Vanessa Osage, CPC
Certified Professional Coach
Love, Sexuality & Human Connections
ABOUT ME
I have been guiding people through places of tenderness into places of power for nearly 20 years: First, as a childbirth assistant and doula in my twenties, then as a sexuality educator and coming of age mentor in puberty rites of passage in my thirties. Most recently, I have worked as a private consultant and coach for adults seeking greater wholeness in their intimate and sexual lives.
For almost ten years, I have been Executive Director for the nonprofit, Rooted Emerging, which I founded in Bellingham, Washington in 2010. Within this structure, I have offered programs, seminars and events of all kinds to support a new, healthy experience of sexual maturity for young people and their families.
During that time, people began privately reaching out to request one-on-one sessions for help in transforming the most meaningful, powerful experiences of their lives. I am honored to have a long history of holding the trust of people of all ages.
I offer what I like to call ‘Sexuality Un-Education & Re-Education’, working with adults to deconstruct ideas that no longer serve them and replacing them with ideals that truly support and ring true. I also offer inspiring, cutting-edge research alongside personalized coaching for parents to find a renewed sense of purpose in skillfully guiding their children through sexual maturity.
I work with women in their late-20’s to 60’s, in personal empowerment; with mothers of adolescent girls, in transforming their own relationship to sexuality as their daughters come of age; with parents of all ages; and men & women in their 30’s to 70’s, in re-examining and re-defining power and intimacy in their loving relationships.
I am also comfortable and knowledgeable in coaching around divorce, recovery and gender issues. LGBTQIA friendly.
I am a Certified Professional Coach through the Relationship Coaching Institute and a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF).
Some of my Guiding Principles include: Integrity, Self-Love & Awareness, Personal Responsibility, Healthy Boundaries, Living with Inspiration & Purpose and Loving Relationships as a Priority.
Knowing and owning our truth will yield fruitful bliss in our closest connections. Let’s bring you closer!
COACHING WITH ME
RESULTS & GOALS
I will let my clients speak for themselves:
“I had the profoundly healing experience just by sharing with such a loving, nurturing woman. The space I went to in myself was very raw and vulnerable, and I felt that Vanessa was able to go there with me bringing tenderness, love and acceptance. I was able to surrender completely and trust that I was held and supported in a way I had never experienced before.”
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“Vanessa worked a miracle in my family. With her guidance, I was able to see and create a whole new vision for my relationship with my daughter that included communication skills and age-appropriate books… Vanessa was also able to expand and enrich that vision with her expertise in other cultures and rituals. These elements were powerful and touched my soul – this was what my original vision was missing, and what I ultimately needed the most.
… Since then, my daughter has come to me to talk about issues I know she had been keeping inside. She says things like, “my friend shared that she has never had a girl talk like we do with her mom.” I know that because Vanessa came alongside her and saw her wholeness, she was able to see me in a new light – she finally believed in how hard I was trying to connect with her.
The value of my meetings with Vanessa Osage cannot be overstated. She changed everything.”
– joint mother/daughter clients
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“You are a guide. Even though you are younger, I look to you for how to live my life. The grace with which you live and the way you prioritize what is most important in your loving relationships… has me naturally looking to you for support.”
– client
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“You are a fantastic teacher – you inspire confidence.”
– client
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“Thank you for what you do…you are definitely filling a much needed gap in children’s (and parent’s/adults) sexual education and the whole communication dynamic around the sensitive topic. I also love to see how passionate you are about it too.”
– client
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“You are like an answered prayer. The work you do is so important and amazing!”
– client
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“There’s something about your humanness that makes me feel safer here than I would with a counselor.”
– client
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“What’s clear to me is you have a gift for doing this work. What you’ve created here is just gorgeous.”
HOW I LIKE TO COACH
I like to settle in to spending the time to truly see a client at their essential strength and inner beauty. My clients are radiant to me, even as they struggle. Once I have this sight, we begin to hone in on their deepest truths. Then, we collaborate to identify all the ways we can bring this truth forward into their lives.
Most importantly, helping clients find the courage to bring their deepest truths to those they love most fully is a passion.
I also watch for ways in which clients come alive or dim down. When the aliveness is present, we move forward from there. It requires a combination of gentleness, patience, vision, insistence, en-courage-ment, lifting up and seeing openings together.
I believe in accountability and lifting people to their highest selves through mutual truth-telling. I call on validation, reflection, inspiration and giving the gift of my sight of them in their absolute radiance.
