CLient Reflections
Don't hesitate to work with Lauren! Lauren is an incredibly effective coach. Her ability to see the truth of a situation and to gently guide her clients towards that truth is a beautiful thing. I credit her with changing my life - or rather, helping me change it - in a profound way. — Eiko Kawano
Lauren and the exercises she recommended helped me get clarity on my career - why I have not been happy, what am I looking for, and what do I bring to the table. I was stuck in “thought paralysis” before our work together. I learned that with clarity and a bit of reassurance, you can make a change that help you find joy in job. The career doesn’t have to be something you just do - you can love it too if you work on the conditions that make you happy. — Stewart McKendry
For me, what started as a career transition discussion quickly morphed into building a sustainable and joyful life. When I started working with Lauren I was feeling burnt out and unsure of what my best next steps were professionally. Lauren helped me get clear on what I love about my work so that I could focus on projects that energize me, and create a work life balance that worked for me and my family. — Justine Janssen
I spent the first half of my career moving through demanding environments that require incredible stamina. From consulting at McKinsey, to senior roles in Canada’s federal government; including advising the Prime Minister of Canada and serving as Budget Director to the Minister of Finance.
By the time I found Lauren, I was cresting in the middle of my career (age 45) – looking forward and dreading my default of recreating the same intensity for the next half of my career. I was burnt out after nearly seven years in politics and standing between worlds – unsure whether to accept a good job offer or take time to reset. I knew how to run, but not how to pause. I began working with Lauren to navigate that uncertainty and recover a sense of direction.
From our very first session, she met me exactly where I was: exhausted and disoriented after dredging the bowels of the job market through dozens of job applications, coffee dates, and formal interviews. Over several months in 2025, Lauren worked with me on two levels.
On the micro side, Lauren coached me through live job opportunities – interviews, CV prep, salary and start-date negotiations, LinkedIn posts, whether to accept or decline offers, and dealing with the inevitable rejection that comes with being a job seeker. Her guidance was to slow this work while we worked on the bigger picture. On the macro side, she helped me rebuild the architecture of my professional identity: who I am, what I’m good at, what I want the next half of my career to look like.
Together we designed a full 360-degree feedback process, where she interviewed six of my peers, direct reports, and former bosses. The results were so helpful because I had worked in a feedback vacuum for years. I was calm under pressure, a trusted advisor, a clear communicator, a caring leader. But also, a clear sense that I needed to step into being the principal, not just the advisor. And I needed to assert a view and vision more forcefully as I was perceived as too passive by my colleagues. That feedback, and Lauren’s ability to distill it, was incredibly helpful.
She also guided me through deeper reflection – writing about my years in Ottawa, naming what I’d learned, and sketching the kind of life I wanted next. With kids at home, I needed more balance and needed to be more financially secure. I also wanted to shed things that had mattered to me in the first part of my career (pace, progression, prestige).
Lauren’s coaching style is intelligent, perceptive, and quietly transformative. She didn’t force an answer; she created the space where I could find it myself. Having made big professional leaps herself, she can guide from a place of knowing.
By the end of our work together, I had gained clarity and confidence. With her help, I negotiated a role that fits my strengths and stage of life, and more importantly, I understood why it fit. Lauren’s mix of tactical acuity and big picture grounding made that possible.
I recommend her without hesitation. Lauren is one of those rare coaches, focused on career transitions who can meet you at both the head and heart level. — Bud Sambasivam, P.Eng., MBA, MPA
At the beginning of this process, I had no idea what I should do next. I did the same thing for approximately 13 years and really grew tired of it.
I was stressed out, burnt out, and I knew I needed a change.
I came to Lauren after I decided to sell my accounting firm, but I had no idea what to do next.
Lauren helped clarify what was important to me. She helped provide an actual method to think about these issues. She helped me to actually quantify and objectively evaluate different ideas. She also helped to find common themes and values that were present in seemingly vastly different ideas that I had initially.
