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Do you have a mind that needs to know the ‘why’ of things?
Do you have an active mind? Like, you’re aware of limiting patterns in your life—procrastination, people-pleasing, perfectionism—and you want to change, evolve, and grow. But first, for some reason, you need to know why. Why are you that way and where did these patterns come from?
(They’re like computer programs, running all the time. But, who installed them? What experiences made you this way?)
For you, it’s not random. For you, something would change if you could just understand yourself more.
Of course, people have told you that ‘you think too much’ or that you over-analyze everything. But, you don’t feel that way about yourself. For you, it’s deeply important to understand and explore these things.
But, people you care about keep telling you to relax or get over it or ‘stop making such a big deal about everything.’ So, overtime, you’ve learned to hide this part of yourself or minimize the depth that you truly feel. You feel things deeply. You want more from this life.
You’ve already tried to just get past it and move on. But now, more and more, it feels like you’re forced to fake it. Or worse, you feel numb.
Your mind naturally scans the past to try to find the source of why you are the way you are. You can feel it deep down: There is a reason for it.
You notice your negative self-talk and wonder immediately, “Why? Where did it come from?”
You put the needs of others before your own for the millionth time and instinctively wonder, “Why? What is driving that behavior?”
Or, you want to make a change but can’t—because you don’t feel prepared yet. But, why? Other people seem to do it. Why not me? You ask. What programs are running in the background of my mind that prevent me from just trusting life and taking action?
Whatever it is, you have a mind that needs to know the ‘why’. You are a root-cause kind of person.
You might also feel like you’re different from those around you and you cringe when someone says, “Yeah, everyone feels like that.” Deep down, you know that isn’t fully true.
You are different from other people, but you can’t quite put your finger on exactly how or why.
Maybe people have told you that you’re “too sensitive” or “too much”, when in reality you walk through the world feeling like maybe you’re not enough.
If you can relate to this, there’s some good news: There are, in fact, answers to your questions. There IS a way out of this. And, I have spent the last ten years refining an approach that actually works.
As a coach, I don’t give you the answers. Instead, I help you find them for yourself. I help people get to the core of things. Because, for some minds: Knowing is as important as doing. It’s not enough to just notice it. Sometimes, we just need to know why.
Together, we explore:
Your true wants and needs as a human
How you best make big decisions
Your past programming and family system
How you relate to time, productivity, pressure, order, and routine
Your unique brand of awareness
What is your actual learning style
How you best recharge your energy
Your true values and what motivates you these days
How mindfulness does and does not work for you
The role that the past plays in your life today
Your unique style of working, resting, and playing
How to communicate your desires to others
What’s the best way for you to set boundaries
How you best connect with others
What’s the best way for you, specifically, to organize your life and take action
You are the elephant
Imagine four people are in a completely dark room with an elephant. And let’s pretend that they have no clue what an elephant is.
One of them touches the ear and says, “An elephant is like paper.” Another, pressing against the belly, says, “An elephant is like a wall.” The third wraps their arms around a leg, “An elephant is like the trunk of a tree.” And the final person holds onto the tail and says, “You’re all wrong, an elephant is like a rope.”
They’re all right and they’re all wrong. All at the same time. However, one of them in the room does know the true shape of an elephant. Do you know which one?
The answer: The elephant.
The elephant effortlessly knows its exact shape because—it is it. And it can experience every part of itself inside and outside. It knows all the different shapes it’s been throughout its life.
And, that’s what we are. We are the elephant. Others may know parts of us. Friends, family, colleagues, a partner, a counselor, a boss may say: I know you—you’re a hard worker, an introvert, an artist, a jerk, a great lover, a goofball, an athlete, a husband, a daughter, an uncle, a loner. They may say: I know you—you’re selfless, intelligent, honest, happy, unpredictable, generous, confident.
No matter how well they know us—they’re still only holding the tail, or the ear, or the belly. No one has access to ALL of you.
Except, perhaps, one person: You.
You’ve been there for every moment of your life—the good, the bad, the ugly. And, because of that: You are the expert on you. And you are the only expert on you. You: complete with intellect, humor, emotion, spirit, nuance, depth—totally complete, buzzing with life and desire and memory and belief and contradiction—multidimensional, always complex ( and sometimes complicated).
