What Touchstone Clients Have to Say ...
"If ever I wanted someone to hold my hand through my journey, it would be Elaine. Her manner is warm, caring and kind; her compassion limitless. She is all-accepting, all-loving, and all-celebrating. Her very presence in my life is inspiring; her smile infectious. Her resources are endless and always wisely and tactfully applied. I have infinite respect and appreciation for her professional expertise. I am both honored and grateful to call her my friend. She is the light at the end of my tunnel."
-- Amy Buchsbaum
"I have had the pleasure of knowing Elaine Taylor-Klaus on a personal level for quite some time and always held her in high regard for her commitment to others and the community. In the summer of 2008, we began working together professionally as she became my life coach. As a mother to 2 children, wife, business woman with a successful business that Istarted almost 6 years ago who also enjoys having personal time and volunteering as much as possible, I am extremely busy and have many personal and professional goals that I am constantly trying to achieve.
Touchstone Coaching has helped me in more ways than I can possibly describe in terms of coming to grips with what is most important to me, how to find the balance I have struggled with for years, and feel confident in the energy I am putting forward with the many hats I wear. One of the most meaningful solutions was recognizing my need to take a day off during the week. After contemplating that for a lengthy time, I finally implemented my new schedule this year and have never felt balanced or more confident in that decision. I highly recommend Elaine and Touchstone Coaching to help you meet your personal goals and find the meaning in your life that you are seeking."
-- Michelle Cooper, March 2009
"You help me Re-decorate or re-model my emotional house. I'm more me than I was before. You gently give the true picture of exactly who I am in a way that is not intimidating or humiliating. You just hold up the mirror. You help me figure out what I really want, and how to get it. You give me back me."
-- Suzie Tipton, Touchstone Book-keeper
"I don't mind the hard work and I really appreciate your soft and accepting approach. It's a pleasure to be in your company and I look forward to our future sessions together ... a million thanx and many smiles. Color me grateful."
"This minor change has really taken a lot of pressure off my shoulders, as I no longer feel that I am not meeting their expectations. Frankly, I feel completely empowered! I now have a financial incentive to focus more and become more efficient so I can bill more hours and make more $$…it is a dream come true!! I would say that I am a true Touchstone success story!!"
"Our coaching relationship has been extremely productive for me and has given me great tools to help me make sure I am staying true to myself. I'm ready to approach the new year with a greater sense of who it is I'm really staying true to, thanks to our work together."
"Working with you has allowed me to coalesce my positive feelings and thoughts and focus them in a way that I could never do before. For years I would set goals, develop tools, attempt processes over and over again, but until I started working with you they were all very false starts."
"Your clear and comforting guidance help me to discover my core values. Your logical exploration of those values and your ability to guide me and keeping me on track with those values has been invaluable to me."
"I know that I can count on you to be an unbiased mirror for me."
"I find that my family, friends and co-workers see through their own clouds of judgment. When they give advice to me it is tinted and bent by the distorted lenses and clouds of their own lives. So you are literally a mirror to me, a genuine and true mirror that shows me my true self, and that might be the most valuable thing that you offer as a coach."
"How can a person make change unless they understand in reality where they are and who they are. Your coaching has allowed me to clearly see where I am, who I am, and who I am capable of being."
"You are patient with me and completely nonjudgmental. What a powerful and generous gift that is. In virtually every experience in our lives we are judged and our performance is expected. The pressures of daily life demand that we judge ourselves and expect instantaneous results from our efforts. Your constant awareness and sensitivity to the harsh judgment I have placed on myself has helped me see that that does not help but hinder my movement forward in this world, and has made it possible for me to be open to make the exploration and discovery needed to move above and beyond my own limiting judgment."
"You have helped me explore who I am, to put into clear laser vision who and where I want to be, and you have made this such a pleasurable and joyful experience. Thank you for being my mirror, a mirror without color and without distortion and without judgment."
"I have really been looking at what I've learned and the things I'll take away and the things I've written … and I can really see a big picture of my life; I feel like I’ve gotten to know myself a lot better, and I felt like I knew myself pretty well coming into it. But I can really see … those threads and strings that go through it all now that kind of make connections for me which I don't think I necessarily HAD before ... and that’s been a really amazing experience."
"It helps me to see the things that matter to me, like my values, and really make sure those threads do wind through my life; and also helps me see where I want to make adjustments or changes. In things that may be a pattern that I want to change."
"The patterns I want to change ... are ... giving myself permission to try things, instead of just researching them. And to make mistakes ... I think that's been a big 'aha' for me. My fear of making mistakes and fear of losing control. That’s definitely something I want to change, and I feel like I’ve got some good direction and tools on that from a lot of what we talked about."
"I feel like I've got like a net in place to ... double-check myself and make sure that I am doing the things that matter to me, that I’m doing things with purpose, and I feel like I’ve really identified what it means to do things with purpose, and that's huge. I felt for so long like I want to be doing something that matters ... and I didn't have the other side that said, 'this is what matters and I need to be doing things to get to that.'"
"It changes my approach to things ... the thought and the emotion behind it."
What Touchstone Colleagues Have to Say ...
"You inspire me to be a better person, you teach me how to be a better parent, you make me laugh, you are there for me when I cry. THANK YOU for being my touchstone in many meaningful ways."
"I love all that you teach me and open my mind up to receive."
"You are a careful listener, and a person of remarkable integrity. You have a rare ability to put aside your own vantage point in life and put yourself in the shoes of the person to whom you are devoting your attention. You think compassionately and respond in ways that make it absolutely clear that you have been respectfully present. This is something that goes beyond any training or life experience. It's a temperamental quality that I think you were born with -- I have always known it to be true about you."
-- Helen Tarleton, Assistant Principal, Middle School Guidance Counselor,
The University School, Nashville, TN
"I rely on your unbiased advice and outlook on issues."
"You are a divergent thinker – open minded and ready to consider any alternatives or suggestions. You are current in your thinking – you look at the situation as it currently is, examining options that are not ‘stale’ or necessarily tried and true, but might be more ‘cutting edge.’ ... You are intelligent and you listen well. You are politically astute, socially conscious and passionate about both. You have a great sense of humor and a strong sense of adventure."
"You have a light -- it is bright and un-self-conscious ... That gives others permission to be what they are -- because you never apologize for who you are. You remind us that we are all a little nuts but we have to take a break from the neurosis to celebrate the victories and your victory is mine and mine is yours -- again generosity...You make me proud to be of your world and grateful to stand in your light."
"You are extremely empathetic. You listen with an ear to your heart; you don’t just "hear" what is being said, you connect to the underlying feelings of the speaker. You are sympathetic without having pity. You always seek the "truth" in each person to help guide them to it. You find ways to do this that are not demeaning or cruel; rather you do so with the utmost respect and love for the individual."