I definitely recommend working with her. — Neal Winokur
Lauren has been somewhat of a tour guide on the journey to finding my "why?", which isn't just one thing. She's helped me ask the right questions and take stock of who I am and more strategically decide how to use my time and expend my energy in ways that are aligned with my values and who I want to be. — Coralie D'Souza
I was dealing with a challenging situation at work that left me feeling lost and empty, like a shell of myself. I was connected to Lauren through a friend and in our first conversation I knew immediately working with her was exactly what I needed. I was in the process of putting my identity back together and she was like a mirror, reflecting back to me all the good parts of myself that I couldn’t see anymore. She coaxed them out of me and reminded me who I was (am). She has a great ability to know what you need when you need it - she was soft when I needed gentle care and firm when I needed some tough love honesty.
I would say after working with her I’m a different person, but really, I’m just finally the version of myself that I knew was deep inside, but that I had lost sight of. — AJ Tibando
I approached Lauren at a crossroads in my career, where I was deciding what kind of role I wanted to pursue next.
What I got instead was a wholesale realignment of understanding both my personal and professional interests and how they could blend together to create a life that felt fulfilling and intellectually stimulating.
She helped me define my interests and motivations, and in doing so, helped me find direction and a lens through which to assess opportunities.
If you feel stuck in any domain of your life, I can't recommend her enough! — Nicole K.
Before I met Lauren, I was recently laid off and quite eagerly awaiting my next opportunity.
Although initially, my work transition created more consternation than I had expected, I quickly found that my anxiety came not from being out of work, but of where I should take my next step - given the options that I had before me.
Lauren was critical in helping me navigate my motives, my goals, my ambitions - while keeping in perspective how my decision would also help me achieve balance and the things that I value most in my life.
Lauren's coaching was invaluable - and as someone who processes verbally, I found her guidance, experience and clarity of thought to be refreshing and illuminating. — Tim Ming VP, Growth Marketing
Lauren has given me confidence in leveraging the skills I've built throughout my life and taught me how to apply them to a completely different career path. Furthermore, Lauren has helped me develop a positive mindset and examine difficult decisions from different perspectives. She always motivated me to keep pursuing leads throughout this journey. I am thankful for Lauren's incredible patience, encouragement, and understanding. — Salman H.
When I started the coaching process, I had just left my job in a large, bureaucratic organization. My initial discussions with Lauren, and where I spent most of the process, was in trying to figure out where was the best place to go next. Through constant challenging of assumptions and different tests, I ended up with a much better grasp on what I thought I needed to succeed. This foundation was invaluable. It helped formulate a systematic plan of outreach, targeting the specific people and sectors, where there was a better possibility of being happier in the long run.
Lauren helped me immensely with formulating the plan, continuing to serve as a terrific sounding board, and holding me accountable with my execution of the plan. I needed help on all of these parts of my job search and Lauren helped me every step of the way.
She taught me to fundamentally trust myself and trust the process. I ended up with a job at a startup and so far so good! — Michael Wahl
Lauren helped me identify potential alternate career paths and explore a lot of possibilities. I ultimately found a job with a big tech company producing their content and I'm very excited to start later this month. The work we did to prepare me for the interviews was integral in helping me land the job. Talking with Lauren has given me more clarity and direction in just a few months, than I've had on my own trying to figure this out over 10 years! — Jennette Vasiljevic
Before I worked with Lauren, I was looking for job descriptions and titles that I thought I could fit myself into. I didn't feel inspired. Pivoting into a different field felt like a chore, but staying in my same field also felt like a chore. I was stuck in a framework of my parents' generation (like the game of "Life") - should I become a teacher, a lawyer, or a "fill in the blank"?
Through my work with Lauren, I discovered that there are tons of people in all kinds of jobs - some I had never even heard of or thought of - and the skills, the lens and the personality that each individual (including me) brings to those titles is really where job satisfaction is found.
Lauren's support and experience helped me feel validated as a woman in management. Lauren helped me connect with a whole cadre of women who are facing these issues head-on, talking about it, and strengthening each other. — Ellie Klein
When I first met with Lauren I had a sense it was time for a career shift but I was not sure what to do or how to start thinking through my options.
