coaching profession to serve and build up heart-centered leaders around the world. Dr. Larde is intentional about integrating values of belonging, human dignity, justice and care for the whole person into every fiber of her work.

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Book Release Announcement - Anderson University

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Book Release Announcement - Anderson University

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Dr. Pamela Larde's book "Joyfully Single" deals with misconceptions about singlehood and provides encouragement to singles.

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Coaching People to Life: How the science of aliveness reshapes what we do in the coaching room

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Coaching People to Life: How the science of aliveness reshapes what we do in the coaching room

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Source: LinkedIn Article

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coaching-people-life-how-science-aliveness-reshapes-we-larde-ph-d--nklte/

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Click here to subscribe and receive Start Healthy in the mail: https://forms.gle/BvLja8uvErTKWricA

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Dr. Pamela Larde is a professor, coach, author, business owner, and Director of Education for the Institute of Coaching. She remains committed to engaging in the work of advancing the reach and commitment of the coaching profession to serve and build up heart-centered leaders around the world.

Dr. Larde spent twelve years in student leadership development at the Claremont Colleges and Marquette University, eleven years as a research professor at Mercer University's Tift College of Education, and was appointed Associate Professor of Leadership for Anderson University's Ph.D. Leadership Program in 2021. Her research focuses on race and gender dynamics, self-motivation, joy resilience, and posttraumatic growth.

As a dedicated member of the global community, Dr. Larde is committed to taking the lead in addressing compelling social issues via coach training through the ICF-accredited Academy of Creative Coaching , which she founded in 2013 as the first black female-owned accredited coaching school with the International Coaching Federation.

Today, we sat down with Dr. Larde to learn more about her journey as an entrepreneur.

Q: How did you get started in entrepreneurship?

Pamela: My entrepreneurial journey was driven by the need to solve real-world problems, coupled with my personal experiences as a single mom. My first venture, a publishing company, stemmed from my own challenges in becoming an author. I recognized the difficulties many talented authors faced in attracting major publishers. My goal was to make publishing more accessible for those with exceptional works but limited opportunities.

The inception of my second business, the Academy of Creative Coaching, was influenced by a personal necessity to fund my son's education in a private school. I tapped into my skill set and the industry's demand to establish an academy for training coaches. This venture not only met my financial requirements but also aligned with my deeper mission: creating businesses that empower parents. As a single mom, I needed to build enterprises that would enable parents to be parents, providing them with the flexibility and resources needed to support their families.

Q: What entrepreneurial tricks have you discovered to keep you focused and productive?

Pamela: One key strategy for me is the careful selection of my work environment. I avoid overly comfortable spaces like home couches for work needing extended concentration, opting instead for public places like restaurants or hotel lobbies. These settings stimulate my mind and keep me alert and engaged.

Equally important is my approach to project selection. I deliberately say 'yes' to opportunities that amplify my strengths, which in turn gives me the freedom to say 'no' to tasks that are draining or misaligned with my skills. This focus on strategic 'yeses' allows me to avoid over-commitment and ensures I'm dedicating my energy to tasks where I can be most effective and fulfilled.

Q: How do you stay organized with such a busy schedule?

Pamela: I often get teased for my old-school approach, but it has been incredibly effective for me. I rely on a planner book for organizing my calendar and task list. This method allows me to consolidate all my appointments and tasks in one tangible place. I've been using this system for about five years now.

Electronic notifications and digital calendars are less effective due to the overwhelming number of daily electronic alerts. In contrast, my printed calendar is always accessible and dependable. It helps me track my tasks and appointments without the clutter of digital notifications. This straightforward, traditional method keeps me organized amidst a busy schedule and has been a key factor in managing my time efficiently.

Q: What are the three things you'd change if you had a magic stick?

Pamela: If I had a magic stick, the first change I would make is in how we select our leaders, both for organizations and countries. Too often, we have leaders who don't truly represent the qualities of genuine leadership. A change in this selection process could lead to more effective and empathetic leadership globally.

The second change would be in healthcare equality and access. I'm particularly concerned about the crisis of maternal mortality among Black women in the United States, where the death rate is alarmingly high. Ensuring equitable, quality healthcare for all, especially those currently underserved, is a critical need.

And most importantly, I would use the magic stick to foster peace and understanding among people. I wish for a world where compassion, active listening, and concern for one another are central. This change would help create a more empathetic and connected global community.

Q: If you were to write a book about yourself, what would you name it?

Pamela: I would call it "The Uncharted Path: Navigating Life's Unexpected Turns," as this reflects this crazy life journey of mine that hasn't at all followed the conventional route I envisioned. Instead, it has been filled with significant unforeseen challenges and changes. I am sure a lot of people can resonate with this.

Q: What motivates you?

Pamela: What motivates me most is the vision of creating opportunities for people who need support, transcending economic backgrounds. I'm driven by the goal of helping individuals grow into their best selves and discover their purpose, whether they are struggling financially or facing personal challenges like self-esteem despite having wealth.

A significant part of this motivation is rooted in the concept of joy. It's important to me to help people understand that experiencing joy is not just a possibility but something they deserve and can actively pursue. Being a catalyst for others' joy and helping them permit themselves to embrace it, is a profound source of motivation for me.

Q: What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you've ever made?

Pamela: One of the most worthwhile investments I've ever made is in motherhood. For me, it has been crucial to maintain careers that allow me to be fully present for my children. Balancing professional aspirations with being a dedicated parent has shaped my choices and priorities. This investment goes beyond time and energy; it's about nurturing a future generation while fulfilling my own personal and professional goals. The rewards of this investment are immeasurable, as it impacts not just my life but the lives and futures of my children.

Q: What key activities would you recommend entrepreneurs invest their time in?

Pamela: One key activity I recommend to fellow entrepreneurs is to become well-versed and recognized as an expert in their industry. This involves dedicating time to research, understanding industry trends, and learning from others' experiences. Reading articles and studies and staying informed about the profession are essential parts of this process.

Additionally, building connections is crucial. Networking with people who can enhance your understanding of the profession and provide valuable insights is invaluable. These relationships can offer new perspectives, advice, and opportunities that can significantly contribute to your growth and success in the industry.

Q: What is your 'one-sentence' piece of advice you'd like to give to someone who wants to become an entrepreneur, coach, or business owner?

Pamela: Patience is key in entrepreneurship; successful businesses aren't built overnight. Despite what we often see on social media, it takes time, patience, dedication, and commitment to achieve success and do it well.

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Navigating the Uncharted Path: An Insightful Q&A with Dr. Pamela Larde

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Dr. Pamela Larde is a professor, coach, author, business owner, and Director of Education for the Institute of Coaching.

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Get Coach Certification at the Academy of Creative Coaching

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Get Coach Certification at the Academy of Creative Coaching

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Dr. Pamela Larde founded the Academy of Creative Coaching, an ICF accredited coach training and certification school, in 2013.

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Dialogue is powerful. I am over the moon excited to finally introduce EPIC Sundays - a weekly live virtual meetup dedicated to strategic and inspiring dialogue around enhancing well-being and joy.

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Book Launch Tour Announcement - Los Angeles

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Book Launch Tour Announcement - Los Angeles

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Introducing "Joyfully Single" By Dr. Pamela Larde

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Dr. Pamela Larde A Groundbreaking New Book on Embracing the Power of Self-Love and Independence I wrote 'Joyfully Single' with the intention of encouraging individuals to thrive in their single lives, discovering the infinite potential that lies within them."- Dr. Pamela LardeATLANTA, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES, August 24, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Renowned professor, coach, award-winning author, and business owner, Dr. Pamela Larde, is delighted to announce the upcoming ...

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Power, Gender, Leadership, and Change2 - Larde 2024

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An Interview Phil La Duke

An executive needs to be agile. They need to be able to adapt to various situations, people, and they need to be in tune with what is going on in society. All of these elements impact the work of the organization. An executive needs to be a master of relationships. People are not cogs in a machine, and I believe the most productive companies stay in tune with their people.

A person who is rigid, who has unchecked biases, and is afraid of people should not aspire to be an executive. A person who has not addressed these issues will steer an organization into the ground. They will have high turnover, no loyalty, and people are not passionate about the work.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Pamela ...

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Women Of The C-Suite: Dr. Pamela Larde On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

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An Interview Phil La Duke. "Women Of The C-Suite: Dr. Pamela Larde On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive" is published by Phil La Duke in Authority Magazine.

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Leadership is an expression of the truest form of ourselves. It is what happens when we shed the incompatible expectations of others and find the strength to live in true authenticity.

As part of our series about '5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society' I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Pamela Larde.
Dr. Pamela Larde is an associate professor of qualitative research and higher education at Mercer University, a fellow and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion council member for Harvard's Institute of Coaching, and the founder/president of the Academy of Creative Coaching. Her research focuses on interpersonal relationships, self-motivation, inspiration, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Additionally, she has written three books, has contributed chapters to scholarly publications, and presents her research extensively for national and international audiences.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how ...

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Dr. Pamela Larde of 'Academy of Creative Coaching': 5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An...

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As part of our series about '5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society' I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Pamela Larde. Dr. Pamela Larde is an...

