Somatic Executive Coaching

Leading Effect

Why Invest in Somatic Executive Leadership Coaching?

Perhaps now more than ever, we are KEENLY aware of the impact of leadership that is not embodied. People, systems, businesses, cultures, and societies degrade in the absence of embodied leadership. There IS an alternative.

Embodied leadership is the practice of leading from the whole self… mind, body, emotions, AND presence- not just from ideas or strategies. It’s about aligning who you are and what you believe in with how you act.

Working with a skilled somatic coach who deeply understands the world of senior leadership allows you to shape yourself, your teams, and your organizations to meet the possibilities of the moment with intention.

Find your “Next Level” presence so you can show up and shape things more potently as a leader.  The challenges associated with navigating complexity, chaos, and constraint with grace, ground, and gravitas are deep and wide. Staying connected to your essence while being effective within systems and environments primed to pull you off-center is not easy. 

Why not resource yourself the way you resource your teams, departments, and organizations? Let somatic executive coaching support you as you build bridges between spirit and structure, soul and strategy, embodiment and expectations.

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somatic executive coaching

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What does Somatic Executive Coaching do?

Somatic Executive Coaching cultivates leadership that is internally guided (anchored, authentic, clear, and soul-led), rather than externally derived (reactive, performative, and system generated). It leads to an “alignment effect”, where your inner state shapes your outer impact. Tapping into the wisdom of your soma means discovering and dipping into a deep well of inner authority that allows you to reclaim the centered and purpose-driven powerful leadership within you. 

It can turn: 

  • The Bulldozer Leader from Power to Presence

  • The Collapsed Leader from Cowering to Courageous

  • The Imposter Syndrome Leader from Insecure to Integrated

To impactfully shape organizations today, it is critical that leaders be able to find their way from noise to knowing, to guide themselves and their people from being externally led to being internally fed. When we become internally aligned, we can move and act without seeking to be externally defined.

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What kind of leaders do I work with?

My ideal-fit somatic executive coaching client (those who thrive and come alive working with me) may BE or be drawn to BE: 

  • Powerfully purpose-driven

  • Creative and innovative

  • Visionary thought leaders

  • Cultural Creatives

  • Wicked smart and Humble 

  • Soulful and spirit-guided

I specialize in working with:

  • Directors & VPs in complex corporations entering more senior roles

  • The “smartest people in the room” who get in the way

  • Thought leaders and creatives forging new paths

  • Functional leaders in technical industries

Kelly’s story: Why this senior leader found Somatic Executive Coaching more powerful than Standard Executive Coaching

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“I’ve had the unique opportunity to work with Dana twice; first using traditional executive coaching, and then using somatic executive coaching. I was in a challenging place when we first connected, leading a large team through a business downturn and cutbacks.

I was struggling to find motivation and dreaming of spending time incubating more creative pursuits. It was wonderful to work with Dana from the start because she was open to embracing goals beyond simply getting to the next level on the corporate ladder and helping me navigate major changes in my work environment. It was a positive experience, but it wasn’t until we began working somatically that we reached a true breakthrough.

It was the subtle switch to focusing on how to embody the person I wanted to be. After our first in-depth session, I started to feel motivation rising in me. Before our next session, I had jump-started my creative investment and devised a commitment to being who I wanted to be as a leader. Someone with gravitas, confidence in my own deep expertise and leadership skills, who led through a lens of truth and transparency.

As we continued, I learned to deepen my commitment, embody who I wanted to be, access energy for my goals, and form new habits that I still rely on for balance and centering. I lean into these every time I face a challenge or step up to an opportunity. My transformation with Dana through somatic executive coaching has made me a more confident, grounded, and less fearful leader… and for that I am grateful.”

~ Kelly, Sr. Engineering Leader & Creative Entrepreneur

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Why this time around, I chose to build my business entirely around somatics

When I left the dizzying world of corporate executive development in 2005 to start my own firm, I set out to change systems by changing leaders. Within two years, Leading Effect had grown to 35 coaches and earned a regional niche developing high-potential directors into skilled senior executives. We partnered with internal talent teams to design large-scale coaching and leadership programs that shaped not just leaders, but leadership culture itself.