I knew I needed help assessing not only my transferable skills but also my overall outlook on my career and how to balance it with my family life and self-care.
Lauren helped me determine what other career options were of interest to me and how to go about researching those options to understand the pros and cons of each. She also listened and guided while empowering me to take action. She gave me reassurance when I needed it and was very easy to talk to.
Lauren taught me ways of problem-solving and decision-making that set me up to be able to assess future career decisions on my own. All of the skills and perspectives she provided are useful long-term - I have been able to apply them well beyond the period of time I was actively working with her. — Diana Brink-Gourlay
I reached out to Lauren at a low juncture in my life. Although conventionally successful, I felt unhappy both professionally and personally but did not really know why. I knew I wanted and needed to change but had no idea where to start. Lauren aided me in unpacking my hurdles and opening my mind to identify and acknowledge my strengths and look at opportunities I would not have considered prior. Through her warmth, guidance and unwavering support Lauren gave me the confidence to go after the change I was looking for, even if it was out of my comfort zone. As a result, I now feel more self-assured in my own abilities, and this is being noticed both at work and home.
I am now excited to go after what I want from life and work. — Joanna Maclean
Lauren provided an exceptionally supportive environment and guided me through a process of self-discovery. Lauren has a unique way of helping me to cut through the clutter and understand the path forward.
When I began with Lauren, I knew I needed a change. It was clear, but it was also terrifying. I was contemplating making a move that would upend all of the stability of my family, and I depend on. With Lauren's assistance, I have made the change, and while it was still scary, I made the change with my eyes wide open. My family and I are all in a better place now that I have made this change for the better, and Lauren has provided critical guidance and support that helped pave the road to where I need to be today. — Alexander Freedman
When I came to Lauren, I was burnt out and ready for a change, but I didn't have a clear picture of what I should be looking for or what I wanted to do next. I felt pretty lost, afraid, and stuck, even though I had already accomplished much in my career. Lauren helped me home in on the elements of work I liked -- the things that excited and fulfilled me, and the things I was good at or wanted to learn.
She also helped me feel excited about my future instead of feeling scared. Now I have a much better sense of what I want, and I am actively going after it.
Working with Lauren is helping me be more intentional and focused in my thinking about my next career move, it's helping me feel more confident and less embarrassed about my current unemployment (though I still need to work on this). It's helped me have a bit more patience with myself in the job search, but also parenting.
Weirdly, I think it's also helping me be a more compassionate and less judgmental person. — Rachel Lerner
I had been working for a few years and found my work life was feeling flat. I wasn't sure why I was finding my job so, well, boring! I couldn't shake the feeling I was on the career wrong path and wasn't sure how I ended up there. I was craving more intentionality with my career.
I approached Lauren seeking some guidance on how to connect my diverse work experiences and learn how to build that intention moving forward. With Lauren, I not only was able to meet those goals, but I also developed the language to identify and express my skills, strengths, and experiences in a more cohesive and impactful way
As a millennial, I thought my career had to represent everything - my personality, my mission, my purpose, my entire self. Through my work with Lauren, I have gained a much healthier and more spacious perspective on what my career can be and means to me. I may not have a clear destination, but I learned what's gained by not focusing on a narrow box and instead exploring the expansiveness of possibilities.
Through working with Lauren I was able to develop a much stronger compass, which I believe will ultimately guide me much further and to more interesting places than a single destination ever could. Thank you Lauren for this process! — Hannah Besseau
I first spoke to Lauren about an important career decision I needed to make which had left me very conflicted and caused a couple of sleepless nights.
At the end of our first call, I felt at ease about the decision I had taken and did not have cause to second guess it.
Since our first call, I worked with Lauren on a more formal basis about potential career steps. I found her to be a great listener, empathetic, encouraging and certainly well equipped to help me through the career decisions I needed to make. Lauren has all the tools necessary to walk you through any career problems you are facing and empower you to make the best decision for yourself.
I enjoyed working with Lauren. — Philips Benjamin