Who are we to stop, feel,
and know for ourselves?
Most of us learned early which parts of ourselves were welcome and which weren't, and we've carried that sorting a long way — presenting the anger we know even when, inside, we no longer feel it; presenting the got-it-all-together while something underneath frays and goes lonely. Those are two of mine. Innerguide Coaching is a place to work with yours — not by talking about the problem from a distance, but by slowing down enough to notice what's actually happening, in the body and in the moment, while it's happening.
The first step is a free Discovery Session:
a conversation to see whether this way of working fits you.
Why this way of working?
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None of us built our patterns alone. They formed with family and community, teachers and clergy, cousins and friends, and the kids who teased us long ago about something we've since changed. Shame and blame tend to land on us anyway. Seeing the wider weave excuses nothing; it makes room to actually work with it — and patterns that formed in relationship need a context of relationship to change, which is part of why this is one-on-one rather than a book or an app.
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We work with the engine running. A knock in an engine can't be diagnosed from a description over the phone; the car comes into the bay, the engine runs, and we listen together. Sessions work the same way — less talking about what happened last week, more attending to what's happening now: the tightness that arrives with a certain sentence, the hand already reaching for the phone, the words that want to come and don't.
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Underneath the noise — the world’s problems, the phone face-up on the table, the endless list of what’s more important — there’s a quieter kind of attention available to each of us: not blocking things out, not chasing what feels good, but a silence with room for all of it — the hurts and shortcomings, the hopes and the beauty, and a freedom to choose what we do with any of it. Much of this work is practicing that together until it becomes something you can find on your own.
This is what one client had to say
about her work with Dirk:
"Before working with Dirk, I was trapped in a cycle of anxiety, anger, and self-blame, constantly feeling like I wasn't enough. Despite previous attempts with therapy and medication, nothing brought lasting change. I needed a deeper, more personal form of support.
Working with Dirk has been a game-changer. I've gained the strength to face my discomfort and traumas with more calm and acceptance. The process hasn’t removed the challenges, but it has transformed how I engage with them. Dirk’s unique presence—firm yet nurturing—has helped me see and embrace parts of myself I had long avoided. My relationships have deepened, my stress is more manageable, and I approach my personal and professional life with a newfound resilience.
Dirk’s patience, boundary-setting, and the safe space he created allowed me to confront and process my fears in ways I couldn't have imagined. This journey has felt like a warm, secure tent where I could explore my deepest concerns and emerge feeling more whole and capable."
Nicola Rigor
Marketing Consultant
About Dirk and Innerguide Coaching
Offering the care and help I wish someone had offered me is the most meaningful thing I know to do with my life.
To be blunt, suffering from mental anguish, loneliness, and hopelessness sucks.
Far too often during my first six decades, I felt lonely, depressed, unwanted, unneeded, and very much trapped in who and how I had to be. Through this, I feel a lot of empathy for other people struggling and suffering in this world. Somehow, during all of my difficult times, something inside of me was and is also working on deeply understanding what it means to be whole, healthy, and alive, and what it means for me to "show up, grow up, and wake up," to borrow Ken Wilber's phrase.
Through life experience, thirty years of work with patients, study, plant medicine journeys, work with counselors and guides, marriage, parenting, and my desire to know through experience how to heal from mental, emotional, and physical suffering, I have learned much.
The most important lesson I have learned is that no amount of technology or distracting entertainment can replace missed experiences of deep acceptance of ourselves and from others. Choosing and creating the circumstances to experience deep acceptance is central to becoming whole.
Innerguide Coaching is based on this simple truth.
Your Discovery Session
Getting onto a call with a stranger, especially about one's personal situation, can be uncomfortable. Yet, it is an important step.
Please know that I show up at sessions without judgment or prejudice and that I deeply respect and hold confidential all of the feelings and information shared.
Your Discovery Session will have several aspects to it that will flow organically:
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Introducing ourselves and your situation:
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How things are for you now,
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How things have been for you,
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How you want them to be.
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Sharing about myself and Innerguide Coaching.
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Answering any and all questions you have.
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Depending on the situation, we may do a brief exercise to help you get a flavor of how I work.
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Ideally, we will conclude your Discovery Session with a clear, go-forward plan that is in your best interest — whether that is scheduling your first session or otherwise.
Asking for help can be challenging and feel risky. I've certainly had my struggles with asking for help. Through my awareness of this, I make every effort to help you both feel and know that all of you is welcome, heard, understood, and accepted during your Discovery Session.
I look forward to meeting you.
— Dirk
Elements of Innerguide
Coaching
I can’t do this work for anyone, and I wouldn’t want to. What I can do is notice alongside you — say what I see, offer what’s helped me, suggest something to try — and then step back so the choice stays yours. Over time the noticing becomes yours too, and in my own life that’s where the strength has come from: not from someone else’s insight about me, but from a growing capacity to feel what’s happening and choose what to do with it.
I’ve learned to work this way through three decades of providing patient care and coaching, addressing my own life’s emotional, medical, and situational challenges, and helping raise two deeply connected, self-motivated children to adulthood with my wife of thirty-six years. I bring a multi-faceted perspective, deep understanding, and non-judgment to every session.
During Innerguide Coaching, I use various approaches, including:
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Shadow work — getting curious about the parts of ourselves we’d rather not claim
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Contact statements — naming, simply and out loud, what’s noticed in the moment, and seeing what it stirs
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Simple awareness exercises
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Guided meditation and silence
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Written exercises
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Stories from my own life, when they’re useful
Recognizing that each client is unique, I tailor my approach based on our interactions and your needs and preferences. I offer suggestions and guidance, and together we decide on the direction to take. Your choices guide our work, and I fully support you in pursuing them.
