About Coach Poppy™
I've always been curious about people.
And yes, sometimes it begins with:
“I have no clue what to do.”
What we observe. What we notice. What we don't notice. And why two of us can look at the very same situation and see and experience something completely different.
I've spent many years listening to people tell me their stories. Often they're trying to make a decision. Maybe they're navigating a relationship that's really challenging, or a change they never expected. Maybe they were completely blindsided. Perhaps they know exactly what's bothering them, but they can't quite figure out what to do about it.
That's often one of our starting points.
We get curious. We ask questions. We look at what's happening. We turn it around, maybe even upside down. We look through another lens and perhaps discover something that wasn't quite as obvious from where you were standing before.
We phoropterize.
Hi, I'm Coach Poppy™.
I'm a Registered Art Therapist, an ICF-Certified Coach, a Certified Family Law Mediator, a former psychology professor, a speaker, a best-selling author, and someone who has spent much of her life fascinated by people, relationships, creativity, communication, and the patterns we sometimes don't notice until we look again.
Community and our shared humanity are essential to who I am and how I work.
I'm also a little bit like the mouse in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
One idea leads to another, which leads to another, which reminds me of something else, and suddenly we're over here looking at something that didn't seem connected five minutes ago.
Usually, there's a thread.
That's pretty much how the phoropter happened.
I became fascinated with the idea of looking at something one click at a time. One or two? Which looks clearer?
Then I learned the name of that thingy was phoropter, which sounded suspiciously like a dinosaur.
And Phoropterosaurus™ was born. 😂
One thing led to another, and suddenly I was buying an actual phoropter.
I don't even wear glasses or contacts.
Apparently, the mouse got the cookie.
My Professional Life Looks More Like Candyland Than Monopoly
My professional life hasn't followed one perfectly straight line. In fact, it's probably looked more like Candyland than Monopoly.
I've been coaching and mentoring for a long time, individually, in groups, in classrooms, in humanitarian settings, in person, and online. I've taught and mentored young adults, facilitated groups, counseled couples and individuals, and coached and mentored thousands of people over the years.
And my curiosity is always in tow.
As a Registered Art Therapist, during my 25 years of practicing as a therapist, I've had the privilege of observing what emerges when verbal expression isn't as accessible as drawing, painting, sculpting, or having something tactile in a client's hands.
And you certainly don't have to be an artist.
The art-making gives us another place to start. Thoughts and emotions that may feel tangled inside can suddenly be out there, on the paper, on the canvas, or on the table as a sculpture.
The words, thoughts, and emotions don't have to remain trapped inside the person making the art. They might emerge through the drawing, the painting, the clay, or through something the maker notices as she's looking at what she made.
And here's something that matters enormously to me: You have the final say.
The maker is the authority on what she was thinking, feeling, noticing, expressing, or creating. I can be curious. I can ask questions. I can wonder with her. But the meaning belongs to the person who made it.
That's part of the beauty of art therapy for me.
Poppy is a Registered Art Therapist (ATR), credentialed through the Art Therapy Credentials Board. Registered Art Therapists meet established standards for graduate-level education, supervised clinical experience, and professional practice in art therapy. Art therapy is a mental health profession that integrates art-making and the creative process with psychological theory within a therapeutic relationship.
As a coach and relationship counselor, I've spent thousands of hours in conversations with people who have trusted me with things they may have had difficulty saying out loud. That trust matters enormously to me, and my professional practice has always been guided by confidentiality and ethical standards.
As a Certified Family Law Mediator, I've held space for people in conflict as they work toward areas of agreement and determine what may be possible from there. I've also created programs and groups for women entering, navigating, or looking back on high-conflict divorce, co-parenting challenges, and difficult relationships.
And I love being in an interactive group.
I so enjoy hearing what people are thinking and feeling, and I appreciate the questions, reflection, conversation, and those wonderful moments when someone suddenly sees something she hadn't quite seen before.
Sometimes a client or student has thanked me for helping her uncover something, and my response is usually some version of:
Perhaps I held up a mirror. Maybe I asked some questions. Perhaps I clicked the phoropter from one lens to another. But really, the person looking is the one who notices what comes into focus.
It can happen through art-making or talking out loud. Someone might go away, sit with something, and come back seeing it differently. We might be in a group when another person's observation sparks something and someone suddenly says, “Oh my gosh, I just had an aha!”
An epiphany moment.
It's beautiful to witness.
And whether we're looking at a piece of art, a relationship, a dream, a decision, or what's happening in your life right now, the person doing the looking has the final say about what she sees.
I bring the lenses. You do the looking.
“I didn't uncover it. You did!”
And Then There Are All the Things I Notice...
I notice details.
I can get ridiculously interested in metaphors, and I have an enormous amount of fun playing with them. I notice animals, birds, and other creatures that cross my path, and I love exploring their symbolic meaning.
I notice patterns, colors, shapes, words, coincidences, and things that aren't even particularly coincidental at all. Ha!
It gives me pause. I start to wonder. And often these seemingly random things send me somewhere I wasn't expecting to go.
Dreams do the same thing for me.
I've kept a dream journal for more than 20 years. I love playing with what shows up in my dreams and noticing how pieces of them sneak into my waking life.
I don't interpret dreams or decide that a particular image means this and another image means that.
I just play with them.
Dreams can give us something else to look at. Much like art-making, they give us another place to stand, another lens to look through, and something to wonder about.
And if that's something you might like, we can get curious about that, too.
And here we are, back again at the phoropter.
Eyes dilated. Ready to go.
One or two?
Click.
I Bring the Lenses. You Do the Looking.