What to Expect When Working with Kenji: Q&A

Q: What’s It’s Like to be Coached?

A: “I use the Co-Active Training Institute’s model of holding powerful space, knowing that you are ‘creative, resourceful, and whole’, while asking simple but honest questions that assist you in finding the choices and understandings that move you towards what you define as success and/or shift. When appropriate, I’ll offer advice, challenges, questions, homework, and friendly reminders. My longest running client (of a decade!) calls me a “master at drawing me out.”

Q: What’s Coachable?

A: "Anything and everything. Whether it’s deepening your soul journey, becoming more effective in your work, making more money, or finding balance and ease in daily life, everything and anything can be coached. I’ve assisted a long term clients be: “more fulfilled,” shift professions, move cross country, “truly transform,” partner in being a “catalyst for positive change,” develop a deeper understanding of “flow,” while being a “kind, considerate, understanding, empathetic” guide, with “a nice relaxed and caring vibe.”

Q: What Are You Fees?

A: “Depending of the type of coaching, and the frequency it’s $75 to $100. Spiritual Guiding/Direction is $75-$275 sliding scale. Coaching is based on $275 for an hour session. For monthly coaching it usually starts at $775. Do be in contact and we can discuss fees right up front to see if you qualify for a fee reduction.”

Q: How is Coaching Different From Therapy?

A: "Therapy is past-focused, coaching is focused in the present and the future. In coaching we use self-inquiry to dredge up hidden knowledge and create, if asked for, accountability practices, combined with regular meetings that move you towards your goals. In therapy you’re (me too!) processing issues from the past in order to affect your current life. In coaching you’re processing your current life with the focus on action. While feelings come up, and are encouraged to be expressed (anger, sadness, joy) they are about now. The best combination? Both. In coaching you’ll be accountable for fieldwork, learn with the help of resources (if we decide that's right), and, together, we’ll walk the path of self-knowledge. One thing is for certain: after 10 years of doing this I am 100% certain you’ll come up with astonishing answers – far deeper and applicable than I ever could – we create a relationship that supports you in discovering your most effective understandings.”

Q: How Long Should I Expect to be Coached?

A: “Seeing changes in coaching takes 3-18 months. Coaching isn’t a quick fix – it’s a commitment to YOU. That said, some clients appreciate a short-term relationship in which intense transformation can occur relatively quickly, and some clients are interested in exploring a path that lasts a long time and enables exploration that builds upon itself. Some clients coach once monthly, some every other week, and a few just when the need hits them.”

Q: What’s Your Style?

A: “My coaching is free of judgement and creates an environment where we get to find what works and what doesn’t. Using inquiry and thought provoking conversations as a starting point, you’ll commit to only the things that feel best for you, while I keep you motivated, cheer you on, ask questions, take notes, believe in you/your process, and help you set and meet goals (if that’s what you want!). When we’re together, expect 10% tools and 90% intuitive co-creativity. One recent client said: “Your coaching is very brass tacks with an implicit promise of you can want more, do more, and feel better. Not only do I get to explore how I feel about a current situation but you help me find my best solutions to my questions.” Many of my clients internalize my coaching style and have reported back to me that when they’re stuck they ask themselves ‘Kenji Type Questions.’”

Q: How can I get to know you?

A: “This is a very important question. Just like you don’t want to work with someone who doesn’t “get” you, I don’t either. Coaching is a very personal relationship and each session should feel like you’re spending time with a caring colleague who has your back. So, schedule a Sample Session and let’s chat. We’ll meet and you’ll get to experience my best coaching on-the-spot. We can decide together what’s next!”

Q: What if our intro call doesn’t work for me?

My goal is to get you into coaching, if it feels right to you. It doesn’t matter to me if it's me or someone else who becomes your coach as there are tons of coaches – we’re not selling TV’s, we’re here to help you change you life! I may suggest some of the online coaching companies, I may suggest other professionals (I talked a high level security tech VP into not being in coaching at all in 4 sessions!), or I may suggest a therapist. Let’s start in appreciation and abundance and see what happens. Your first coaching assignment is to make 3 appointments with perspective coaches – I hope I’m one of them.”

Q: Tell Me More About You.

A: "I’ve lived a life of multiple professions, experiences, self-development, challenges, and learning. I bring 6 decades of living, growing, and learning to my coaching practice, 3 decades of working in multiple professions, and 3 decades into my own self development. I’ve been meditating for half my life, have developed a spiritual path in both Western and Eastern philosophies, but most importantly, I have an advanced degree in the ‘school of hard knocks.’ I’ve learned to live with multiple invisible disabilities and lived as a gay-cis bicultural and biracial man in a society struggling with race and oppression. Having created a wonderful diverse life of success, I am curious and excited to walk with my clients as they do the same.

In the smorgasbord of my life experiences, I’ve:

• Attended 4 universities (B.S. from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts)

• Worked in the restaurant industry for a decade as a teenager and a young adult

• Studied Buddhism under core teachers Larry Yang and Mushim Ikeda for 2 years at East Bay Meditation Center

• Was the full-charge bookkeeper for 2 multi-million dollar organizations, including a real estate company (when I was 22!)

• Traveled the US as a national Asian HIV prevention community organizer providing weekend organizational development retreats for boards of directors in 8 major cities in the US

• Teaching mindfulness and ‘the Dharma’ to a “disabled” Sangha in Oakland

• Managed the customer service staff & office management staff for a 17-million dollar 17-month dot.com rise and fall (what a blast!) in 1999.

• Managed a 2,000 square foot private dorm facility at UC Berkeley for 7 years; catering exclusively to high-performing students – overseeing maintenance, construction, payables, receivables, and on site management

• Managed the 9,000 square foot gut rehab for a non-profit with 40-staff (with a teeny budget of $100k); assisted in the merger for that same non-profit developing their HR processes, employee handbook, and HR department

• Owned my own small business as a Macintosh computer support consultant for a decade

• Developed curricula for the State of California on a diverse population and it’s needs for substance abuse counselors

• Been an HIV/AIDS/LGBTQI activist, public speaker, writer, spoken-word performer, singer, graphic designer, dishwasher, son, administrator, uncle, godfather, mentor, mentee, partner, friend, leader, facilitator, waiter, mechanic, spiritual director, and now coach

• Studied coaching, spiritual direction, graphic design, industrial design, metaphysics, psychology, Buddhism, and consulted with a MacArthur Genius grant awardee on wheelchair design, repair, and construction; volunteering to repair wheelchairs for unhoused individuals

• And … when I was 16, scooped ice cream (it’s a lot of fun, because all of your customers are happy and satisfied!)

I give back by coaching, spiritually directing, and mentoring a few individuals who couldn’t otherwise afford coaching, teach the Dharma, and do my best to bring kindness and patience to my whole life and those I encounter. I focus my time living in the Bay Area on coaching, teaching, and loving my wonderful friends/family and community who make up the awesome world I’m lucky to be part of.