But wait, if we are the “experts” on ourselves, why can we feel so lost? So broken? So disconnected from our truth and purpose? A big reason is, frankly: other people. This includes the people behind billion dollar marketing campaigns. Even when they mean well, it can get confusing being told who we are, who we should be, and then trying to live up to that.
As a coach, I am not here to tell you who you are. My role is to help you make contact with the real you. To support you in your own discovery, inquiry, and reclamation. I am here to support you in noticing the conditioning and programming that no longer works for you (and maybe never did). To assist you in making what is unconscious conscious. And to help you take action, find the next step, and to guide you in giving yourself full permission to go for it. Full send. Unapologetic. Authentic. Real.
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How does it work?
When you are ready to dive in, you’re ready. But what level of support are you calling in? I offer two levels of support:
Life Coaching À La Carte
I offer high-impact readings in CliftonStrengths and Human Design. These are 1:1 single sessions that you can book for yourself or as a gift for someone in your life. Both options are 60-minute power-hours where you leave with tangible insights and actions. You leave the session with practical next steps that you can use that day. If you’re looking for something fast and straightforward, this option is for you. It’s an energy-rich deep-dive that people text me about years later.
Lots of people choose this option simply because they are curious and want to know more about themselves or want to see their life through the lens of systems like Human Design and CliftonStrengths.
* If you are not exactly sure what you’re looking for, an À La Carte offer is a good place to start as well. Some people chose this option because they just want to get their toes wet and experience what coaching is all about.
Click here to book sessions in CliftonStrengths and Human Design.
Transformational Coaching | 3-6 Months
Maybe you are looking for more than a single session.
Maybe you are looking for a coach to walk with you through a full season of life, someone to be in your corner as you create massive transformation and change? Someone to help you define, refine, and follow-through on a new vision for your life—accountability, strategy, and depth? Do you want a coach that is available throughout the week, someone to connect with in the moment and get immediate support?
If that describes you, transformational coaching is the best fit for what I offer. With this option, I don’t charge per session. I work with people in 3 to 6 month seasons & my clients get on-going support throughout the day, week-by-week. We work together using an “unlimited coaching” model.
It’s for the people who have already tried other methods—from the rah-rah mindset work to the metaphysical path of spiritual bypassing. Transformational coaching is for people who are ready to start owning their future, leaning in, daring greatly & seeing sustainable results from their blood, sweat, tears, & investment.
It’s about clearing blocks, breaking patterns, & integrating lost parts of ourselves. It means getting real about who we are and what we’ve come here to do. It’s about owning a new version of our self in every area of life.
Working with me at this level means going all in. We do this through a process of expansion that is data & science based, trauma-informed, and backed by an “unlimited” level of support.
How It Works
Transformational coaching clients get a minimum of one deep-dive coaching call per week via Zoom with on-going support between sessions through phone and text. (You read that right, one call per week is the minimum—if extra support is needed, we schedule additional sessions free of charge.)
Why Do I Do It This Way?
The answer is pretty simple: Life isn’t happening just one hour a week. So, why hire a coach who is only there for 60 minutes of it?
My clients are my focus & I know firsthand how much can shift, change, & evolve in 3-6 months when we go all in together—I see this happening every day. Literally. The people I serve as a coach are serious about doing the work and I am serious about serving them at every level. It’s all I do. I, too, am all in on this work, which is one reason why my clients see consistent, continual growth & transformation.
Even world-class, professional athletes at the top of their game have coaches, so why not you?
To do this work we use tools & modalities including: somatics and nervous system regulation, high-performance habits, StrengthsFinder, Human Design, mindfulness, trauma-informed visualization, breathwork, non-violent communication (NVC), attachment styles, masculine/feminine energetics, archetypes, storytelling, and holistic wellness.
If you feel a call to explore this option, your best next step is to schedule a Discovery Session with me or to book an À La Carte reading where we can really get a sense of what working together could look like and feel like.
Human Design
readings
For Individuals: 60-minute one-on-one deep dive into your Human Design. We cover all the fundamentals and need-to-knows of your chart—with a focus on answering the question: ‘How can I use my Human Design’ starting now? What makes a reading with me different is that I won’t try to explain every detail of your chart—books can tell you all of that. Instead, what I love to do is to use Human Design to explore a current challenge or experience you’re working through here and now. Where do you feel lost or stuck? Where are the mysteries getting in the way? How is Human Design relevant to the real world? Let me show you.
