Meet Coach Shirley Oya

Shirley Oya, CPCC, BCC

Please fill us in on your background.

I was an accountant for many years, first working in a public accounting firm, and then operating a home business while raising two daughters. I specialized in working with television writers/producers and holistic health practitioners. While I enjoyed working with numbers, the best part was the interaction with my clients.

How do you come to coaching?

In 2004, when my youngest started kindergarten I began to reflect on what career would fulfill me going forward. I worked with a Life Coach and soon discovered that coaching was at the core of everything I’d done. So I opened my private practice and first coached clients on their personal finances. After taking a course at The Coaches Training Institute, I was instantly hooked! I pursued my coach training with CTI, including the advanced certification, CPCC. I soon discovered my real passion was working with women around career and life transitions, and I’ve never looked back!

Do you have any life experiences that inform your coaching?

Parenting and experiencing my own life and career transitions give me a perspective that help me understand each client’s experiences.

I also faced many challenges in my childhood, including alcoholic parents, who fought continuously, and left my severely disabled sister under my care for extended periods while they went out drinking. As a result I grew up with a lot of anxiety and depression, but thankfully, I got to work with a gifted therapist (specializing in psychoanalysis) who helped me heal. While coaching is a very different modality (though many of the benefits overlap), my own personal work in therapy deeply informs my work, especially for clients who also struggle with anxiety. I am a student of neuroscience and positive psychology (self taught), and that informs my work as well.

I like clients who understand and accept that change begins with them (it truly does), and that playing the victim or blaming others are NOT the answers!

What is your mission?

I want to educate and guide women towards lives that they can control; to coach them to ‘own’ and use their natural gifts, values, and passions to do the work that is enormously fulfilling and uplifting to them.

What kind of clients with whom do you most enjoy working?

Women, in particular, highly successful executives in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s who are disenchanted with life the way it is, and are seriously motivated to make changes. Most important, I like clients who understand and accept that change begins with them (it truly does), and that playing the victim or blaming others are NOT the answers!

Do you hold workshops?

I am super excited about my signature talk, which I’m now doing throughout the Los Angeles area. It’s called “3 Massive Mistakes Female Executives Make That Keep Them Overworked, Overwhelmed, and Struggling to Find Time for Their Kids.” It’s an educational talk that provides a ton of value, tips, and tools that women can apply right away to ease their stress trying to balance it all.

Attendees will learn:

• About their surprising, self-sabotaging habit that keeps them highly stressed.
• How a simple five-step process will help them live easier lives, right now.
• The #1 secret to living a fabulously fulfilling, and brilliantly balanced life!

I’d like to share some testimonials from the talks:

To register at a location near you, contact me: Shirley@shirleyoya.com

Where and how often do you coach?

I coach via Skype (audio), or telephone, so I can coach clients anywhere in the world.

My sessions are 45-minutes, three times a month, with a minimum three-month engagement. I first do a free 30-minute consultation so a potential client and I can determine if we are a good fit.

What’s the most important thing to know about you?

I am fiercely devoted to every client’s change and growth, and I won’t give up on you, as long as you don’t give up on you!