From Inner Conflict to Authentic Integrity
Exploring Your Identity, Your Character, and Your Values
To be human is to contain multitudes—to hold conflicting desires, wear different hats, and navigate the gap between who we are and who we aspire to be. But sometimes these internal tensions feel less like a "rich inner world" and more like a war zone. You might feel pulled in different directions, at odds with your own values, or like you've lost touch with the "real you" amidst the demands of everyday life and the systems that both define you and restrict your choices. This is a space to discover the values you really want to be guided by—and to explore the contradictions that make you who you are, not as "flaws" to be "fixed", but as the raw material for constructing a more authentic future and a more present you.
The feeling of being fragmented or at odds with yourself often stems from the stories we’ve inherited—from family, society, and our own inner critic—about who we should be. When our lived experience doesn't match these scripts, it can create a painful and exhausting inner conflict, leaving us feeling stuck, inauthentic, or alienated from our own lives.
My work aims to help you become a skilled navigator of your own inner world and a compassionate architect of your future self. Drawing on the tools of philosophical inquiry, we will map out your core values, beliefs, and commitments, and we will try on different perspectives and ideas on for size, to see which fit in your personal landscape and which don't.
We will also explore the fundamental existential tension between your facticity and your freedom—that is, between the things over which you have little control (your past choices, the family and culture you were raised in, the systems and unchosen identities to which you belong) and the autonomy you can muster to act and be the author of your own life.
This isn’t about trying to recover a past self, or to generate a wholly new one: It is about the more meaningful work of locating points of resonance in the buzzing chaos of your own experience (and between your own experience and that of others), cultivating harmony between your values, your desires, and the realities of your world, and learning to hold various contradictions in your self and live them out with authenticity and ethical integrity.
The goal is to move from a state of inner conflict to one of authentic self-possession. It's about building a life of integrity, not by erasing your tensions, but by learning to live your contradictions with purpose and grace, allowing you to make choices that are truly aligned with the person you are and the person you want to become.
Coaching Themes
What might we explore together?
Who am I? Who do I want to be?
Exploring Identity, Privilege, and Freedom
Being & Facticity: Who am I...really? What aspects of my identity are under my control? Which are fixed?
Being & Becoming: How did I get here? Where am I going? Who do I want to become?
Privilege & Marginalization: What dis/advantages do various aspects of my identity carry with it? What does this mean for me as a person living in an imperfect, unjust world?
Self-Narratives & Self-Deception: What stories do I tell myself and others about my life? How do they guide my behavior? How do they (mis)lead me/others? How can I shape new narratives while still being true to myself?
Perfection & Self-Doubt: How can I ever live up to the (moral, religious, professional, gender, beauty, filial, parental, political) standards and demands I encounter? How can I be confident in my strengths without underestimating my weaknesses?
Freedom & Determination: How much freedom do I really have within the (family, community, religious, cultural, national, global) systems that define and constrain me? How can I create a space of choice instead of a space of necessity?
How do I hold it all? How do I relate?
Reconciling Identity Conflicts
Conflicts within the Self: Why don't I feel at home (in my body, in my location, in my life)? Why do I want one thing and do another? Why do I always feel like I'm failing to live up to my identities (as a parent, a partner, a friend, a professional, a citizen, a religious believer...)? Why don't my feelings match up with my beliefs? Am I acting irrationally?
Conflicts between Selves: How can I reconcile the various aspects of my identity with one another? Why do I feel like one person in some contexts and a different person in others? Who am I "supposed" to be (and when/for whom)? Can I live with (self-)contradiction?
Conflicts among Persons: How can I get someone else to understand what it's like to be me (in my body, with my experiences, carrying my story)? What do I do when someone doesn't accept my identity or choices? How can I better relate to someone whose identity (identification, allegiances, choices, values) I don't like or can't understand?
What do I want? What really matters to me?
Clarifying Values, Goals, and Life Plans
Motivations & Drives: What beliefs, expectations, norms, or values lie behind my actions? Which ones really drive me?
Core Values & Concerns: What do I really care about at the end of the day? What really matters to me? What do I stand for? Should these things concern me as much as they do? Are these the ideas I want to be guided by?
Major Goals & Life Plans: What are my goals? Do I have an overarching vision for my life? Do I need one?
Agency & Causality: How can I best pursue my aims and cultivate the qualities I want to embody? Can I manifest things I want just by thinking positively? Is the universe really that "into" me?
Authenticity & Integrity: How can I live out my dreams without selling out my values? Is it possible to live well in a world with so much suffering?
What should I do? How can I choose?
Making Authentic Decisions
Decisions & Responsibilities: What should I do in this situation? How can I choose between the various pulls of my different identities, responsibilities, and options? How do I weigh my own concerns and those of others in my decisions? How do I remain true to myself without harming others?
Relationships & Relationality: AITA in this situation? And if so/if not, what do I do about it? How do my identity and positionality affect what I have good reason to do with respect to differently situated others? How can I make room for cultivating healthy friendships and loving relationships, and how can I find the courage to let go of those commitments and relationships that harm me?
Permission & Permissibility: How can I set reasonable boundaries and create space for genuine self-care? Is it OK to feel negative emotions (anger, rage, sadness, jealousy, etc.) concerning...? Am I supposed to grieve in a particular way or stop grieving at a certain time? Is it bad that I'm questioning my (moral, religious, cultural) beliefs?
Have a question? Want to know more? Want to share your struggle?
Whether you have a question, want to inquire about my services, or simply want to say "hey", feel free to reach out to me below.
