By Ann Marie Buck

Hi Again! Now that you know about life coaching, I thought I would share some of my background. As a licensed psychologist, I have worked in a variety of settings helping groups and individuals make life adjustments. I hold a Masters of Science degree in Group Process and Group Psychotherapy from Drexel University in Pennsylvania and have completed the Martha Beck Life Coach training program. As a Life Coach at MSAA, I think almost daily of my Aunt Catherine and how her MS presented many challenges. This, combined with my experience in the field, brings me to help individuals in the MS community pursue their passions, overcome adversity, and remove self-limiting beliefs thereby enhancing the opportunity for following a life path of joy and fulfillment.

Over the next months we will be announcing new telephone life coaching sessions and posting useful stories and tips on this blog. I hope you will find these sessions and my postings helpful. If you have any questions about this program please email me at: lifecoach@msassociation.org.

Tune in this week as we will be “blogging” about “Fear of the Future.”

By Ann Marie Buck

Welcome to MSAA’s Life Coaching Blog! I am Anne Marie Buck, MSAA’s Life Coach. Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting information on the Life Coaching Program and some “life lessons” that will hopefully provide some guidance.

To begin, I wanted to introduce what MSAA’s Life Coaching Program is all about. This innovative and dynamic program is based on the successful Duke University Center for Integrative Medicine’s Health Coaching Program. I will be working with you in coping with the challenges of living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Over the past month we have received direct input from more than 800 individuals diagnosed with MS about this program and the topics they would like to see highlighted. The Life Coaching Program will offer toll-free teleconferences to individuals throughout the USA. In these teleconferences, our group sessions will focus on a variety of topics such as:

• Finding joy, cultivating happiness
• Resilience (”how to keep going”)
• Employment issues
• Managing emotions
•  Big questions, “Why me, why now, what next?”

Currently, most of our first group sessions are already full, however we are still seeking participants for later groups. If you are interested, please visit support.msassociation.org/lifecoaching and complete the survey so that you will receive announcements about upcoming programs. In life coaching, you will participate in group telephone sessions, respond to questionnaires, and complete a variety of coaching exercises between sessions to develop skills and insights. Get ready to learn about yourself and new ways to meet life’s challenges through the support of peers and Life Coaching!