Patricia Cavanaugh, MFT

www.patriciacavanaughmft.com

This stage of my life has been challenging and exciting. While I was still working in the non-profit mental health world, I had begun to feel the signs…little nudges and big shoves…that it was time for a change. I have been a licensed psychotherapist since the 90’s working with all kinds of folks with many challenging and painful problems. I also trained and supervised therapist interns. Back in the early 1970’s I was instrumental in the development and implementation of the workshop “Money and You” and the summer “New Age” intensive called the “Burklyn Business School” in collaboration with Marshall Thurber.

As I became aware of the signs and nudges, I recognized that I needed some help with the change in my life. I began to work with Deborah Frangquist a gifted career counselor in San Francisco. With her help and guidance, I revisited my dreams and dusted them off. I had set them aside for the most part to earn a living and raise my children. I also found that the rhythm of my life no longer served me. I was not sleeping at night and was continually fighting off the flu or a cold. I needed to slow down and find a renewed purpose and meaning to my life.

After a year of focus and exploration for my next steps, I began to create The 3rd Act coaching business. It combined my skills as a therapist and counselor…my ability to support my clients, to see their potential when they could not, and to help them set clear goals for a richer and more complex life. This venture would also bring my talents as a clinician together with my new training in coaching and master’s certification in neural linguistic programming (NLP). NLP offers a group of techniques that elegantly and swiftly change patterns of behavior and thinking that no longer serve the individual without judgment.

I was not expecting to join a business partnership but mutual friends put Bev and me (see About Us) together. Now my vision of what is possible for me has expanded beyond what I originally conceived. Funny how life throws us interesting curves, just to see if we are paying attention and to check to see if our responses are flexible. My life has become richer and more complex–a sure sign that I have fully stepped into my next act.