PRIVATE COACHING
Individual Coaching for adults, in-person in Bellingham, Washington or online via doxy.me.
Three to Six Month Packages, with option to join Group Programs at 10% discount. Seasonal Offering of one free 90 minute session. A trial One Month Coaching program is also available.
60-90 minute sessions, with occasional two hour sessions as needed.
ONLINE COACHING
Remote Clients absolutely welcome. Sessions are arranged a month in advance, for Three to Six Month Packages, to reach total number of sessions at your convenience.
EXPERIENCE, CERTIFICATIONS AND TRAINING
CERTIFICATIONS AND DEGREES
•Certified Sexuality Educator, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts
•Coming of Age Leadership, Rite of Passage Journeys
•Certified Professional Coach, Relationship Coaching Institute
•Bachelor’s of Arts Degree, Humanities, Gender & Ecology
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT TAKEN
•Certified Professional Coach, Relationship Coaching Institute
•Mirroring for Intent & Empowerment, 4-H Rite of Passage
•Circle Facilitator Training, Bainbridge Island, Washington
PROFESSIONAL AND LIFE EXPERIENCE
When my grandfather died, he came to me in a dream just a few days later. I was 18 years old, and about to leave Massachusetts for a new life on the west coast. He said, in his calm, gentle voice, “Be true to yourself”. His advice was both prophetic and anchoring.
He and my grandmother had been a profound model to me of the kind of love that is possible between people throughout a lifetime. They held a deep, mutual respect and field of affectionate regard for one another that bathed me in hope as a young person. My grandmother in particular was a powerful female presence, who taught me in so many ways about the grace, challenge and transcendent power of love.
I invite potential clients to listen to a recent interview on the “Like a Mother” podcast, in which I share about my experience of my grandmother. Please click the ‘Hear the Interview!’ tab above.
My parents, and many of the structures around me as a child, were wrought with disease and dysfunction. I became the voice of clarity and reason (which was often retaliated against). Another phrase I have often turned to as I have grown is: “Truth may walk through the world unarmed”. Though, many of us know, to live in truth requires a profound fortitude of courage.
Leaving home at 18 and studying the many ways to live, through years of solo travel, become an early foundation of research into the quality of love as it relates to society and culture. Moving independently as a young woman in the world provided its own insights. Interspersed in my joyous years of study, I crossed this country by car – coast to coast – 12 times. I was looking for something. I needed to know there were places that could reflect the quality of life and love I knew were possible. Indeed, there are.
I know what it is to have to walk away from familiar security for the possibility of a healthier something better. I find that risk is always repaid with immense reward. I often consider my work – as a sexuality educator and rite of passage guide – existing on the cultural growing edge. These aspects of life are those most latent with potential power, and calling out for clarity and transformation now.
I am blissfully a mother, and have lived through divorce. In 2017, I won the “Kickass Single Mom Grant”, to continue my work as a sexuality educator and pioneer in the world of puberty rites of passage.
With it, I am currently working on a book about sexual maturity in America; forever seeking to illuminate this aspect of being alive. My writing has been featured in “Circles on the Mountain” and “The Confluence Journal”, along with a few years’ stint as a small newspaper reporter. My life’s mission is to bring light to these places, and the chance to work with clients directly fills my world with windows and doorways opening.
What I have come to recognize, accept and even cherish now is that I am a natural guide for people. As I step into my role with conviction and clarity, I find renewed hope in reaching the private, interpersonal and group realms within society and the world at large. Though they are no longer with me, I believe my grandparents would be proud.
I am energized now more than ever to bring my work to individuals, couples and families while I continue to feed and be refreshed by these larger worlds around me. I love working with people who value healthy living, feel a connection to the natural world and want to be a part of personal and collective positive change. I look forward to knowing you!
REVIEWS
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Vanessa Osage
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Selina | August 07, 2018
An Amazing coach
I had the honour to do coaching with Vanessa, and it was such a pleasure to be coached by her. Her coaching presence and the safe place she is able to create by her beeingness helps to see what is going on, and what the next step is most helpfull. She really knows how to inspire change!
Thanks a lot!
I also got the chance to read her workbook on sexual education of kids and teens. Since I am a mom it really helped me a lot to get clearer on whats important to me and how to implement that when talking my children. I think she really has great expertise in this topic and working with her can make a difference!