WHAT IF YOU COULD LIVE A MEANINGFUL, JOYFUL LIFE ON YOUR OWN TERMS,  RATHER THAN ALWAYS DOING WHAT YOU THINK IS EXPECTED OF YOU?

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS?

In which area of your life are you holding yourself back? Here are some examples from my clients:

• You’re secretly dreaming about a career where you could have real impact, but believe it’s too late to change jobs now. At night you lash out on your family after a frustrating day at work, and feel a sharp bolt of jealousy when you talk to your friend that is excited about their career.   

• You’ve always imagined to become the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company in your field one day. It feels like you owe that to the world because you’ve got the talents and skills, but you are already suffering from stress-related migraines in your current job. Often, you go to bed at the same time as your toddler, because you’re so exhausted.

• After an evening with dear friends, you feel empty. You wanted to ask for their advice on your personal situation, but instead you spent the whole time exchanging platitudes about the pandemic and the latest Netflix hype.
  You blame yourself for avoiding deep topics, and you’re wondering what’s wrong with you that you’re not able to have intimate friendships. You worry that you will have no-one to support you when you really need it.

• Your colleagues see you as a ‘one of the guys’ type of woman, that knows what she wants and is always up for an inappropriate joke or two. But you are much gentler and more sensitive than you dare to show, because you’re afraid to be perceived as weak - or worse: drown in your suppressed emotions in front of others.

• You wish your partner would be more supportive, sexy and thoughtful. But people always say you two make such a great team, so you guess you should be content with the way things are. And yet deep inside you, you resent him, because you hate that you’ve become a ghost of the effervescent woman you were at the start of your relationship. 

• You’re secretly jealous of your curvy friend who doesn’t let the size of her clothes hold her back from going to yoga classes filled with skinny fit girls. The one time you went with her to a ‘yoga for stress relief’ workshop, you ended up more stressed, because you couldn’t stop comparing your sweaty, clumsy, chubby body to the graceful yogini’s next to you.

• Whenever you visit your parents, you see yourself slipping back into the teenager version of yourself. You crave having a more equal relationship with them, but have no idea how to start that conversation. You start dreading visiting them more and more, and you worry that your parents will die before you are able to really connect with them.

• You’re kind of interested in spiritual stuff, but you can’t rationally explain why, so you hide your healing crystals and angel cards in the back of your closet, praying that the cleaning lady won’t accidentally find them. At the same time, you feel weak for hiding your spiritual side. If this is so important to you, why can’t you own it?

• You feel like you are always falling short as a mom because of your stressful job, but you’re also frustrated that you can’t work as hard as you used to. You can’t remember the last time you felt truly satisfied about either roles. Your self-confidence as a parent and as a professional is at an all-time low, and you have no clue how to solve it. 

• You nearly die of embarrassment when your toddler has yet another meltdown in the middle of the supermarket. While you angrily drag your kid out of the store, you can almost hear the other shoppers think what a terrible mom you are. At home you feel awful: what did you do to your poor kid?

Talking about embarrassing: you actually feel mildly embarrassed to be reading this website and even considering a coach. Aren’t you supposed to be able to fix your problems yourself?

ABOUT ARJANNA

Hi there!

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I'm Arjanna van der Plas, a formerly Silicon Valley-based Dutchie, who has recently settled in Zurich (for now at least;)).

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In the past 10 years, I’ve helped many leaders, entrepreneurs, and students to design the life they want to live, overcome mental barriers, and achieve their professional and personal goals.

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I’m certified as a co-active coach by CTI, the largest in-person coach training school in the world, as well as by the International Coach Federation .

Moreover, I’m trained as a yoga and meditation teacher (Yoga Tree, RYT200), which inspires me to incorporate mindfulness and somatic exercises in my coaching practice. I also draw from my background in industrial design engineering to find creative solutions for my clients’ challenges.

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I am a former instructor at Berkeley Haas and the co-founder of WOMEN'S HUB Zurich together with Nele Clüver.

