Hi! I'm Kristen
Certified Professional Life Coach
I have always loved learning and helping people. I began my career as a high school Spanish teacher and dance team coach. I had plans of being a school administrator and have a Master's degree in Education Leadership. However, after 10 years in local schools, I moved to working in Labor Relations with the state teacher’s union. This role offered me more scheduling flexibility with my family and I was ready for new skills and challenges. I continued teaching educators in a professional development role and coaching them through job related issues. I also taught a few fitness classes a week to stay active and continue in a teaching role.
Life was pretty good. I had beautiful children. I was healthy, had a successful career… and then my life as I knew it fell apart.
2018--In the space of less than two years I was reeling from an unwanted divorce, moving from a home & neighborhood I loved, a partial layoff of my job, grieving my mom’s death from brain cancer, and trying to get through my grief and pain so I could also support my children with theirs.
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I felt so lost… I didn’t want to hear that I was strong or there was a higher purpose– because I didn’t ask for any of it and was pissed off that it was happening to me all at once.
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But, I became determined to get out of that uninspiring, soul-sucking, black hole of pain, shame and doubt.
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So I found help in books, podcasts, therapists, support groups, energy healing, friends, my faith … and COACHING (several coaches in fact).
When I clawed my way out of the overwhelm, betrayal, anger, failure and grief (to name a few emotions), I promised myself that I would find a renewed purpose and share the amazing tools that helped me find myself again.
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Combining my decades of knowledge, skills & certifications of teaching, professional development, parenting, fitness/nutrition and relationships… I became a certified Professional Life Coach with The Life Coach School in 2021.
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I don’t have it all figured out. But, I did figure out what's going on in your mind will create your reality--for better or worse.
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I currently live in Onalaska, WI with my teenage son, daughter and our dog. Life is in balance again. In my free time I love to read, spend time with my family and friends, exercise and move my body. I spend lots of time outside- but I especially love sunshine and summer weather.
I don’t have it all figured out. But, I did figure out what's going on in your mind will create your reality--for better or worse.
Kristen Odegaard