Book your Human Design Reading here.
For Coaches: I work with coaches for seasons of 5-weeks, 3-months, and 6-months using Human Design to amplify the impact you have with each client. Each season is tailored around what you, as a coach, are wanting and needing. For some coaches, I meet 1:1 with each of their clients for a private reading and offer insights based on the charts (ie best practices for coaching a 1/3 Manifestor). For other coaches, I never meet their clients directly—I meet 1:1 with them (the coach) and we explore each client’s chart (always with the client’s knowledge beforehand). And, at times, we choose a blend of both styles and I meet with both coach and client. If you’re taking your coaching offers to the next level, this is an option that more and more coaches are selecting. Send me a message to get started or book a call here.
What Is Human Design?
Human Design was created in 1987 by Ra Uru Hu on the island of Ibiza and the system itself contains the confluence of many things, including astrology, the I Ching, western psychology, archetypes, biology and genetics, the Hindu Brahman Chakra System, and elements of the Kabballah as well as others. Human Design is a system made of systems—some cosmic, some data-driven, some personal. The element that makes Human Design unique among other systems like it is that it relies on our own personal experience and encourages us to treat our lives with curiosity and spaciousness—to explore more and to experiment.
Human Design is the science of differentiation. It’s like having a user’s manual to our unique wiring how we best operate in the game of life—not just mentally, but holistically down to the cellular level. It offers guidance that is personal and unique to our individual decision making process and illustrates how we can best create our lives with intention and alignment, rather than fear, scarcity, and comparison.
Five Basics to Know About Human Design:
1. Everyone Has a Type: Human Design has five broad Types, each which expresses a unique way of interacting with the world: those who lead, those who build, those who guide, those who mirror, and those who multitask.
2. Each Type Has a Strategy for Making Decisions: Our Strategy is like the roadmap for how we can put ourselves into alignment with our highest timeline. Your Strategy is the one specific approach you can take—each one of us—that will deliver consistently meaningful results.
3. Everyone Has an Authority: From the perspective of Human Design, no one is supposed to make decisions with their head. We’ve all been conditioned to believe that decision making is a mental process (pro/con, 5-year plan, etc.) The brain, mind, and head are here, first and foremost, to be the witnesses of our lives. Beyond that, we are each designed with an Authority, which acts like a micro-brain, which offers each of us the correct way to make decisions in our lives.
4. We Each Have 1 of 12 Profiles: Profile in Human Design is about how you play your character. How are you designed to get things done? Profile offers the strategic details for fulfilling your purpose and understanding your life’s significant themes. It also specifies your personal magnetism by clarifying what others naturally expect from you energetically or unconsciously. Profile is often what others see in us and want from us.
5. What Is The BodyGraph: The BodyGraph is the core visual representation of our Human Design chart. It maps our unique constellation of channels, gates, energy centers, as well as our conscious and unconscious astrology. It may look like a randomly interconnected circuit of colors, lines, numbers and shapes, but each detail means something specific and unique to your chart.
ABOUT
zach carlsen
I have been coaching and educating professionally for the last decade. My adventures in leadership and holding space have brought me all over the world. The core and foundation of this work is Human Design—a modern science containing ancient systems for exploring the nature of being. I am trained in more than a dozen coaching modalities, including: men’s work, mindfulness, high-performance habits, goal setting, 12-step recovery, and holistic wellness.
I hold advanced academic degrees in pedagogy, linguistics, and rhetoric as well as certifications in leadership from Gallup, Inc in CliftonStrengths Coaching and SSC in Human Design Coaching. In 2021 I obtained a Master Coach certification from the Elementum Coaching Institute.
My primary philosophy, in the words of Ram Dass, is that “we are all just walking one another home”. No one is broken or incomplete or half—but we forget that. When folks are ready to grow out of unsatisfying self-limiting patterns, I am there to assist. When you are ready to take action to change, expand, and evolve, I am here for you—as I have been for 500+ clients over the past ten years—offering the latest and most advanced holistic coaching and support.
CONTACT me
To schedule a 1:1 discovery session, click here.
For All other inquiries, please use the form below.