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"Finding yourself is not really how it works... Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people's pains, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. Finding yourself is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering of who you were before the world got its hands on you." -Emily McDowell

Joyfully Single: A Revolutionary Guide to Enlightenment, Wholeness, and Change invites us to embark on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery, wellness, growth, and the brave pursuit of joy. In this groundbreaking book, Pamela Larde PhD draws from a decade of her research to encourage a radical departure from traditional views of singlehood. She proposes an alternative: Revolutionary Joy, a powerful blend of enlightenment, wholeness, and change that transforms our experience of being single.

Steeped in evidence-based research and personal reflections, this book is written from a coaching perspective, providing opportunities for deep introspection, goal-setting, and personal evolution. Joyfully Single illuminates the richness that comes with being single, pushing past negative societal narratives that equate fulfillment and success solely with partnership.

Larde dives into how to cultivate self-love, establish enriching connections, and pursue our dreams, all while cherishing the unique freedom that accompanies singlehood. With Revolutionary Joy as our compass, she encourages us to redefine our narratives and discover the limitless possibilities that await when we dare to journey off the beaten path.

Whether newly single, independent for decades, or unsingle but questioning societal norms, this book serves as a testament to the strength of human connection, the power of joy resilience, and the exhilarating freedom of defining our own experience of singlehood.

Joyfully Single is not about merely surviving singlehood-it is a joyous manifesto advocating for an inspired, purpose-filled life. When focused on the joy, we can discover that optimal living while single is not about waiting for a life partner; it is about partnering with life itself.

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Joyfully Single: A Revolutionary Guide to Enlightenment, Wholeness, and Change

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Joyfully Single: A Revolutionary Guide to Enlightenment, Wholeness, and Change [Larde, Pamela A, Porter, Adrion] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Joyfully Single: A Revolutionary Guide to Enlightenment, Wholeness, and Change

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An excellent resource for individuals seeking change and practitioners in coaching, therapy, and education working with clients and students, The Practice of Joy Workbook is equipped with strategies, tools, and opportunities for reflection that compel participants to explore the concept of joy for their lives. The workbook is designed as a companion to Dr. Pamela Larde's The Practice of Joy course in which participants are invited to unlock a world of boundless positivity and fulfillment in a personal mission to create and discover joy in their personal and professional lives.

Take the opportunity to delve into transformative exercises meticulously crafted to guide you on a journey toward a more vibrant and empowered life. Embrace gratitude, mindfulness, and self-care as you navigate through practical activities designed to cultivate happiness from within. This workbook is your personalized roadmap to harnessing the power of joy, allowing you to flourish in both your personal and professional spheres. Whether you are a practitioner or an individual seeking out strategies for joy, this workbook creates the space to embark on a path of self-discovery, resilience, and lasting joy. Your transformative journey begins here.

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The Practice of Joy Workbook: Creating Revolutionary Change in our Personal and Professional Lives

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The Practice of Joy Workbook: Creating Revolutionary Change in our Personal and Professional Lives [Larde, Pamela A] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Practice of Joy Workbook: Creating Revolutionary Change in our Personal and Professional Lives

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CoachX Conversations: Dr. Pamela Larde on The Four Practices of Joy

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How to Integrate Joy into our Personal and Professional Lives: In this CoachX Conversation, the Institute's Executive Director, Dr. Jeff Hull, engages in a unique and insightful conversation with the IOC's very own Director of Education, Dr. Pamela Larde. As the author of the soon to be released Joyfully Single, Dr. Larde offers a sneak peek into the four practices of joy, a cornerstone of her Multidimensional Framework of Joy.

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Pamela is an associate professor of qualitative research and higher education at Mercer University, a fellow of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and a certified life coach. She holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a master's degree in College Student Affairs from Azusa Pacific University, and a Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University.

Her research focuses on interpersonal relationships, self-motivation, inspiration, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. She is the founder of Tandem Light Press, a publishing company, and the Holistic Institute for Creative Life Change. She facilitates speaking engagements and training sessions for audiences across the country. Additionally, she has written three books, has contributed chapters to scholarly publications, and presents her research extensively for national and international audiences.

The bulk of Dr. Pamela's career has been spent in higher education, where she has fourteen years of professional experience. As a student affairs professional, she received training in suicide prevention, motivational interviewing, and substance abuse counseling. After completing her master's degree in College Student Affairs, Dr. Pamela pursued her Ph.D. to better position herself to help develop leadership skills in others, particularly with the desire to help people live fulfilling, purpose-driven lives. As a member of Mercer University's Educational Leadership faculty, the opportunity to utilize key coaching skills to compliment her work with students compelled her to pursue life coach certification in 2011. By seeking out the experience of seasoned experts and drawing upon her own holistic leadership background and curriculum development experience, Dr. Pamela launched the Academy of Creative Coaching. Her vision for the Academy of Creative Coaching is to offer a life-changing certification program that not only trains, but that also transforms. Thus, through the empowerment of the Academy's graduates, they will in turn, empower the coachees they have the ability to touch through their own coaching practices and through the testimonies of their own lives.

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Letters to the Brokenhearted: Woman-to-Woman Advice on Refocusing, Rebuilding, and Reloving

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Letters to the Brokenhearted: Woman-to-Woman Advice on Refocusing, Rebuilding, and Reloving [Larde, Pamela A] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Letters to the Brokenhearted: Woman-to-Woman Advice on Refocusing, Rebuilding, and Reloving

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Webinar: The Impact of Black Women in Coaching: Paving, Repairing, and Innovating the Industry

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Webinar: The Impact of Black Women in Coaching: Paving, Repairing, and Innovating the Industry

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Become a Member " Log In " Webinar: The Impact of Black Women in Coaching: Paving, Repairing, and Innovating the Industry The IOC is a global community of coaches. Join Contact Us

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Webinar: Human Wholeness, Justice, and Joy: An Approach to Culturally Responsive Coaching

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In this webinar, the Institute of Coaching's director of education, Dr. Pamela Larde explores the profound intersection of human wholeness, justice, and joy in the context of coaching clients who are facing identity-based inequities in their personal or professional lives.

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Intentional Change Theory for Leaders with Richard Boyatzis

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The intriguing thing about human nature is that there is no one way to exist. Just recently, I was speaking with a colleague who struggled to understand why some people cannot handle a heavy workload or stressful situations. Because she can.

Ironically, in that very same conversation, I wondered why she wasn't more empathetic. Because I am. In all my self-righteousness, no one could have convinced me in that moment that I was just as guilty of being judgmental and unempathetic as she was.

Neither of us saw the value in the other's experience or point of view. In each of our minds, our way (resilience from her perspective, and empathy from mine) was the one right way. Never mind the possibility of common ground - that perhaps what was more important was that our perspectives were likely rooted in some form of trauma that shaped the way we see the world and approach our lives.

Relativism as root to self-belief

There's this concept in qualitative research called relativism . It means that we don't place judgment on the perspectives and experiences of other people. We find value in the journey, validity in all experiences and meaning in all perspectives - even the ones we don't like. In honoring each other's truths, we open the door for authenticity, compassion and belief that we are worthy of being heard. Neither my colleague nor myself were practicing relativism that day.

How often do we subject our youth who have experienced trauma to our varying forms of judgment? We know that they have been dealt a devastating set of cards, but still, even if in the most subtle of ways, educators, counselors, social workers and other professionals who haven't yet adopted a relativistic approach expect them to think, act and behave in the ways we would given similar circumstances. Why won't she try harder? Why isn't he more responsible? Why would they do it that way? I made much better choices at this age.

We may mean well. We want to motivate them to strive for success. We want them to know that the real world is harsh and unforgiving. We want them to live lives of integrity and purpose - but we want them to do it our way, on our terms and in our time frame. Unfortunately, that's not how effective motivation works. We can try to motivate, but if we are not planting the right seeds based on who they are and what they need, that motivation we are pushing may never manifest into their self-determination.

It is important that we understand the difference between motivation and self-determination in this context. When I refer to motivation, I speak of the work that we do with the intention to positively impact a young person's life. This can take the form of counseling, mentoring, coaching or advising. Self-determination is a reflection of the internal view of self and the action taken accordingly. If the internal lens is positive and hopeful, they will likely move in the direction of self-improvement and growth. If the internal lens is negative and hopeless, they will likely remain stagnant or spiral downward to a place of lesser hope.

Thus, we can engage them in motivational activities and offer endless opportunities for mentorship, coaching, counseling or advising, but if those efforts focus only on goal attainment, academic success or overcoming difficult situations without addressing belief in self - particularly as it pertains to competence, autonomy and relatedness, they are not likely to embrace a true sense of self-determination. These results are not sustainable and are less likely to lead to a genuine place of growth.

Self-belief as root to self-determination

I was moved by a quote by writer Brooke Hampton that I recently saw on social media: "Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful humans on earth, for what they believe is what they will become."

This, of course, does not just apply to our own children. It applies to any young person placed on our path. Belief about self is perhaps one of the most important underlying factors of self-determination. To be self-determined, three basic psychological needs around belief are essential: belief in one's own competence, belief in one's own autonomy and belief in one's ability to foster positive and healthy relationships.

After traumatic experiences, these elements are vitally important keys to not only recovery, but also to the possibility of growth after recovery. At the core of healing, of self-determination and of post-traumatic growth is belief. And the core of belief rests on the words, assumptions and interactions we offer to our youth. Even in negative, hopeless environments, our expressed belief in them can shape the course of their lives.