Then, in 2009, I discovered somatics, personally and professionally, it was a gamechanger that redefined my understanding of what authentic, embodied leadership truly is. Since then, I’ve worked with thousands of leaders across countless organizations, bringing a deeper mind-body dimension to how they lead and live.

Twenty years later, I went back “inside” to design leadership programs and coach senior executives at the largest semiconductor company in the United States. After 15 months, I made a conscious choice to once again shape from the outside those who shape from the inside.

Now, in this next chapter—twice-certified as a somatic executive coach, an active practitioner of somatic bodywork, wiser, seasoned, and aware that time is precious—my business is entirely built around somatics, the most direct and powerful way I know to connect with and shape who we are and what we care about. As the leaders I work with shape themselves, they shape back the cultures and people they lead and belong to. 

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How would we work together ?

I offer single sessions (to first-time and established clients), as well as a 6-session FOUNDATIONAL PACKAGE and a 12-session TRANSFORMATIONAL PACKAGE as standard base options. I also offer custom and retainer packages.

Like standard executive coaching, we engage in dialogue and conversation about your goals, challenges, and longings. We work with dialogue, somatic awareness, breath, energy, sensation, somatic practices, and creating space for somatic opening. Re-directing attention from the mind’s knowledge to the body’s wisdom allows for presence and a different kind of knowing.

In the section below, you will find a variety of customizable components that can be accessed as stand-alone options or added to standard packages.

Sessions are 75 minutes and conducted on Zoom, or in-person (for those in the Portland metro area). In-person sessions can be conducted on-site or in my home office, and may include somatic bodywork.

The retainer option is offered as a monthly flat rate contract that starts at $2,000 per month, (depending on components and frequency), and is contracted for 3, 6, or 9 months.

Retainer packages include:

  • Real-time and just-in-time weekly coaching for consistent support just when you need it

  • Text/email support for continuity and convenient access

  • Shadow coaching so I can see and support you in action

Additional Stand-alone or Customized Options

Along with standard packages, the services below may be accessed.

We can custom-design your package to fit individual needs and budget.

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360, Personal Style
& Somatic Assessment

From comprehensive self-assessments that illuminate your personal style preferences and how to leverage and manage them, to 360-degree feedback tools, targeted interviews, and somatic assessment of leadership presence. Includes debriefs and when useful, stakeholder engagement to anchor insights into real-world application.

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Stakeholder
Services

When useful, I attend meetings or conversations with HR, senior leaders, boards, peers, customers, or direct reports. Together, we seek to amplify your influence, impact, and career, and support your belonging within your organizational system, ensuring your leadership presence and relationships reinforce what you most seek to create.

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Shadow
Coaching

I may shadow you through your day, in meetings, or in strategically chosen situations to see you in action in your day-to-day environment. This approach provides real-time insight and is followed by debrief and tailored coaching to refine patterns and build new practices that directly serve your personal, business, career, and organizational goals.

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Presentation-Focused
Coaching

Customized coaching focused on presentation, somatic executive presence, and powerful communication. We explore physical presence and energy, language and gesture, engagement and connection. Whether you want to make a lasting impression in your next QBR or inspire your team at an “All Hands”, this helps you show up with clarity, confidence, and authentic impact

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Leader-Team
Coaching & Facilitation

I coach leaders and their teams collectively to build trust, align purpose and priorities, enhance collaboration, and strengthen collective somatic intelligence. Through customized facilitation and guided team practice, we surface blind spots, improve decision-making, and build embodied trust that enables grounded, effective collective action together.

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DPSquareIt
Coaching

In 2007, I developed DPSquareIT, a proprietary framework integrating Prioritization, Delegation, & Development Planning. Originally for a cohort of high-potential healthcare leaders scaling rapidly after an acquisition, it’s since guided hundreds at Apple and beyond. We combine this pragmatic tool with somatic practices that build embodied capacities.

