Activism doesn’t always look like rallies, petitions, or protests. It can also be personal, quiet, and deeply transformative. Your coaching practice can be a powerful container for activism—a space where justice, equity, and empowerment take root.

Coaching isn’t just about helping people meet goals. It’s about creating spaces where clients can unlearn systems of oppression, reconnect with their values, and imagine lives that challenge the status quo. This is where activism starts: with empowered individuals creating a ripple effect of change.

Why This Matters to Me

Activism has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I’ve spent decades in the trenches, working on issues like homeless advocacy, police reform, and running more campaigns than I can count. Now, I’m deeply engaged as the communications volunteer for my local fire department, helping them raise funds and tell their story.

I’ve done this work while raising children and growing my coaching business, often juggling all three at once. If I had to choose between my activism and my work as a coach, I don’t know what I’d do—because to me, they are inextricably linked. Coaching is its own form of activism. It’s where I see transformation happen, not just in individuals, but in the systems and relationships they touch.

5 Ways Coaching Can Be Activism

Here are five ways your coaching practice can become a container for activism:

Create a Safe Space for Radical Self-Discovery

In a world that constantly tells people who they should be, your coaching space can be where they rediscover who they truly are. A safe, non-judgmental environment allows clients to challenge societal norms, unpack internalized beliefs, and reclaim their authentic selves. This process isn’t just healing—it’s revolutionary.

Center Justice and Equity in Your Practice

Coaching isn’t neutral. The systems your clients navigate—workplaces, relationships, even their own inner dialogue—are often shaped by inequity. Acknowledging this in your work isn’t just awareness; it’s activism. Ask: How does privilege show up in your practice? How do your methods challenge or perpetuate systems of oppression? Activism in coaching starts with a commitment to equity.

Empower Clients to Make Values-Aligned Choices

So much of traditional goal-setting is rooted in hustle culture, productivity, and external validation. Activist coaching flips this script. It’s about helping clients align their lives with their core values, even when those choices disrupt societal expectations. Empowerment through alignment isn’t just personal growth—it’s systemic defiance.

Use Your Platform to Amplify Change

As a coach, your practice gives you a platform—one you can use to amplify voices, movements, and ideas that align with your values. Whether it’s integrating social justice themes into your content, collaborating with organizations, or simply sharing resources, your platform is a tool for activism.

Commit to Your Own Inner Work

You can’t coach what you haven’t explored within yourself. Activist coaching starts with your own self-reflection. Where have you internalized oppressive systems? How can you decolonize your coaching methods? Doing the inner work ensures you’re not just holding space for transformation—you’re embodying it.

Coaching as Activism: The Ripple Effect

When you use your coaching practice as a container for activism, you create more than personal transformation—you create ripples of change. Every client who learns to challenge the status quo, stand in their truth, and make values-aligned choices carries that energy into the world.

This week on the podcast, I’ll explore how coaching can be an intentional act of activism. Because when you coach with purpose, you’re not just changing lives—you’re changing the world.

The Coaching Guild is a coach training program specifically designed to nurture dreamers, artists, creatives, outsiders, rebels, and good troublemakers. It is a multi-instructor, multi-disciplinary approach to training that prioritizes learning innovative foundational coaching skills and marketing training. If you are interested in coach training done very differently, hit me up for a no-pressure, no BS, no trip, and fall into a sales funnel conversation. Let’s talk about what’s possible for you as a coach.