Elijah's story of growth

Elijah, one of the participants in my study of first-generation college aspirants, described a traumatic childhood laced with drug busts, violence and extreme poverty. As a child, he was highly self-sufficient and responsible. With his mother working nights, Elijah was often left to oversee the household and get himself to and from school. During my interview with him, he shared a situation in which his mother was arrested, and his responsibility was to find the drugs and hide them before the police discovered them. Elijah was able to clearly identify the negative patterns in his family, observe the consequences and decide that he would take a different path. He says:

"The environment I grew up in; drug dealers, prostitutes, drug addicts ... there is a collection of these types of people in my family structure. People that are raising me and my cousins ... but they had the attitude of do what I say, not as I do. I usually saw them do it, but I would see a consequence. That really helped me; and made it easier for my mom. They would keep me on the right path."

Though his environment was not healthy or positive, the family members who were involved with drug dealing spoke life and into him. His mother offered raw truths about life and encouraged him not to go down the path she had taken. Here is how he described his mother's strategy to keep him on the right path:

"I remember one particular time she was arrested and we were in a police car and she was handcuffed; she had a bunch of drugs. She would have been facing a whole lot of time. And a thing about my mom; she is very upfront. She would always tell me things and she was trying to coach me and prepare me for anything. She would tell me things, whether I wanted to know or not. There were just so many things that I saw that I didn't want to get into. Life was so rough; there has to be something else, I would think. I understood that life didn't have to be that way. At one point, I thought it was normal for people to not have lights ... it was only until I got older that I got to see my perception change."

As Elijah's perception changed, his life choices became more reflective of the lessons his family imparted, despite the choices they were making. He realized that it was his call to head in a different direction, and as he followed that calling, his life began to mirror the concept of post-traumatic growth.

The power of post-traumatic growth

Post-traumatic growth is the experience of positive life change after trauma. It means that the individual goes beyond healing and takes steps to enhance their lives mentally, spiritually and physically as a result of the trauma. Furthermore, they find greater purpose in their lives and focus on also enhancing the lives of others. According to the Posttraumatic Growth Research Group at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, post-traumatic growth results in the following five changes in individuals:

1. Stronger and more meaningful relationships

2. Seeing new possibilities and purpose in life

3. Increased personal strength (resilience)

4. Greater spiritual connection

5. Greater appreciation for life.

These powerful changes, as I have found in my own research, have the power to change the trajectory of a person's entire life. But the greatest impact of post-traumatic growth is its influence on the lives of those who surround the growing individual. After experiencing growth, there is evidence that the individual steps into his or her purpose and becomes intentional about making a positive difference in the lives of others.

Elijah's post-traumatic growth was strongly evident, as he met all five requirements for positive life change. (1) He discussed the meaningful relationships he developed with school counselors and peers who aspired to pursue a college education, as well as the strengthening of the relationship with his mother; (2) as a member of the National Honor Society and his high school's football team, he saw great possibilities for his future and a purpose that compelled him to remain a positive role model for his younger cousins; (3) he perceived that he had a strength unlike that of his peers and other family members who seemed to struggle with challenges that were not nearly as daunting as his own; (4) he maintained a solid sense of spirituality, which he says played a major role in his ability to stay focused on his future; and (5) he valued life tremendously, often expressing how he wanted to make the most of every moment.

Elijah is that rare rose that grew out of concrete, but his experience does not have to be rare.

Self-determination: A root of post-traumatic growth

From the research on post-traumatic growth, it is clear that the characteristics of self-determination are essential precursors to post-traumatic growth. It takes deliberate action to grow - action that requires a strong belief in self, as well as a sense of hope in others.

While all youth do not experience growth after trauma, the odds are greater if the right internal and external conditions for nurturing self-determination are in place.

Self-determination is most effective when it is internally driven and when the inspiration is rooted in a deep level of self-satisfaction, rather than in fear of rejection or punishment. It is our responsibility to resist imposing our own lens and our own experiences on others. When we adopt a relativistic mindset, we can build bridges that help link our young people to new mindsets, hope for the future and a renewed belief in self.

According to P. Alex Linley and Stephen Joseph , there are four internally driven factors that lead to post-traumatic growth: optimism, extraversion, positive affect and openness to new experiences. As supporters of our youth, we cannot necessarily force optimism, extraversion, openness and positive affect. That is up to them. What we can do is teach them how to believe in themselves through our own belief in them, by the words we speak to them, by showing up in ways that say "you matter." When they believe in themselves, they will have the foundational tools needed for growth. We can then show them the way to growth by creating growth opportunities.

Optimism does not come naturally for everyone, but accomplishing goals and rising to new levels of living requires some level of optimism, even if just enough to take baby steps toward a goal. We can help our youth develop this optimism by helping them achieve small wins that gradually grow into bigger wins, such as encouraging them to join a writers group as a first step, to write a poem as a second step and to read it out loud at an event as a third step. It is important that the small wins are on their level and that the wins are based on their own willingness to complete the task and not on any specific form of completion until, of course, they are ready to embark upon some big wins.

Extraversion is not just for our extraverted friends. This means that in order to experience growth, we have to experience moments of extraversion. Moments just long enough to allow us to make important connections, build empowering relationships and ask for what we need. We grow when we strengthen our ability to connect to other people. And the relatedness element of self-determination gives us the sense that we can do exactly that - build relationships. We can help build extraversion with goal-setting strategies that challenge them to meet a certain number of people within a certain time frame or to reach out to an individual who inspires them to set up a conversation.

Openness to new experiences: An important precursor to any form of growth we experience in life is the willingness to step outside our comfort zones to experience new people, places, opportunities and viewpoints. This wildly expands our scope of possibilities and enables us to broaden our understanding of the world and the many ways in which we fit and can make a difference. We can encourage openness by leading book discussions based on books that offer new viewpoints or by taking trips to places never traveled.

Positive affect: Can we see the positive impact we make in the world? In the lives of others? When we realize that our presence, our stories, our ability to survive has the power to inspire someone else, we experience growth. We want to keep giving back because we see the difference. We want to keep peaking because as our voice liberates ourselves, it also liberates others. As supporters of our youth, we can create experiences of positive affect by engaging them in community engagement projects, service learning and missionary experiences. This is most effective when we tie the experience to an issue that is near and dear to their heart.

The Impact of relativism

When working with young people who have experienced trauma, their optimism, extraversion, positive affect and openness to new experiences can lead to life transformation. But we cannot jump to these factors without first ensuring that their own self-determination is intrinsic and strongly rooted in belief in self. It may feel great to be motivational and see progress, but motivation is ineffective and short-lived if is not intrinsically driven.

When we can help transform beliefs, we instill self-determination, and with self-determination comes the foundation for growth. The words we speak make a difference. They can make or break a spirit. They can build or tear down self-belief. They can arm our youth with the tools needed to grow or they can keep them in a cycle of despair. It is our responsibility to suspend judgment and to focus on planting seeds that open the door to authenticity, compassion and their own belief that they are worthy of being seen and heard.
Pamela Larde, Ph.D., is an associate professor of research at Mercer University , an Institute of Coaching Fellow at Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital and a certified life coach. She has written four books and contributed chapters to various academic texts.

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We Must Encourage Self-belief, Self-determination for Youth to Experience Post-traumatic Growth

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The intriguing thing about human nature is that there is no one way to exist. Just recently, I was speaking with a colleague who struggled to understand why some people cannot handle a heavy workload or stressful situations. Because she can.

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FCSCAFEINE/Shutterstock

When a young person experiences trauma, there is no single answer regarding how that experience may impact them in their later years. Two 12-year-olds experiencing the exact same kind of trauma, for example, may have two very different responses - one crumbles and the other rises. One processes it deeply and the other suppresses it. One becomes a powerful force for change in the community and the other struggles to make their place in the world.

Furthermore, what may be considered traumatic for one person may not be for another. It can take many forms and yield remarkably different results. I am going to dissect the concept of growth after trauma by using hope as a catalyst for positive life change.

Post-traumatic growth

Post-traumatic growth is not just about surviving a traumatic experience. It is not resilience - though it can lead to greater resilience later in life. It is not having the ability to heal and move on with life. It is the equivalent of developing a new superpower as a result of a traumatic experience. It is life improvement and empowerment that serves not only the individual experiencing the growth, but also those whose lives are touched by that individual's growth.

The Posttraumatic Growth Research Group at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, which coined the term, describes post-traumatic growth as positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with a major life crisis or a traumatic event. This is not to say that the traumatic experience was good or that everyone who experiences trauma has the support and resources needed to experience growth, but the research does offer ideas about how some people manage to grow after trauma, and one of those ideas is hope.

Hope after crisis

Chelsea is one example of how a young person experiencing years of living in crisis can follow a path of hope to create positive life change. I interviewed Chelsea for a study on post-traumatic growth. She shared her story of being homeless throughout much of her middle school and high school years and the shame she experienced as she went to great lengths to keep her homelessness a secret. Today, she is a thriving professional who uses her career to positively influence struggling youth.

