Life Through Transitions | Helping You Navigate Life's Biggest Changes

Cher Anderton was an east coast girl that has become a PNW convert! Cher works as an elementary school counselor in the Shoreline, WA, as well as licensed therapist in her private practice. She works with women adolescent age and older, and primarily focuses on trauma and parent coaching. Cher is a certified Positive Discipline Parent Educator. Her biggest passion and calling is helping parents and individuals move through life in healthier, more connected ways. Cher has four kids, ages 11-17, including a son she and her husband adopted from foster care when he was almost 8. In this episode, Cher shares about her son’s adoption and how the discomforts of a parenting and faith transition led to discovering a calling.

In 2013, Emily Ann Peterson was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological hand tremor, which forever altered her two-decade livelihood as a cellist/cello teacher.  In the weeks and months that followed, she was troubled by two big question, “Who am I if not a cellist?” and “How do I make a living!?” Refusing to lose her life's love of expression, she knew she’d have to be brave.  She set out to research and learn from others on what it means to be brave. This would eventually lead her to write a book called Bare Naked Bravery: How to Be Creatively Courageous.  The book seeks to help people from all walks of life understand what bravery really is - allowing them to step into it by creatively using vulnerability, imagination and improvisation.  Her goal with her writing, podcast (it’s called Bare Naked Bravery) and School of Bravery is to inspire a global resonance and magnanimous community through the marriage of art and whole-person development.

Rachel Vander Pol is not only an award-winning resume writer but also a recovering world wanderer. Rachel lives in San Diego, CA where she runs her own company called RVP Career Services. She helps job seekers around the world craft interview-winning career documents, from resumes to cover letters to LinkedIn profiles. She loves to collaborate with clients to dig deep into their past experiences to help them step into their future careers.   Finding her dream job wasn’t easy. There were a lot of “shoulds” - the expectations and obligations set by others - making that difficult. Several years back, Rachel was stuck in a career cul-de-sac of listless job wandering. Through a lot of deep personal discovery and some critical heart shifts, she would leave the comforts of what was safe and known to follow a dream of living and working in Ireland. Eventually, this pursuit of desire led her to start a business that helps others land their dream job.

Aaron McHugh is a writer, podcaster, adventurer, and author of the best-selling book, Fire Your Boss: A Manifesto to Rethink How You Think About Work. He is mastering the art of living a sustainable work-life balance that constantly interweaves rhythms of play and adventure. That includes road trips in their 1974 VW Bus, aka The Joy Bus, catapulting them into many father-daughter adventures together.Aaron works as an Affiliate Advisor for Aberkyn, a division of McKinsey & Co as a facilitator of transformation. He also works with Moving Performance, facilitating leadership change through the power of music.He and his wife Leith live in Colorado Springs, CO. They are celebrating twenty-five years of marriage in December. Their marriage has survived the death of their twelve-year-old daughter Hadley in 2011. Their twenty-two-year-old son Holden lives in Costa Mesa and is thriving in recovery three years clean and sober. Their youngest daughter lives at home still.In 2015 they rebooted their lives, sold the

Jenn Swanson's motto is to engage, encourage and empower others to step into their success. Through her podcast, facilitation and speaking, online courses and an Amazon-best-selling book, Jenn endeavors to inspire people to be able to get the job they want, love the work that they do, and to advance their careers. Jenn has a background in healthcare (working and teaching at the college level), a Master's Degree in Public and Pastoral Leadership, is a certified conflict coach and Master NLP Practitioner, is an ordained clergy member in the United Church of Canada, and serves as the minister of a small yet vibrant congregation in a half-time capacity when not podcasting or helping people in career transition. When not working, Jenn and her husband (sometimes in the company of their 4 kids) love to cook and garden and enjoy a good glass of red wine!  In this episode, Jenn joins me to explore a significant career transition she made a number of years back when she left a toxic work environment to create something

Diane Summers, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD is a nationally registered and state certified dietitian with extensive experience treating eating disorders at all levels of care.  Diane has been involved in the awareness, prevention, and treatment of eating disorders since 2004, and has treated nearly 1,000 children, teens, and adults across the full spectrum of eating disorders and concerns. She is recognized as a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Supervisor (CEDRD-S) through the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (www.iaedp.com) for her expertise in treating eating disorders and training other professionals in the treatment of eating disorders. She is also a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor (www.intuitiveeating.org).  Diane has a passion for educating the lay population and professionals on the awareness, prevention, and treatment of eating disorders.

Paul Gebben spends his days helping people navigate change, learn new ways of doing things, recover from past hurts, and create new opportunities for life.  Paul has a masters degree in counseling psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and does work is as a licensed pyschotherapist in his own practice called Gebben Counseling.  But that wasn’t always the story.  Prior to his current work as a therapist, Paul served for almost a decade as the Chief Operations Officer for MarketLab, Inc. a company that sells medical and laboratory supplies.  In this episode, Paul joins me to explore the tumult of this mid-career transition and the incredible transformation he experienced as a result.

Bryan Falchuk is a best-selling author, speaker and life coach. He has faced major adversities and learned how to overcome and achieve. From obesity to running marathons, from career struggles to success as a C-level executive, from watching illness threaten his family to finding lasting health, he has been through many lessons he used to develop his unique approach to inspiring others to find lasting change. Bryan's work has been featured in several top publications like Inc. Magazine, The LA Times, Chicago Tribune and more. He has spoken at multiple TEDx events, and has been a featured guest on over 100 podcasts and radio shows.

Hillary Augustine is a financial alchemist and energetic force for transformation, especially for those navigating change and transition.  Hillary brings fresh air and life to all that she encounters. She has blended together a Masters in Accounting from the University of South Florida, a Masters in Counseling from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and a Mixology Certificate from ABC Bartending School.  She consults and teaches on a wide range of areas - including: money, values, organizational strategy, and expanded thought. Her brilliance infuses everything around her as she ignites and transmutes fresh understanding into everyday realities.

Nancy Jensen is CEO and co-founder of The Swing Shift, an organization that works to advance and enhance women’s roles in the modern workplace.  Nancy started her career at International Data Corporation, where she opened businesses on both coasts. At Microsoft, she helped launch products at Microsoft, including SharePoint. She worked as an instructor at UW's PCEO Software Product Management program. She serves as an account director with Sterling Communications, where she works on market introduction strategies for technology companies.  Several years ago, Nancy chose to “swing” out of her career for 5 years to care for her small children and aging parents. As a result of her transition and the lessons learned, she believing that women shouldn’t be penalized for taking care of their families and is now committed to getting the 43% of women who take career breaks back into the workforce on their own terms. The Swing Shift seeks to empower women with the essential skills, strategies and mindset for today’s wor

In this inaugural episode, Jon introduces you to the intent of this podcast, Life Through Transitions.  He discusses how major changes in life disrupt our stories by introducing difficult emotions, challenging questions and difficult choices to make.  He explores how the “tool” of transition helps people get through major life change. Transition is a discipline that can be learned to help us become more wholehearted people, no matter what circumstance we face.