TESTIMONIALS

I've worked with people at among others Google, Uber, ETH, IDEO, Deloitte, McKinsey, UC Berkeley, World Bank, UCSF, Picnic and many startups.

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This is what they say about me:

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When I first started working with Arjanna, I felt stuck in my current role and responsibilities. I felt uncertainty and fear about the future, so I avoided making decisions about my career, hoping that it would work itself out eventually. I saw other people's success, but could not even imagine what mine would look like. I was good at getting things done at work, but I often wondered where I was headed. I wondered what would happen if I put the same level of effort into myself as I did my work.

Arjanna was key to taking an active role in my future and discovering my self-confidence and self-worth as a leader. She was incredibly insightful, patient, and encouraging, but not afraid to challenge me. Together, we built mental tools to tackle obstacles at work and within myself.

This resulted in huge changes in my life such as standing up for myself at important meetings, to facing my fears with networking, to taking ownership of my skills - and even being proud of them. Arjanna truly helped me get unstuck. I now feel excited for the future and to grow into the vision I have for myself. This work takes a lifetime, but without Arjanna I would not have started. - R.S.

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R.S.

You allow me to dive deep in a fun and easy-going way. I benefit tremendously from your huge coaching and life experience.

J.B.

Your questions give me instant clarity. 

It is like a huge wall breaks down in a couple of seconds, and all of a sudden I see the whole picture.

L.G.

Arjanna is incredibly present, intelligent, intuitive, warmhearted and passionate.
She provides a safe, nonjudgemental and compassionate environment to work through every kind of life challenge. With Arjanna’s guidance, I was able to drill down to the very core of a challenging work-related issue. The session didn’t only provide great tools for immediate implementation, it also gave me a new way of looking at things, a new framework with which I am now able to make wiser choices in many areas of my life – N.H.

N.H.

If somebody offered me $50,000 and said I had to wipe my coaching experience and its effects from my life, I wouldn’t take it.

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Not only did coaching help me become better at my job, but it also helped me get clear on a question I’d been stewing on for a long time: Should I ask for a raise? (Spoiler alert: the answer was Yes.) A month later, I got a raise and a promotion.

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When I think about Arjanna's role in my personal and professional growth, some phrases that come to mind are: a cheerleader, a kick in the pants, a detective, a mirror, and a partner in crime.

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Coaching was the best investment I’ve ever made.

J.L.

Arjanna helped me structure my thoughts, build confidence, find balance in my life and ultimately make better choices. Which resulted in finding a great job at the end of our coaching trajectory. Arjanna is a very approachable, honest, calm and at the same time energetic coach. I would highly recommend her.

E.S.

I appreciate the openness of our conversations, and how it makes me think outside of the ‘normal’ schemes.

You make me feel at ease and confident in taking decisions.

S.A.

My coaching sessions with Arjanna were open and frank conversations, based on mutual trust. She helped me analyze and solve my personal challenges with practical solutions. As a result, I’ve regained focus and confidence in my everyday life.

M.D.

For me, it is the art of simplicity that makes the difference in your coaching.

A.S.

Arjanna has helped me to understand my fears and struggles, structure my thoughts and express these in words. With clever and penetrating question she knows how to get you out of your comfort zone and then equip you with the right tools to get back behind the steering wheel. Arjanna is devoted, sharp-witted, easy to talk to and easy to trust. It is with pleasure that I recommend her coaching!

C.D.

In my coaching sessions with Arjanna, I had various breakthroughs which changed the course of my life. I learned to value the work I do as a therapist and am therefore making more money at my work. I also learned not to settle in romantic relationships, and I am finally dating a man that is fantastic for me.

I could not have accomplished that all without the guidance and coaching I received from Arjanna. I am eternally grateful for what she helped me get in my life and feel that the tools she helped me access will benefit me forever. I highly recommend her as a coach to anyone who wants to improve their life and be more fully who they are.

K.S.