Memories of her adolescence are colored with grey experiences of separated parents, of her and her mother living in their car and of moving from place to place to dodge harassment from the police. It was a secret Chelsea desperately kept for fear that she would be humiliated or ostracized in front of her peers. As is the case with many adolescents, she struggled with self-esteem, and with each passing year through middle school and high school, her struggle only intensified.

Socially, she felt awkward and out of place among her classmates. Many of them knew each other well because they grew up in neighborhoods together, but no one knew the place she called home. To keep this secret, Chelsea made it a point to stay busy at school by engaging in after-school activities. It was where she could connect with others on equal ground and where she eventually found the support she needed to change the tide of her life.

A creative at heart, Chelsea engaged in as many of the arts as possible, including theater, dance, chorus and writing. Going home was difficult and heart-breaking, but school gave her hope for the future. It was her safe haven. After-school is where she found teachers and mentors who cared enough to offer support, advice and opportunities for her future. If she could just push through, she knew she would go to college. Hope was taking form in her life.

Hope in a wildly cold world

Every now and then, we are graced with a news story that reinforces our sense of hope. Maybe no one died in the shooting this time. Perhaps the hurricane will go around the poor, impoverished village. Hopefully that abused child will survive and finally get to experience a better life.

Most recently, that story was that of the 12 soccer players who were miraculously rescued from a deep, slowly flooding cave in the mountains of Thailand. The first victory was that after weeks of searching, the missing team of youth and their coach had been found. But that was only the first obstacle. The world remained on edge for weeks as experts weighed the pros and cons of proposed rescue strategies, all while racing against time and nature to make what seemed to be the impossible happen.

Several factors were at play: The water was slowly rising, threatening to flood the cave at any time; none of the 12 boys knew how to swim, and getting out required swimming through parts of the cave that were fully submerged in water. One rescuer had already lost his life in an attempt to transport oxygen tanks to the kids before the operation began. It didn't look good. The odds were against them, but hope never seemed to waver.

We, the onlookers of the world, braced ourselves because truly, we did need a win in light of the hopelessly negative news that has inundated social media and our airways lately. We braced ourselves and held on to hope that this story would end well. And in a turn of events that culminated in the ending we all needed, all 12 of the boys were rescued - boys who were not skilled in navigating the terrain that lay before them. But they did it. Hope won.

The research on hope

When former President Barack Obama launched his presidential campaign in 2008, he did so under the banner of hope. It was a banner that triggered a storm of criticism, even from those who believed in his platform. Hope is too abstract. It is naïve. It has no weight. Hope is a warm and fuzzy feeling without a plan.

Yet, even in light of the criticism, much of the nation was won over by this idea of hope. Like watching the rescue of the boys in Thailand, we wanted hope to work. We wanted to believe that hope would lead to change. And we wanted to reclaim the hope we once had in the days of our youth. Hope feels good when the result is success or survival. But all too often, our lifted spirits are met with heartbreak and disappointment, and over time, as a society, we begin to lose that hope.

The true manifestation of hope is much more than just a good feeling. Contrary to popular belief, it is indeed a strategy. We don't often speak of hope in this way, but positive psychologists like Charles R. Snyder have been doing work on the concept of for decades. As it turns out, there is a formula for hope, and its components include the practical, action-oriented elements that many critics of hope claim are missing. According to Snyder, sustainable hope - high hope, as he calls it - requires two elements: agency and pathways.

Snyder demonstrates that hope is possible when agency and pathways are present and recognizable. Agency is our internal reservoir. It is our sense of ability, freedom, strength and will to pursue our interests and desires. We perceive that our lives are in our control and that we have the ability to reach the dreams we hope for.

Pathways consists of what is external to us. This includes the resources and forms of support outside ourselves that we recognize as available to help us achieve what we hope for - like financial aid for college, a therapist to overcome a traumatic experience or a vehicle to get to work each day. The combination of agency and pathways is what allows us to have hope and to find the resiliency to survive. Understanding this could serve as a powerful tool in our work with youth who struggle to see hope for their futures.

Applying agency and pathways

In the case of the soccer team rescue, we learned of two very important agency strategies that contributed to their rescue: (1) the rescuers taught them to swim so that they could, in a sense, help save themselves and (2), the coach taught them meditation skills that enabled them to stay calm throughout the entire process. With the absence of just one of these agency strategies, they may not have made it out alive.

The pathways were also present - rescuers, numerous escape strategies, health professionals and safety equipment - but without the boys having their own sense of agency, each of these pathways stood the risk of being unsuccessful. The physical and psychological impacts of this potentially traumatic experience remains to be seen, but what is known is that because these boys were equipped with the coping skills of meditation and the elements of hope, their chances of experiencing growth after this ordeal are great.

In Chelsea's story, she activated her own sense of agency when she took the initiative to join numerous after-school programs. When she spoke with teachers and counselors, they became her resources - or her pathways to the military and eventually to and through college. The combination of her agency and the pathways she identified undoubtedly created a hope that triggered change in her life. Even as she struggled with self-esteem and fitting in, Chelsea managed to devise a plan of her own to survive homelessness without being consumed by it and to eventually create a life dedicated to positively impacting others.

With so much exposure to the ongoing traumatic events that occur all over the world, how do we inoculate our youth against the tragedy of losing hope in society and, more importantly, in themselves? We do so by instilling, not just a sense of hope, but by instilling practical strategies for hope. This includes helping them recognize their own agency by showing them their strengths and arming them with self-empowerment skills, like problem-solving, meditation or relationship-building.

And it includes helping them identify the pathways by engaging in strategic conversations and offering informational and material resources. In even the most dire, life-threatening of situations, if we arm them with a sense of agency and the ability to identify pathways, they too can possess the hope it takes to aid in their own rescue. As the saying goes, it takes a village. It does. But if that village fails to arm them with the ingredients for hope, especially after trauma, they may very well drown in their own fear.

Pamela Larde, Ph.D., is an associate professor of research at Mercer University , an Institute of Coaching Fellow at Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital and a certified life coach. She has written four books and contributed chapters to various academic texts.

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Post-Traumatic Growth: Hope Is a Strategy, Not a Feeling

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When a young person experiences trauma, there is no single answer regarding how that experience may impact them in their later years. Two 12-year-olds experiencing the exact same kind of trauma, for example, may have two very different responses - one crumbles and the other rises.

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Coaching Joy: Helping Clients Flourish Personally and Professionally Through Change

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Coaching Joy: Helping Clients Flourish Personally and Professionally Through Change

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Professor of Leadership at Anderson University and Director of Education at the Institute of Coaching

Dr. Pamela Larde, a professor of leadership at Anderson University, coach, author, and business owner, is committed to engaging in the work of advancing the reach and commitment of the coaching profession to serve and build up heart-centered leaders around the world. Her coach training academy is among the first of black female owned ICF ACTP accredited coaching schools in the world. She is also the Director of Education at the Institute of Coaching. Her research focuses on race and gender dynamics, self-motivation, joy, resilience, and posttraumatic growth.

Dr. Larde is a certified coach with training in suicide prevention, motivational interviewing, and substance abuse counseling. She holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, a master's degree in College Student Affairs from Azusa Pacific University, and a Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University.

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Dr. Pamela Larde - Coaching.com Summit Join the World's Largest Coaching Event. May 28th - June 13th. 17 days, 35+ Live sessions, Free admission, 5 CCE ICF Units.

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Chapter 4: Spiritually Driven Strategies of First-Generation Students...

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Chapter 4: Spiritually Driven Strategies of First-Generation Students...

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Spirituality Research Studies in Higher Education offers two uniquely designed sections that showcase a group of talented scholars from major research institutions. This edited volume by Terence Hicks provides the reader with topics such as spiritual aspects of the grieving college students, spirituality and sexual identity among lesbian and gay students, spirituality driven strategies among first-generation students, the role of spirituality in home-based education, and counseling and spiritual support among women.

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Spirituality Research Studies in Higher Education (2016-04-04)

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Spirituality Research Studies in Higher Education offers two uniquely designed sections that showcase a group of talented scholars from major research institutions. This edited volume by Terence Hicks provides the reader with topics such as spiritual aspects of the grieving college students, spir...

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Chapter 8: Misconception of Family Support...

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Chapter 8: Misconception of Family Support...

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College Student Self-Efficacy Research Studies offers three uniquely designed sections that provide a unique mixture of research studies conducted on African American, Mexican American, and first-generation college students. This book explores a variety of factors affecting a diverse group of college students including institutional commitment, college adjustment, and social and academic self-efficacy barriers.

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College Student Self-Efficacy Research Studies

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College Student Self-Efficacy Research Studies offers three uniquely designed sections that provide a unique mixture of research studies conducted on African American, Mexican American, and first-generation college students. This book explores a variety of factors affecting a diverse group of college students including institutional commitment, college adjustment, and social and academic self-efficacy barriers.

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Working & Living in Joy - Full Interview with Dr. Pamela Larde

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Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee - Pamela Larde

(interview blurb)

Pamela: What does that really mean here for the whole person and whose responsibility is that? Is it the workplace's responsibility to care for me as a whole person? Is it my responsibility? And what I landed on is that it is collaborative but I also have to be an advocate for myself if it's not happening in the workplace. And that's what I became. I became a voice in every workplace that I've been a part of for my own wholeness.

