My Story: The Reader’s Digest Version.
For two full decades, I was sleepwalking. I did the right things, got good grades, went to the right schools, and chose a prestigious career in academic medicine. A nagging internal voice kept whispering I had it all wrong. But having a plan made me feel safe, and I didn’t have a clue what else might be available for me.
Barely conscious of my inner world, I ignored a barely perceptible gnawing emptiness, which grew into a thickening blanket of numbness. I got married, had two amazing children and collected plenty of friends - and in the quiet moments, I was nonetheless utterly lost and alone. As long as I stayed busy, I could keep myself calm and functioning. I drove with a fiercely tight grip on the steering wheel of my life; it was how I kept the car on the road.
Mercifully, seven years ago, I lost control of the car. My life blew up in my face, and I had no choice but to wake up - to turn off the autopilot and look inside and feel my pain and get real and honest about who I am and why I’m here. And perhaps most importantly, to learn how to deeply connect with others and build true intimacy for the first time in my life. Because without that, none of the rest really matters.
Having finally learned this lesson for myself, I feel called to help others do the same. Today, I am deeply honored to walk alongside my clients on their journeys to creating more profound connection with their true selves and finding deeper intimacy with those they love. I would be honored to walk that road with you.
About my process:
Harnessing tools I’ve gathered over my years practicing as a physician, sexuality educator, life coach, and relationship coach, and fueled by the power I’ve gained from overcoming my own traumas both big and small, I work with each individual or couples client to design their own program of introspection-driven, awareness-seeking, compassion-based inquiry to uncover and celebrate what is hidden under a lifetime of layers of self deception and protection. Clients’ journeys are personalized and yet follow a similar path. We first identify the patterns that are getting in the way of fulfillment. We then turn toward how those patterns are linked to past experience, either distant or recent. Once we have determined the unhelpful patterns and their likely origin, we can begin healing and re-wiring. And once the healing has begun, we turn to skill-building and integration. The end result is a more authentic and empowered couple (or individual) with a much greater understanding of how to be true to oneself outside of AND within the context of relationships, intimate and otherwise.
About my training:
It started with medical school, residency, fellowship, and a faculty position in academic medicine. After finally acknowledging that as honorable a profession as it was, medicine simply wasn’t right for me, I took some time to “train” as a mom at home with my two phenomenal children, one now a young adult, and the other soon to be one as well. Returning to professional life right around the time my life imploded in 2014, I first obtained a masters degree in human sexuality education and then began my training as a coach, initially as a life coach with the Co-Active Training Institute, where I was certified as as a CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach), and then as a Relationship Coach with The Relationship School, (TRS) where I am currently engaged as a lead Mentor-In-Training. I am also certified as a Master Coach by the Elementum Coaching Institute, and as an ACC (Associate Certified Coach) by the International Coaching Federation (the ICF). Finally, for reasons of which I am not entirely certain, I continue to maintain my medical license, though I do NOT practice medicine anymore ;)
Elise Becher, MD, MEd, CPCC, ACC