About
Hello, my name is Sarah Kowalski, J.D. and I am the owner and founder of Alaya Consulting. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Santa Clara University School of Law and passed the California bar in 1998. Before becoming a certified Integral Coach through New Ventures West, I was a litigator at Cooley Godward LLP and Farella, Braun + Martel LLP.
Since leaving corporate litigation, I have been dedicated to helping individuals and groups effectively attain leadership skills, business goals, career satisfaction and personal fulfillment. As a former litigator, I uses my experience and understanding of the legal profession and business world, to help individuals skillfully navigate the corporate world and identify blind spots that are preventing total success. I am well-versed in recognizing and addressing communication styles that impede productivity and morale, the struggles of maintaining work/life balance, and the pressures of becoming a more senior attorney or manager faced with new responsibilities and expectations with little or no training.
Because of my own unique journey, I have been focused on the crucial role the body plays in achieving performance, satisfaction and health. Through this pursuit I have become a certified a Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, licensed to teach Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration lessons. After 6 years of intensive study, I have also been given permission to teach Qigong by my master.
In order to make a cognitive shift, the learning must be embodied as a felt sense. Therefore, I utilize my somatic training to help you ‘rewire’ your body and your mind in order to make sustainable changes. Our bodies have infinite wisdom, but we have become increasingly disconnected from this wisdom and the physiological reality of our emotions. Instead, our bodies have become the mechanism to haul our brains from meeting to meeting. We’re not good at making decisions because we are lost in an endless list of pros and cons with no felt sense of the right course of action. Eventually, because our bodies are left behind, we end up out of alignment with ourselves.
This disconnection from our bodies shows up in many ways. Maybe you’re faced with myriad decisions, but you can’t make up your mind. Maybe you are ready to leave the corporate grind, strike out on your own and combine your unique set of skills and interests into something you love–but you just can’t take the plunge. Or, you are nervous when you give presentations. You struggle as a manager to communicate clearly and give grounded feedback. You’re stressed and exhausted–unable to maintain balance in your life. Your actions are out of alignment with your values. Regardless of your situation, I can help you not only intellectually grasp what it means to be excellent in your chosen endeavor, but help you come to feel excellent as you develop the physical attributes, body language, posture and behavior of confidence, balance, presence, strength and stability.
By reconnecting to the body, you can:
* Become grounded in what matters to you most
* Take actions from deep within that are aligned with your beliefs and goals
* Increase your decision-making skills and intuition
* Reconnect to your ability to naturally “resource” yourself to reduce stress
* Improve your presentation, management and speaking skills
* Enhance your natural leadership abilities
I have also completed a course in Business Mediation Skills Training and is a graduate of the Hoffman Process. I am a member of the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association, SF Coaches, the Feldenkrais Guild of North America, and an inactive member of the State Bar of California.
Please visit my website: www.alayaconsulting.com for more information about me and my services.