(intro)

Alex: Hi, I'm Alex Pascal, CEO of coaching.com, and this is Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee. My guest today is a professor, coach, award-winning author, and business owner. She's the founder and president of Tandem Light Press, a publishing company committed to publishing award-winning books written for women and by women. As a certified coach, she's committed to taking the lead in addressing compelling social issues through the Academy of Creative Coaching, which she founded in 2013. Please welcome Dr. Pamela Larde.

(Interview)

Alex: Hi, Pamela, how are you?

Pamela: Hey, Alex. I'm doing great. How are you?

Alex: Great. It's great to have you. Thank you for joining me today. Let's start where we always start in Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee, which is not always coffee, what are we drinking today?

Pamela: So I am not a coffee drinker, I am a tea drinker, so, today, I have my joy mug and I am drinking Positive Energy Tea. One of my favorites.

Alex: What is Positive Energy Tea?

Pamela: Yeah, it's just one of those functional teas that could be a placebo, but, for whatever reason, I drink Positive Energy Tea and I just seem to be in a better mood, so particularly if I know I'm going to have a full day, it's one of the teas I drink. And sometimes I mix it with Slim Life, which, again, may or may not work to maintain a slim life but it's another tea that I tend to throw in the mug sometimes.

Alex: Well, you seem very joyful so I think it's working. I'm drinking a peppermint tea today. I already had a latte this morning so I think I'm fully caffeinated and I haven't had the chance to have breakfast yet so probably good not to have a second coffee for the sake of our listeners and yours as well. Well, it's great to have you so thanks for joining me. Let's start at the beginning of your journey. You do so many things, you're involved with so many projects, you have a PhD, you've written a book, I think you have another one on the way as well, so lots of things going on, how did you get started on your journey that ultimately led you to sitting here on this podcast today?

Pamela: It's so interesting because I feel like the exact same person as I was when I was aspiring to some kind of life like this. I mean, I vividly remember being 10 years old, 12 years old, 16 years old, sitting in my room, envisioning things, writing books, helping, you know, doing advice column for my high school newspaper, and so I always had some elements of everything I'm doing now within me throughout my journey. And so my journey got a little thrown off track when I was my first year of college, I was an athlete, and everything, and I got pregnant in my sophomore year of college and it actually was one of the best pivots, I guess, that I could have experienced in life because that whole entire process taught me a lot. He's now 27 years old almost, yeah, but he gave me a lot of motivation to sort of not be down on myself, not be disappointed in myself, and not to spend that time sort of dragging but to get up and create something with my life. And I have to credit some really great friends that were in my circle that kind of pushed me in that direction too. So that changed the trajectory of my life, from a place of sort of comfort in moving towards my dream to more of a battle at times and a fight to maintain my motivation and to keep going and so it became the catalyst for the degree program I settled on as a master's student, as a PhD student, the dissertation I wrote and the way that I advocate for my students. I've been on a college campus ever since I was a freshman and now I'm a professor and so the way that I advocate for my students, all of that had everything to do with that journey that started during my sophomore year in college.

Alex: That's incredible.

Pamela: So that's part of it. I figure the rest will come out through the conversation but that's a huge part of the journey.

Alex: I'm sure it will. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. When you're saying that you remember just sitting there being told this whole thing about your career path just made me think of just being in grad school, like the first couple of weeks and you have no idea. Am I doing the right thing or not? And then in like 10, 12, 13, 15 years later, you look back and like, wow, all the things that you accomplished and there's all these different pathways that get opened up and activated that you have no idea they're coming so it's like always nice to reflect on the journey and finding connecting with that person you were before you embarked on it, that's always really interesting. I have tremendous respect for anyone that goes through grad school while raising a child because, for me, it was very challenging to go through grad school while I was starting a business and running a business and I think that the layer of responsibility of having a child is - I wouldn't even say it's on par with a business, it's like next level, so I have a lot of respect for people that are able to juggle that personal and school and work life integration in a way that leads to the success that you've seen. That's incredible.

Pamela: Thank you. And I have to credit, my professors were amazing, my 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-year-old, whatever he was at the time, 6-year-old son was sitting in class next to me a lot of times and the professors were just gracious and so having a lot of support has been - there's, of course, always moments when you're alone and you have to kind of figure out how to pick yourself up but I definitely can point to key people who have been in the picture throughout the entire journey.

Alex: Do you remember the first time you heard about coaching and when you started really getting interested in the field?

Pamela: Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I was working in the college world in student affairs for probably 10 years before I really understood what coaching was and so it's interesting because that is the perfect complement to the student affairs work that we do but it wasn't ever a part of the formal training or any of the conversations in higher ed. It wasn't until I became a professor of research at Mercer University, I was in my first year there and I had a doctoral student come to my office and she said, you know, we were supposed to be talking about her research and her research question and just really diving in and she said, "I'm not prepared today. I've had a rough night. I spent the entire night rockin' a bottle of gin while my kids were running around the house naked and I don't know where my husband is." And I'm sitting here like, "Okay, so what's your research question?" Obviously, I couldn't dive into that conversation but it forced me to be in the moment and pivot and say, "Okay, no, let's focus on where you are right now," because there's not going to be any research questions or any productive conversation about research without acknowledging who she is and where she is in that moment. So I did my best in that conversation. I pushed the tissue box toward her and I let her dive in and then after that meeting, I went straight to our department chair and I said, "Look, I just had a very interesting meeting with a student and I've heard of this thing called life coaching," and, at that time, it was specifically life coaching that I had in mind and I said, "I would love to get training. Is that something I can use my professional development dollars for this year?" and they said yes and they paid for the training and that's how I got into it. And it actually became the catalyst for me starting my own coaching school because, as a professor, and I'm a little snooty and I'm a little particular, I didn't necessarily love the way that their program was designed or delivered or the curriculum so I thought, you know what, this is right in my wheelhouse and I love this stuff and I bet you I can create something that is great. So it became the catalyst for that.

Alex: Thank you for sharing. That's awesome. So you founded the Academy of Creative Coaching, which was the first black female-owned ICF-accredited coaching school in the world. So, take me through that journey. How did you conceive of that? What was the process to get it started? I would love to learn some of the amazing experiences that you've had and some of the challenges that you've faced as you went through that journey.

Pamela: I can fast forward to one challenge. I'm recalling very clearly of me standing in the grass at my parents' house in the yard on the phone with one of my colleagues who actually helped, you know, was part of the beginning process of the Academy of Creative Coaching, saying, "I'm shutting this down today because I don't know how I'm gonna parent our employees and I don't know, so I'm shutting it down," and she said, "No, you're not. You are not shutting us down. We are keeping this going," and it was the best conversation I ever had because it did encourage me to just keep, keep, keep going. But the way that it started, so I have two key reasons why I started this. So, number one, like I said, I felt like this is my wheelhouse. This is my strength. I know that I can create something great in terms of coach training. And there's things that are missing. There's holes that I think need to be addressed. including like human wholeness, diversity and inclusion, justice, and there's just different elements that I thought could really enrich a curriculum for coaching. So I dove into all of that as well as some of my own former training in human development and so forth. But the other reason why I did it is because my son, my beloved son, was struggling in high school and he was being a little self-righteous and difficult at the time and it's almost like the analogy of the preacher's kid, that's the kid that tends to kind of act a little bit more crazy or wild, he was the professor's kid. So, from that perspective, he was getting all F's and he's one of the smartest kids I know and I'm like, "What are you doing?" And I ended up resolving, the resolve was to send him to a military academy, which was very expensive, and so I sat down one day and I did the math, if I start this school and I get this number of students enrolled and I pay the instructors this amount and I just did all of the math and it came to like, wow, if I do this right, this can be a multimillion-dollar company. So, as we know, as entrepreneurs, it's not always just push the button and you get your multimillion dollars, it's work and it's years and it's loss and it's thinking that this isn't going to work at all. So the company never did well enough to pay any of his tuition until after he graduated high school and then we started generating some good revenue and we've been growing and we've grown since and it's been amazing. But he's 10 years out of high school now and he's navigating college, but that was my - so it was a very practical purpose and it was a very altruistic purpose. And the reason why it occurred to me that creating a coaching school could be a financial form of support is I had a friend who was doing physical therapy and decided to create a physical therapy certification program. I thought what do I have in my pocket? What skill set do I have that I can teach others? And that's why coaching is the thing that came to mind.

Alex: Why "Creative"? I used to work at the - I learned the coaching profession and I got trained at CCL, the Center for Creative Leadership. So I always look twice where there's like "creative," it's like, oh, cool. So where did that come from? Where did the name come from? Do you embed an approach of creativity to the programs? Tell me more about that.