You help me get to the heart of why I feel stuck in a non-scary way that feels like an adventure and challenge me to take steps to move towards my goal.

R.K.

WHY COACHING?

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHAT IS COACHING?

That’s a good and surprisingly difficult to answer question. Here’s my take on it: as a coach, I’m basically here to help you find your own answers. I’m not here to give you advice on what I think you should do, and I’m not going to dig into your history and find out why things are a certain way. I basically serve as your guide in the forest of your dreams, fears, emotions, thoughts and questions, exploring what’s there and pointing my flashlight at things that seem to be important to you.

I often refer to the Disney movie Inside Out to explain what that might look like. In the movie, the main character is Riley, an 11-year old girl who moves to San Francisco. Most of the movie actually takes place inside her head, showing her emotions as actual characters that steer her decisions and behavior. This is an image that you might recognize yourself: when you’re facing a difficult decision, there seem to be many voices in your head that have different ideas about what’s best for you. One voice might tell you to follow your dream, while the other thinks it’s best to avoid conflict, and yet another keeps emphasizing the fact that you’re a useless, talentless being. Making distinctions between these different voices, and deciding which voice you want to listen to, can be immensely helpful in defining your vision, achieving goals and changing habits. Depending on what works for you, I have different tools and methods for how to do that.

WHO NEEDS COACHING?

Nobody ‘needs’ coaching, and yet everybody can benefit from it. Coaching can help you get clarity on what you really want and need, set goals and achieve them, and overcome your inner critics. I find that coaching can be especially beneficial when you’re considering of facing a big life transition, such as changing jobs, moving to a new country, starting a family or losing a loved one. While these times can often be overwhelming and stressful, coaching can help make the transitions a more fulfilling experience, even if they’re painful.

WHAT ARE GOOD COACHING TOPICS?

Coaching generally focuses on where you want to make change in your life. It can be about finding a new job, or about becoming a better leader in your current job. It can be about finding a romantic partner, or about thriving in your current relationship, friendships or family relations. I often use the Wheel of Life in my free sample coaching sessions to show what kind of areas we can explore in coaching. At the start of a coaching trajectory, I ask my clients to define up to three goals that they have with the coaching, and they are usually in different areas of their life.

What we often find out is that the coaching goals are often related. For example, someone who is looking for a new job and a romantic partner might struggle with an very judgmental inner critic voice that tells him that he is not good enough for the dream job he really wants, and that no romantic partner will ever find him attractive. Him and I are likely to work on his self-esteem, from both the career and the romantic perspective.

WHAT DOES A COACHING TRAJECTORY LOOK LIKE?

All my coaching trajectories are custom-made, but with most of my clients I have biweekly 60-minute video conference sessions, and most trajectories are 3-6 months.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS OF A COACHING TRAJECTORY?

For private clients I charge 155CHF (± $165 | E140) per coaching session, payable through Paypal or with credit card. I also offer walking coaching sessions of ~2 hours for people in the Zurich area for 310CHF per session.

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For corporate coaching I offer different packages based on the size and mission of the organization with hourly rates between 250 and 450 CHF.

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With most of my clients I have biweekly 60-minute video conference sessions, and most trajectories are 3-6 months.

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I also offer an exclusive 1:1 coaching program for woman leaders, for which you can find the details here.

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If you are interested in working with a group, I recommend Thrive, the group coaching program I lead with Nele Clüver (currently no cohorts available due to her maternity leave). 

Often employees can spend their personal education/training budget on coaching - just ask your manager what the policy for your company is.

CAN I GET A FREE SAMPLE COACHING SESSION TO SEE IF COACHING IS FOR ME?

Yes, you can book it here. It's an open conversation, no strings attached. And if you decide you want to work with a coach, but I might not be a good fit for you I'm happy to refer you to other coaches in my network.

CAN I ASK MY BOSS TO PAY FOR THE COACHING?

Absolutely! Many employees can spend their personal education/training budget on coaching - just ask your manager what the policy for your company is.

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