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Executive Coaching FAQs

  • Somatic practices and processes are extremely helpful for leaders, both individually and collectively. Developing executive presence and influence, building gravitas and confidence, learning to lead more collaboratively and inclusively, developing a more engaging style, increasing quality and speed of decision-making, softening or strengthening presence are just some of the leadership capabilities that can be addressed with individuals and groups. In addition, somatic work is very helpful for increasing trust and effective collaboration with teams. 

    Somatic practice enhances capabilities such as: setting boundaries, making and responding to requests, persevering through challenges, working in sync, handling ambiguity and rapid change, and developing a collective vision. 

    1:1 somatic executive coaching and leadership team/group development and possible.

    I blend over 25 years of development work with senior leaders and deep somatic training and practice with groups to offer team effectiveness and development solutions, group facilitation, skill-building, and learning. At this time, group work with leaders is customized. Look for “off the shelf” open enrollment type programs in the second half of 2026.

  • Some leaders choose to engage in somatic executive coaching using personal funds for autonomy and flexibility. Others are funded through the companies or organizations they work for. I can accommodate either and work with organizational contracting, purchase order policies and practices as needed. Rate structures differ for these two types of funding due to costs related to: contracting, payment lags, co-ordination, insurance required, etc.

  • Yes. Engagements may include 360-degree feedback tools or interviews, and/or leadership style self-assessments. These are customized to client and company needs, and are considered upon request. Custom packages are designed from modular pricing components to meet leader and organizational needs. Reach out for a complimentary call to explore or to request more information.

  • Confidentiality is very important to me and to my client relationships. When working in organizations that fund coaching, it’s especially critical. Please see the confidentiality and privacy policy in the footer of each page on this website. If you don’t find that your questions are sufficiently answered, book a complimentary call to discuss or use the Contact page to ask questions.

  • Somatic executive coaching is generally offered in a “package format” that includes a particular number of sessions, as well as optional modular components that include assessments, stakeholder meetings, interviews, and other elements often a part of company-sponsored engagements.

    I also offer one-time sessions to new clients and established clients who have completed packages.

    I contract with organizations, as well as directly with leaders. I have rates specific to non-profit/governmental organizations, corporations, and private engagements held directly with leaders. My costing structure is designed to allow leaders to engage without company sponsorship as well as with it.

    Standard “base” packages are for 6 sessions or 12 sessions. Cost ranges from $1,800 $5,000.

    Flat fee monthly retainer packages that start at $2,000 per month are also available that include: weekly session availability, email, text support, and shadow coaching.

    Please see the Executive Coaching Packages page for more information or reach out for pricing specific to your needs and context.

  • Yes. I’ve been teaching meditation and mindfulness for decades. These practices are inherently somatic.

    Many people believe they “can’t meditate,” but this usually comes from unrealistic expectations or a lack of guidance. True meditation is not about forcing calm or pushing discomfort away—it’s about cultivating presence with what is there.

    I help clients build a strong, embodied meditation practice rooted in purpose and principle, rather than “McMindfulness.” Apps like Calm can be supportive, but they don’t replace deep guidance and integration. My goal is to support people in building a self-sustaining practice that does not require being guided, and to understand the key foundations of why we practice that are not often taught in most secular approaches.

  • Yes. I carry professional liability insurance with a limit of 1 million dollars, as well as an Umbrella Policy.

    These coverage levels usually meet the requirements of corporate legal departments.

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Location & Access Needs:

The vast majority of somatic executive coaching clients work with me virtually. A Zoom link is sent before each session when it’s booked/scheduled. For location and access information about in-person sessions, please refer to the bottom of the Personal Coaching page. I also can work on-site in the Portland Metro area or travel to you. I work with people globally and accommodate a variety of time zones.

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somatic executive coaching

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