Pamela: Well, creativity is a key characteristic. It's part of my ethos, it's who I am. So no matter what it is that I'm doing, creativity is going to be brought into it in some way. Now, I'm no artist where I draw things or anything like that but I try to get people to think through their creative minds from the standpoint of what are the creative solutions to this problem. It's not always the straight shot, as we know, on the path to life, there are lots of loops and turns and twists and so forth, and to what extent are we allowing our creativity to give us the room to move in different directions as opposed to the straight line that we might think is easier. So it's really about creating solutions and envisioning and imagining what could be in the future and moving in that direction. So I challenge people, especially in the program, to think about how they can look at creativity differently and realize that we all have a capacity for creativity but it just looks different. It doesn't always come out in the same way. If you asked, like I said, if you asked me to draw something, that's not going to work. I mean, it might, it's just not going to - yeah, it's not my strength. But I am a writer, I'm strategic, and I come up with ways, like I said, starting the coaching school was a strategy to pay for my son's military academy. Now, even though it didn't yield those results, it still, 'cause it was aligned with who I am, it still sent me in that direction. So that's kind of how I want to encourage our trainees to think, what are some creative ways that you can integrate solutions into where you're trying to go. But we do have creatives that come through. We've had theater directors, we've had actors, we've had dancers, we've had movement sort of coaches and they have found sort of the intellectual aspect of creativity to be a great fit for what it is they're doing.

Alex: I know you have an interest in human development and wholeness and spirituality. How did you bring those into the courses in your academy? And, actually we can - I would love to learn more about where that interests come from, what are some of your favorite books around the topic, and then let's talk about how you've embedded that into your training.

Pamela: Yeah. Well, so what's interesting about the - so we've looked at justice and diversity, for example. As we have seen, the conversation around that has shifted so much just in the last couple of years. When the Academy of Creative Coaching started, it was 10 years ago, it was in 2013, and the way that we're talking about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion now in no way mirrors how we were talking about it in 2013. I think Barack Obama was president and, at the time, everybody was like, "Oh, it's a post-racial society," and it was just a very different look at diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so we've had to be very intentional about pivoting with the times and adjusting with the time. So where in the beginning of the school, the coaching academy, we had a certain textbook around diversity but we have since evolved because there's just so many changes to that. And one of the approaches that I bring into it is this concept of revolutionary joy and I'm noticing that there are justice-focused thinkers and scholars and authors out there that are focusing on bringing in the joy as a source of strength in the fight for justice. So, when I look at the whole person approach, it is really not just about the means to an end but it's really about what are all of those elements that add to our wholeness, add to our wellness, that enable us to move forward with the goals. So, part of the interest in human development came from my work in my master's degree program which was college student affairs and they take us through a whole sequence and a whole lot of theories about development, racial development, intellectual development, religious development, and I thought that is a key piece to coaching that I think is really going to help us better understand how human beings evolve and think and respond to situations. It's not always the case, because some of it's linear so it's not always you start here and you finish here, your development, but it does help us identify some things in our coaching if we're aware of what some of the science is saying about that.

Alex: So let's talk about wholeness. I know it's like an area of interest to you. Where do you draw your theoretical framework for it? How do you instill that in your programs?

Pamela: Well, one of the ways that wholeness was first introduced to me is I worked at Marquette University, which is a Jesuit Catholic university, and one of their mottos or sayings or principles that was really instilled in us and the students was care for the whole person and I think the Latin word for that is cura personalis and so that was something that was stated all the time, something that we saw everywhere and it just stuck with me, cura personalis, care for the whole person. And it's interesting because that's not necessarily what I was experiencing as a professional at that phase in my life because I was working on my PhD, I had just had a baby smack dab in the middle of the PhD program, I had just gotten married, the marriage was a little challenging, the job was very stressful so I had all of these things crashing at the same time but I'm seeing cura personalis everywhere. And so it really forced me to think about what does that really mean, care for the whole person? And whose responsibility is that? Is it the workplace's responsibility to care for me as a whole person? Is it my responsibility? And what I landed on is that it is collaborative but I also have to be an advocate for myself if it's not happening in the workplace. And that's what I became, I became a voice in every workplace that I've been a part of for my own wholeness. So I have several models that I've pulled together that sort of address wholeness in different ways. So Brené Brown's looking at the 10 guideposts to wholehearted living, I think is one of her sets of principles so we pulled that, that's actually in the curriculum, but we also looked at some of the approaches by - and I mentioned some folks that focused on social justice and well-being and joy, so Austin Channing Brown is another one. She talks a lot about soft places to land so while we are embarking on pushing for our goals, pushing for justice, enduring a lot of the woes of life. Do we have intentional soft places to land? Do we have places that we know we're safe? And then also, Tricia Hersey, she's the founder of the Nap Ministry, and she really emphasizes the importance of nap as a revolutionary act. And so I pull from these different places, especially as they're emerging, I kind of keep my eye on it in order to integrate that into the curriculum. One more scientific approach is that of Richard Boyatzis and his colleagues on the intentional change theory and coaching with compassion. So the coaching with compassion framework is also embedded in our curriculum and that is more of as opposed to how can I fight for my own, being treated as a whole person, this is more of how managers can do this for their employees, how coaches can do this for their coachees, and so that's more of an external approach.

Alex: Wonderful, thank you. How do you balance everything you're doing? You're running the academy, you're a professor, you're involved with other projects, because I think one of the areas that get most addressed in coaching from what I've seen recently in terms of kind of themes around coaching is prioritization, so how does a coach like yourself go about prioritizing all these tasks to make all this happen as an entrepreneur and a professor, research, so how does Dr. Pamela do that?

Pamela: Well, it's not always easy so I don't want to make it sound like it's easy to do. It's not, and it's something that I have to fight for. I mean, when I was - I was just presenting at Case Western Reserve recently in their coaching research lab and I was coaching, I was talking about coaching joy and, at the end, somebody pulled me to the side and said, "So, is joy something that you actually have to like work hard for to achieve?" and I said, "It is something that, you know, it doesn't come naturally, you actually have to create barriers and put things in place and sometimes fight to defend those barriers." So, for myself, I limit myself to three meetings a day and, every now and then, if there's something important enough, I might allow it to squeeze its way in, but three meetings is my standard because I also need time to think and to write and to do other important work.

Alex: Wow, I wish I could only have three meetings. I love my meetings, but, yeah, and you know what you need too? You need the mug that says joy, like the one you're using today.

Pamela: Yes, you need the joy mug.

Alex: I mean, without the joy mug, how can you be joyful?

Pamela: It's not easy.

Alex: Yeah. Working on joy is like one of those things that just you have to really sit down and think about it. Do you work on joy? Does joy emerge from the flow of other things coming together? Does it work the same for everyone? Are some people able to live in joy without focusing on it? Do you focus too much in joy? Are you getting stressed out about being joyful and that takes away the joy? I mean, it's a nuanced topic. Well, what do you think?

Pamela: Well, so I do think it does come with practice. But, of course, there are experiences that come with just flow, just there are things that just happen that flow out of maybe we're working hard for something and then now we've reached this point and our life is just in a place of flow. Or maybe we just had a really great experience, we went to Disney World or something and had a great time there. But there are different ways that people sort of create and express joy and it doesn't necessarily resonate with everyone. Every approach doesn't meet everyone's needs. So, for example, I was presenting to a group of professional Black men, probably, on average, maybe probably mid 50s was probably their age range, and one of them - well, what I was presenting to them was I show them a video and it's this hashtag that's been going around and it's called #BlackMaleJoy and #BlackMenFrolicking and the idea of frolicking, if you can envision Black men holding their cell phones and running through a field or rolling in the flowers or dancing in the ocean and it's a trend because it's a way to get Black men to express themselves in ways that society hasn't always welcomed them to express themselves. So I show this video, it's a minute or so, and there was a lot of resistance. Where I grew up, there's not plush grass everywhere, it's concrete. We're not rolling around in the concrete. And they were all legitimate concerns. And so I then invited them to consider this video as an analogy for other ways that frolicking can take place in their lives and then they just opened up with all of these things. There was one gentleman who was in the Marines and he said there were times he would climb up to the top of the ship while they're in the middle of the ocean and just put his arms out, lift his head up, and feel the wind, look at the ocean, feel the sun on him. I said, "That's frolicking," Running around with your kids in the living room, frolicking. And so they all came up with different ways. And so I guess understanding that the expression of joy can just be pure emotion, I'm welling up with tears and I'm overcome with the emotion, or it can come in a form of, and this is part of my model so emotion, it can come in the form of expression, so maybe I'm laughing, maybe I just give somebody a huge embrace and swing them around. It also comes in the form of experience. One of the gentlemen in that presentation, first he said, "The joy thing's not for me, that's cute and all but I'll let my kids have joy. I'll create experiences for them and let them have joy." Now, his colleagues did chime in and say, "Look, man, you've got to do it too. Your kids need to see it." But what he was describing was creating experiences of joy. And then the last one is the - what was it? I have it right here. The expression - oh, the ethos, and the ethos is our character. And so one of the questions I received in another session was what about the spirituality piece? What about when we're perhaps in church or in the middle of a spiritual experience and we're just overcome with gratitude or whatever that emotion is, if that is our way of life and that's part of our character and it's part of our belief system, then it becomes joy, it becomes our ethos. So there's a lot of different ways that joy comes out. Sometimes, it's because we create it and it's natural, but other times it's intentional and this is where the coaching piece comes in to kind of help people develop those habits and that mindset around joy.

Alex: Thank you for sharing that. What are you most excited about? With all the things that you have going on, what's the most exciting?

Pamela: Well, it's exciting and it's scary at the same time but the book that I have coming out, Joyfully Single, it feels very personal.

Alex: Yes, sounds like you're putting yourself out there, which is not always easy, right?

