Are Your Summer Scaries Ramping Up? Sarah's Here to Drop Some  Love

I’m also a sailor-mouthed exuberant advocate, social scientist, and coach to amazing fucking humans who identify as women or non-binary academics and are feeling called to stir some shit up in their careers. When I’m not knee-deep in a dog’s fur, watching Bravo as the most soulful catharsis I have ever known, meditatively running, playing charades with my 4.5-year-old, or drinking coffee and eating fresh peaches, I’m increasingly in what I call the coach’s chair.

It’s a super comfy spot in my guest bedroom turned COVID-era office. I rest my back on a fluffy teal pillow that has a pic of my dearly departed rescue pup, Poco (keep scrolling for evidence of that), do some stretching up to the sky to connect to the spaciousness I hope to support in others, nurturingly pour over my notes from past sessions and get ready to launch into another kickass conversation with a client about their careers and lives.

I'm now nationally board certified, with over 100+ hours of practice under my belt. I started training to become a coach nearly a year and a half ago, prompted in part by my own rage from the experiences I lived as a woman-identifying junior faculty trying to navigate all of the hellacious terrain of being “pre-tenure” in the midst of parenting a young child during an unprecedented global pandemic (there’s also the psychological and emotional distress of witnessing the rise of fascism in there as well). 

There I was, an expert in oppressive policies and practices, as COVID was raging, as protestors were taking to the street, begging any admin who would listen (and sometimes the poor student journalists at my university paper who got more than an earful when they asked to interview me) about the cross-cutting and compounding snares of inequity in the ivory tower. I worked with my close friend and colleague to survey union members about their experiences attempting to navigate professional responsibilities and duties while also dealing with a shit storm of caregiving challenges. 

I conducted literature reviews and sent frantic emails to university leaders imploring them to do something about the brewing crises, borne of both benign neglect towards anyone in the university setting that did not, could not, or would not yield to the trappings of maleness and whiteness. I contributed to op-eds decrying the cruel catalyzing of institutional racism following so many empty statements to fight it. I prepared and delivered training for the university community on race and racism. I brought up burdens to caregivers at every meeting. I kept teaching. I kept pressing on with my research. I got a book contract with an incredible set of collaborators on Academic Motherhood. For all my training and commitment though, I kept feeling like I couldn’t catalyze the kind of change I was screaming at the top of my lungs for in various traditionally academic formats. I still felt off. 

And then, at some point in early 2021, a number of factors converged that led me to become a coach. I haven’t looked back since. And one of the most powerful revelations that I’ve had in the last 18 months or so is that there is deep power and potential in this work, that through it, I can let up on some of my screaming into a void, and instead channel that energy into supporting my clients on their paths to rediscover who they are and how that rightfully impacts what they can (or can’t) and will (or will not) accept in the institutional contexts in which they have found themselves-- as one of my beloved client alum calls it-- “a rediscernment." 

These kinds of rediscernments have accumulated for my clients in powerful ways, leading them to a variety of different outcomes that are all ultimately bred from them feeling that they are very much in choice. For some of them, that has meant staying in higher ed but renegotiating the terms and contexts which they'll stay. Others have left altogether. 

Being in choice and feeling that profoundly is absolutely glorious. And that's the way I feel as a coach. It is the best antidote to all the shit that made me want to pull my hair out. The energy I am putting out there is being received, transformed, and ultimately, expanded. And it is such a fucking joy. Stay tuned for more news about my growing solo coaching practice! 

On another note, I have a special invitation for all my academic friends-- those I have worked with as a 1:1 coach, and those who I know personally and through various social media networks. This summer, I’ve been brewing up some juicy programming with a fellow academic & coach, Dr. Rose Aslan, who is my friend and collaborator. Rose and I have also founded Abundant Academics Collective (AAC) because we care profoundly about the systematic problems in academia and how women and people of color disproportionately carry the burden of those inefficiencies and injustices.

While I will continue to serve you all as an individual coach through Coaching with Sarah, AAC offers something different that is pretty fucking awesome. It is a women-operated coaching collective that seeks to support female-identifying and non-binary academics to disrupt the normative framework of scarcity, precarity, and patriarchy through intersectional feminism, critical analysis, embodiment, self-love, and care.

Through AAC, we offer short workshops and long-term group coaching programs. We compassionately guide women & other non-binary individuals to think about how overcoming toxic overwork can generate a meaningful form of personal liberation that intersects deeply with social justice. 

If you’re an academic of any kind and this resonates for you, then keep reading!

We are about to launch our website, and in the meantime you can sign up for “Audacious Missives” to receive our regular musings on all things academics stirring shit up. In these missives, we drop personal tidbits about how our life experiences and coaching practices affect the choices we make. We offer insights into our journey to finding inner liberation, joy, and balance in a world designed to keep us back, all with a sprinkling of subversive energy, a sharp analytic lens, and a healthy dose of critical discourse. 

I break down the systemic issues that continue to plague academia, and how those rightfully impact how we are called to show up (or not) in the ivory tower. Rose ruminates on the body-mind connection and how academics can benefit to drop down into their bodies in their journey to healing and self-discovery, be it within or beyond academia. 

Together we offer academics a holistic solution for healing, experiencing more frequent joy, and connecting with themselves beyond the sometimes-narrow bounds of a singular professional identity. 

To sign up for “Audacious Missives,” click here. We can’t wait to welcome you!! 

And if you want to reach out to me and say hi, ask a question, offer commentary on my giant green earrings, or absolutely anything else, please feel free to reach out here or at my brand-spankin' new email address, sarah@abundantacademics.com.