Word Coach

Do you wish you could stop wallowing around in unruly words or chasing them as they run wild? Is it a challenge to organize your thinking, manage language, or perhaps you have nothing more than inklings to go on?

I am a word coach, offering support for anything to do with words – writing, speaking or performing them. I bring creative practices and play from a variety of disciplines to the process of writing in order to access different ways of knowing. Putting words to what you know you “know”, and shaping your inner understandings, can change not only how you express yourself, but how  you interact with your everyday world.

Working on both creative and technical projects in a wide range of areas, I focus on the effective use of image – which we learn from poetry – and on finding overall meaning and shape in a piece -which we learn from story – be it with lawyers, PhD research/thesis writers, doctors, business executives, teachers, children, or creative writers and performers. Through a process of questions and dialogue I help you find your place with words to validate your voice, and discover new direction in your work.

As a poet, I find the heart of a piece, help you understand what is essential – and how to show it through image. As a storyteller, I help you find the arc of story, or direction, to use in shaping and organizing. As a coach I help you make connections with patterns and beliefs that hold you and interfere with your true expression – in either technical or creative projects.

In the deep exploration that all expression requires, I offer support. I encourage and guide – from the first spark of your idea to its final finished flourish and presentation.

I see myself as a bridge – between what my client has in heart and mind, and how to best express it to the outside world, working with any age and level of experience, face to face, by phone, email and Skype. I bring years of experience to the process – as a word coach – as a writer, as a performer and storyteller. Together we rein in words, pace and direct them with grace and intent. If you have a word challenge – written or spoken – I can can guide you on the path and help you tame your words.

For example, my word coaching supports:

• Researchers and Thesis Writers in a variety of disciplines by bringing creative practices to their research and technical writing and helping them discover new direction and meaning; using creative expression as a mode of inquiry
• Writers on their individual pieces, technical or creative, written, spoken or performed
• Performers and Storytellers developing the arc of story, finding dramatic turning points, reining in or expanding, and giving depth to content, delivery and performance
• Lawyers communicating more effectively with a jury, making their case live in the courtroom
• Speakers/presenters generating materials, tightening for presentation and delivering with impact, business or otherwise
• Professionals in any field communicating better – internal and external, delivering viewpoints more effectively
• Teachers on how to teach writing
• Doctors, nurses, service industry workers using creative expression to process and reflect
• Artists writing about their own work and process, thesis, publicity materials, etc.
• Animators developing storyline through images

Comments on my coaching:
“Carol Burnes’ coaching is invaluable to me…vibrant and dynamic… As a poet/performer she…quickly finds the meaning, identifies key moments…she knows a gesture can say what a hundred words cannot, reminding me of the importance of body in storytelling. She teaches me about silence.”
—Jay O’Callahan, US Storyteller, writer

“Carol listens without judgement, she affirms and gives suggestions with no attachment. She has taught me mountains worth of good writing practice. She is my fellow traveler by my side and I know her response will be honest and insightful… With Carol’s coaching, this book is coming to life in a way I may never have been able to imagine. –Fran Yardley, storyteller, writer, Program Manager of Creative Healing Connections, Inc.