About Barbara
Barbara loves her work! She believes it is everyone’s right to have work that is engaging and healthy for mind, body and spirit. From the myriad stories about her clients’ challenges to find work that aligns with their particular life stage as well as with the skills they enjoy using, to her engaging presentations on work-related topics, Barbara meaningfully connects with her clients and her audiences. She considers it a blessing to assist individuals’ efforts to find meaning, balance, and wholeness through their work in the world.
Her work encompasses the significant aspects of the career change process — gaining clarity and identifying a direction in significant life transitions–customizing an effective résumé and cover letter–negotiating an employment offer–considering a severance package or submitting a resignation.
While she works with individuals of all ages, Barbara has a particular specialty in second half of life challenges that include career and work transitions, evaluating graduate school or advanced training, defining life in retirement, and the quest for meaning through work or service.
In her work, Barbara brings years of professional training and education in the field of career development with a focus on empowerment, intuition development, alignment of work with life stage priorities, and spirituality and meaning. Teachers and concepts of particular significance to her work include: Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development, Carl Jung’s ideas on Midlife, Gail Straub and David Gershon’s Empowerment Model, Gene Gendlin and Robert Lee’s Focusing Techniques, and poet David Whyte’s work on being authentic.
Barbara holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling from the University of New Hampshire, and the following certifications and professional designations: Master Career Counselor (National Career Development Association) National Board Certified Counselor, Certified administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Certified Focusing Trainer, Certified Third Age Coach and trained labyrinth facilitator through Veriditas.
Well established in a successful private practice, she provides career counseling to individuals, business owners and leaders in the public and private sectors. She is an inspiring public speaker offering engaging and interactive keynotes and presentations. For nine years, Barbara offered women’s retreats for renewal in the south of France.
She is currently planning, with colleague Susanna Liller a 5-day women’s retreat: “Journey to Your Sacred Self” to Chartres, France (45 minutes from Paris) May 10-15, 2011. Check back in October 2010 for details!
The Beginnings of Heart at Work
It was on her return from a sabbatical in France with her family that Barbara decided to open her career counseling practice, Heart at Work. While the concept boldly came to her one winter’s day in 1988, it was not until the spring that the name became clear, while on her way to visit a friend in Minnesota. Upon reading an article on overwork titled “Heart at Work” in the airline’s magazine, she knew she had found the name of her new venture. Heart at Work captures what her clients seek: authenticity through work that is in alignment with who they are and what they value.
Opening her own business was not something Barbara had planned before she left for France. However, it clearly emerged as a compelling decision as soon as she returned to her work in the Career Services Office at Bowdoin College. In her re-entry, she discovered first hand what she now tells her career counseling clients: it is when we change the context of our lives in a significant way that we often become clearer about or discover a new direction. The change that catalyzes a new direction need not be as dramatic as moving to a foreign country, but may be as simple as an experience that shifts a daily routine for a period of time. The unfamiliar causes us to rely on different resources within ourselves, like our intuition. Slowly but surely, we begin to notice what is unfolding and we begin to look at our lives in new ways. As we escape from routine thinking and familiar ways of behaving, new patterns emerge. It is from this new perspective that ideas and possibilities for the future take shape, and we often move from a confused or stuck place to a more focused one.
People generally decide to work with Barbara because a trusted person referred them or because they resonate with her philosophy and holistic approach to career counseling and life transitions.
Contact Barbara today for a free brief phone consult to assess whether the time is right for you to schedule a session. (207) 775-6400 or email barb@barbarababkirk.com