Pamela: Yeah, it's not easy, and it's very interesting because the irony is, and I'll just drop a little possible spoiler, but the irony is that I've been single for quite some time, I've dated here and there but I divorced 14 years ago, might have had a couple of short-lived relationships in that timeframe, but a lot of my time has been single, raising my kids, building my business, growing in my profession, but having a robust collective of friends and family and loved ones around me so never really feeling lonely. But the irony is that by the time this book comes out, I might be joyfully coupled.

Alex: Look at you. You've conjured it. The joy that you experienced writing that book led to it, but you can't tell all your fans about it because it's like when like they ask singers or actors and actresses not to reveal their relationship status so they sell more tickets.

Pamela: Yeah, exactly. I just said maybe, we don't know. We'll see.

Alex: Well, maybe that's the prequel to Joyfully Not Single.

Pamela: Right, right, right, Joyfully Coupled or whatever that might be. But, no, but it is a very vulnerable project and though it is really largely grounded in science and my research and other research on joy and relationships and singlehood, there are stories of my life, there are experiences that I integrate in there as well and it's interesting because the narrative right now around single women who are in their mid-40s and above, there's just been some really negative narratives around that and I've already just, you know, if I post about it here and there, I already get responses that will say things like, "Yeah, you're just gonna grow old with a bunch of cats," and so those stereotypes and those -

Alex: What is it about the cats and growing old alone? Like it's so interesting, right?

Pamela: I think those go together, you know, but it It's often - it's interesting. So I'm a little admittedly, I'm excited but I'm a little anxious to know how this work will be received by the world.

Alex: How can coaches leverage your book and your work in their own practice and their work with clients?

Pamela: Well, it's interesting, because - so the overall body of work is the multidimensional framework of joy and so that can be used in a lot of different ways and the four dimensions are - I should have it, I should know it like off the top of my head, I just spent three years, but well-being being one key component, internalization of our joy, so how do we express and that's what I was just talking about, how is our joy internalized, the communities that we are a part of and the connection that we have, and then the liberation piece. And so if we are finding ourselves in any setting that is uncomfortable or not serving us well or not giving us life, what are we going to do about that? Do we need to change it? Do we need to change ourselves? Do we need to move into a different direction? So coaching, when looking at the multidimensional framework of joy, can help people move through those different areas, looking at their communities, looking at how they embody joy, looking at their well-being, looking at their capacity for liberation. My book specifically, it's interesting because there have been several articles that's come out of like Harvard Business Review and other and in actual scholarly journals and so forth that look at singlehood post COVID and what that experience was like and how people are struggling, have struggled in the workplace because they have been the ones that were most forgotten. Accommodations were made for people who have families or even the work-from-home environment has a different impact on somebody who is single than somebody who - no, they're both challenging. I mean, I can't imagine having little ones at home trying to work from home so there's challenges in both areas and I think that's the biggest point that I'm trying to make that here's what single folks experienced, whether it is in their professional lives or in their personal lives, and it matters when we're coaching somebody to recognize their life situation and how that plays out in the different settings that you may be coaching around.

Alex: I love Bill Maher. I don't know if you watch his show but he's always talking about how the culture discriminates against single people.

Pamela: Yes.

Alex: So funny. I like him a lot. I like Bill Maher. It's like the only show that I watch like religiously.

Pamela: Okay. Yeah, it's a good one.

Alex: Fridays at seven. Yeah, you know, I usually watch at Saturday at like, 9 a.m. or something. But, yeah, it's great. You know, I don't really talk about my relationship status in the podcast but I am single and I understand some of the - I probably have to do something about it because my grandma is like really saying, "Hey, your younger cousin already got married. What's going on?" So, yeah, we'll figure that out. I'll read your book and I'll get reacquainted with being joyfully single and then I'll read the next book that's coming which is Joyfully Paired Up and then I'll learn everything I need to know.

Pamela: The whole picture.

Alex: Yeah, definitely. But, honestly, part of me being single is I've been growing this business for 11 years and I personally, just going back to what you were sharing about your story and having a child in college, like I don't necessarily see the path for me to be in a relationship and start a family and like run and grow this business so it's probably something I should be working with my coach on because so many people do amazing things and do it all at the same time, but, for me, it's been like very pretty focused. But, yeah, hey, I'm going to close the lid right there but like, yeah, I think you're making me think about that.

Pamela: And I'll shift it back to me but I will say that the couple of times that I have been involved in relationships and trying to pull this business together, and I have three business - I mean, I'm also a publisher, I have a publishing company, and I'm also a podcaster, and so I've got - that's three whole businesses and that has been challenging in a relationship and I don't know if it would be different for you as a man than it is for me as a woman but dating - the men that I have dated, there's a lot of pressure. Why are you doing that? You don't need to do that. And it isn't taken quite as seriously as it has been for my male colleagues and so I'm not really given the accommodations or the benefit of the doubt, if I'm literally in a conference call all day, at the end of the day, I'm seeing text like, "How come I haven't heard from you?" and it's like I haven't been able to reach out. So it is challenging as an entrepreneur trying to navigate relationships when there's not a lot of understanding of what it takes to build a business.

Alex: I completely understanding and there is somewhere out there in the internet a really well-written article of a relationship that I had with someone who lives in New York and is a relationship blogger so I will definitely not be sharing that unless we do one of this Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee that involve like scotch or wine, which we've had some. So maybe I'll do one of those and reveal that link. But, yeah, one of the things was like, "He's a bad texter." It was like, well, I'm not a bad texter, well, probably not the best, but also it doesn't help that I have more than three meetings a day so sometimes it's hard to get to that. I love how personal we're getting today but I'm like -

Pamela: I know, right?

Alex: I really feel like I should really just like move on from that because I try to keep my personal life personal. But I love it, like you're bringing seeds. Sometimes when you talk to coaches, I forgot we were in the middle of a podcast episode and I just started, you know, I just want to talk to you about this because you know so much about the topic and it is a recurring theme in my life, but maybe we'll do a conversation off the air and we'll keep talking about this. You know, as we get to like this latter part of our podcast today, I asked a form of this question earlier but, as we wrap our conversation up today, what things are coming up for you in terms of areas of focus for the future, for what you want to do next?

Pamela: So many things. So I am going to be an empty nester in two years and I don't know what to do with that but I've kind of sort of gone between feeling a sense of mourning, like part of the reason why I do three meetings, no more than that a day because I'm running this teenager all over the place, all over the city, and it's like I have to try to keep up with her as well. So I don't know what happens when that whole part of my life is now open. And so I've been thinking about a lot of things but one of the things that I want to do is create a home space for the coaching academy and coaching and creators and so forth so some physical, now that we're all back outside and back in the world, a place to gather, a place to do trainings live and in person, we're largely virtual now, that's one thing, but also creating bases in other countries. I've been very much interested in Costa Rica and just kind of landing there and just finding out what life is like in other places.

Alex: That sounds fun. I just watched a show on someone going to Costa Rica, it's that show with Eugene Levy on Apple where he's traveling places and he went to Costa Rica and it looked amazing. I've only been there for like a day on a cruise ship like 20 years ago so that sounds fun. I love that you're bringing the in-person events so WBECS and WBECS by coaching.com has always been virtual but we get requests, both from people in our ecosystem, like our clients, but also some of our partners that run programs, to do in person, especially now post pandemic where everything moved online. It used to be the WBECS was the only really like super scaled up events platform for coaching and now there's all these other options for coaches so kind of thinking about do we connect some of this virtual world with the physical world and what does that look like and what's the business model and what would get people excited and like do we want to do that so we've been having some of those conversations, maybe some of the people listening are going to get excited about some WBECS in-person events. But, yeah, that's cool, isn't it? Like it just establishes another layer of connection between people.

Pamela: Yeah. And our interest is in looking at something similar to a co-working space that would enable people to allow this to be their landing place as well where they can do podcasts or whatever it is that they want to do but because we're a learning academy, we can create learning opportunities within that space and bring the different entrepreneurs together. So that is the big vision that I have right now is something physical that we can all kind of - where we can gather.

Alex: That sounds amazing, Pamela. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I always say us and me, it's interchangeable. Sometimes I'm like it's me and the audience. Does that happen to you too when you're doing your podcast?

Pamela: Yes. Or when I present, yeah.

Alex: Me and us and both and, yeah, we're all in this together. It was really fun talking to you, getting to know you a little bit more. You opened me up to talk about relationships in the podcast which I usually don't do.

Pamela: We'll see how much of that gets edited out.

Alex: We definitely - you know, I try not to. I think of all the like almost 40 episodes that we've published, I think we've taken out like two things, like it's been like very minimal. Like we really just like to go with the flow and I think it's part of the ethos and the philosophy around just I'm talking to coaches most of the time and it's part of the flow of just having these open conversations and it's fun so, yeah, seriously, like we've taken out probably less than two minutes in all those minutes of conversations. So, yeah, maybe like almost 40 hours of conversations, a few minutes. So, no, you know, it's good for people to get to know the other side of someone they get to know through a podcast or through a video. So we'll leave that there but we won't add more to that.

Pamela: Okay, we won't to add more to it until the book comes out and we interview again.

Alex: Yes, now, you'll have me on your podcast and then I'll open up to you. Good luck with that. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Had a really fun conversation today and looking forward to continuing the conversation, whether it's on a podcast or on just a regular Zoom meeting so thanks for joining us.

Pamela: I love it. Thank you, Alex, for having me.

Alex: Absolutely. Or maybe in person, you never know.

Pamela: Even better.

Alex: Thank you.

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Pamela Larde: Associate Professor of Leadership | Director of Education at Institute of Coaching, McLean/Harvard Medical School - Coaches on Zoom Drinking Coffee

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A conversation with Pamela Larde, Founder of Tandem Light Press, Professor, and award-winning author.As well as a coach, Pamela is a creative - and this is an integral aspect of her ethos. Her work focuses on how we can allow our creativity to giv...

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Living in the Dualities of Grief and Joy with Dr. Pamela Larde

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Episode · Grieving in Color · Hello good people! Welcome back to this episode of Grieving in Color! Today I am excited to talk with Dr. Pamela Larde about living in the dualities of grief and joy. Dr. Larde is a professor, coach, author, business owner, and Director of Education for the Institute of Coaching.

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Can We Talk About Leading With Joy? | What does it mean to lead yourself and others with Joy?

In this episode of “Can We Talk: Executive Conversations” we have CEO, Author, Professor, and... | By Lotus Consulting & Marketing | Facebook

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What does it mean to lead yourself and others with Joy?

In this episode of “Can We Talk: Executive Conversations” we have CEO, Author, Professor, and...

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#48 Dr. Pamela Larde talks Joy, Women & Leadership

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Interview with Pamela Larde, Ph.D., Autopsy of Joy

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Episode · My Conscious Coaching Group Podcast · The MCCG Podcast welcomes Pamela Larde, Ph.D. Dr. Larde talks about the four types of Joy as well as her book Joyfully Single. Dr. Larde is also the host of the podcast, Joy Whisperer. Her website information can be found below. www.drpamelalarde.com

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Guest Dr. Pamela Larde, Holistic Institute for Creative Life Change

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Episode · Women Acquiring Assets · Pamela is an associate professor of qualitative research and higher education at Mercer University, a fellow of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and a certified life coach.

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DR. PAMELA LARDE, The Joy Whisperer by The Janus Adams Show Podcast | Podyssey Podcasts

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"I see joy is a form of resistance. I see it as a source of power, because it's how we continue to stand on our two feet. Even when we're knocked down, we find that power and a lot of that power is sourced through joy that we create.

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AU Chapel Service: A Biblical Perspective of Joy

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AU Chapel Service: A Biblical Perspective of Joy

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Pamela Larde - Anderson University Chapel

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Episode · Coaching Revealed an Institute of Coaching Podcast · In this episode of Coaching Revealed, we explore the crucial topic of health equity and what role coaching can play in improving health outcome inequalities.

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The EPIC Joy Community is a haven of support and inspiration dedicated to fostering joy in every facet of life. This vibrant community is the gathering place for individuals navigating significant transitions in their personal and professional spheres. With a shared vision of infusing joy into our journeys, this community stands as a beacon of encouragement and camaraderie.

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The EPIC Joy Community is a haven of support and inspiration dedicated to fostering joy in every facet of life. This vibrant community is the gathering place for individuals navigating significant transitions in their personal and professional spheres. With a shared vision of infusing joy into our journeys, this community stands as a beacon of encouragement and camaraderie.

Our purpose is clear: to nurture a space where members can come together to uplift one another, creating a ripple effect of joy that transcends challenges. In a world that constantly evolves, finding joy can be a transformative force, and that's exactly what we're here to cultivate.

Whether you're embarking on a new career path, seeking personal growth, or simply embracing change, The EPIC Joy Community is your sanctuary. Through curated courses, engaging events, and insightful coaching, we equip you with the tools to integrate joy into your personal and professional life seamlessly.

Expect lively discussions that spark connections, deepen understanding, and ignite inspiration. Share your triumphs, discuss strategies, and learn from the diverse experiences of others who are on similar journeys. Our collective wisdom becomes a wellspring of resilience and fulfillment.

Join us in creating a supportive network that thrives on celebrating the small victories and finding joy in the everyday. The EPIC Joy Community is more than a group; it's a movement towards creating a life rich in joy, purpose, and growth. Let's build a foundation of joy together - one conversation, one event, and one step at a time. Welcome to a community where your joy matters most.

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Listen to The Joy Whisperer on Spotify. The Joy Whisperer podcast, radio, and TV show is dedicated to exploring the science and practice of what it means to live a life of joy though the good, the bad, and the beauty of life.

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Join my EPIC Joy group chat on Instagram!

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Join my EPIC Joy group chat on Instagram!

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Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

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New Communities of Joy Model (6.14 × 9.21 in)

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Updated Revolutionary Joy Framework - July 2023

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New Reverse Domino Effect (6.14 × 9.21 in)

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Discover the transformative power of joy with this unique set of cards, crafted to guide readers on an 8-week journey of infusing joy reflections and affirmations into each day.

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https://buy.stripe.com/aEU6re43Wdbt1kQ4gj

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Professor of Leadership at Anderson University and Director of Education at the Institute of Coaching﻿[pamela-larde-1820x1000px-session-card-ps.webp]﻿ Coaching Joy: Helping Clients Flourish Personally and Professionally Through ChangeWatch the session ...

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The Color Your Life coloring book series offers a hands-on approach to creative life change by challenging us to grow in five critical ways: mentally, spiritually, financially, interpersonally, and behaviorally.

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Pamela is an associate professor of qualitative research and higher education at Mercer University, a fellow of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and a certified life coach. She holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a master's degree in College Student Affairs from Azusa Pacific University, and a Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University.

Her research focuses on interpersonal relationships, self-motivation, inspiration, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. She is the founder of Tandem Light Press, a publishing company, and the Holistic Institute for Creative Life Change. She facilitates speaking engagements and training sessions for audiences across the country. Additionally, she has written three books, has contributed chapters to scholarly publications, and presents her research extensively for national and international audiences.

The bulk of Dr. Pamela's career has been spent in higher education, where she has fourteen years of professional experience. As a student affairs professional, she received training in suicide prevention, motivational interviewing, and substance abuse counseling. After completing her master's degree in College Student Affairs, Dr. Pamela pursued her Ph.D. to better position herself to help develop leadership skills in others, particularly with the desire to help people live fulfilling, purpose-driven lives. As a member of Mercer University's Educational Leadership faculty, the opportunity to utilize key coaching skills to compliment her work with students compelled her to pursue life coach certification in 2011. By seeking out the experience of seasoned experts and drawing upon her own holistic leadership background and curriculum development experience, Dr. Pamela launched the Academy of Creative Coaching. Her vision for the Academy of Creative Coaching is to offer a life-changing certification program that not only trains, but that also transforms. Thus, through the empowerment of the Academy's graduates, they will in turn, empower the coachees they have the ability to touch through their own coaching practices and through the testimonies of their own lives.

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The Color Your Life coloring book series offers a hands-on approach to creative life change by challenging us to grow in five critical ways: mentally, spiritually, financially, interpersonally, and behaviorally. With a collection of scriptures, journal pages, and inspirational images, 21 Days of ...

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The Color Your Life coloring book series offers a hands-on approach to creative life change by challenging us to grow in five critical ways: mentally, spiritually, financially, interpersonally, and behaviorally.

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Pamela is an associate professor of qualitative research and higher education at Mercer University, a fellow of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and a certified life coach. She holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a master's degree in College Student Affairs from Azusa Pacific University, and a Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University.

Her research focuses on interpersonal relationships, self-motivation, inspiration, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. She is the founder of Tandem Light Press, a publishing company, and the Holistic Institute for Creative Life Change. She facilitates speaking engagements and training sessions for audiences across the country. Additionally, she has written three books, has contributed chapters to scholarly publications, and presents her research extensively for national and international audiences.

The bulk of Dr. Pamela's career has been spent in higher education, where she has fourteen years of professional experience. As a student affairs professional, she received training in suicide prevention, motivational interviewing, and substance abuse counseling. After completing her master's degree in College Student Affairs, Dr. Pamela pursued her Ph.D. to better position herself to help develop leadership skills in others, particularly with the desire to help people live fulfilling, purpose-driven lives. As a member of Mercer University's Educational Leadership faculty, the opportunity to utilize key coaching skills to compliment her work with students compelled her to pursue life coach certification in 2011. By seeking out the experience of seasoned experts and drawing upon her own holistic leadership background and curriculum development experience, Dr. Pamela launched the Academy of Creative Coaching. Her vision for the Academy of Creative Coaching is to offer a life-changing certification program that not only trains, but that also transforms. Thus, through the empowerment of the Academy's graduates, they will in turn, empower the coachees they have the ability to touch through their own coaching practices and through the testimonies of their own lives.

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Color Your Life: 21 Days of Loving Yourself

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The Color Your Life coloring book series offers a hands-on approach to creative life change by challenging us to grow in five critical ways: mentally, spiritually, financially, interpersonally, and behaviorally. With a collection of scriptures, journal pages, and inspirational images to color, 21...

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The Numbness Tax: What disengagement is costing your organization, and what leaders can do about it

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The Numbness Tax: What disengagement is costing your organization, and what leaders can do about it

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Source: LinkedIn Article

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/numbness-tax-what-disengagement-quietly-costing-your-can-pamela-ouigf/