A Process, Not a Program
Spring Tide Coaching is a structured, one-on-one engagement built around four stages and approximately seven sessions. Each stage builds on the one before it. The work happens both in sessions and between them.
THE FOUR STAGES
STAGE 1: Know Your Foundation Sessions 1–3
Before designing what's next, you need to understand who you are now — not the role you've held for 30 years, but the person
underneath it.
In the first three sessions, we use structured tools to build that picture:
A well-validated personality assessment (the Big Five/OCEAN model) to understand how you naturally think, relate to others, and respond to change
A values clarification exercise that surfaces what matters most to you now, which may be different from what mattered at 35
Life mapping exercises that trace where you've been, what you've built, and what patterns emerge when you look at your life as a whole
The work in this stage is honest and sometimes surprising. Most people come in with a working theory about themselves — and leave with something more precise.
Between sessions, you'll complete structured reflection exercises that prepare the ground for each conversation. Clients who engage fully with these exercises get substantially more from the program.
STAGE 2: Design Your Retirement Life Sessions 4–5
With a clear foundation, we move into the central design question: What do you actually want the next chapter to look like?
This is structured ideation — not a brainstorming session, but a disciplined process of exploring possibilities, aligning them with your values, and stress- testing them against your actual life.
A significant part of this stage involves examining what we call "gravity problems" — the constraints in your life that are real and largely unchangeable. Many people spend considerable energy trying to solve gravity problems. Part of the work here is learning to distinguish a genuine constraint from a perceived one, and to design a life that works within the real ones rather than being stopped by the imagined ones.
By the end of Stage 2, you'll have a set of viable paths forward — not one predetermined answer, but a set of well-considered options that you've built yourself.
STAGE 3: Build and Chart Your Path Session 6
Good ideas need to be tested before you commit to them. In Stage 3, we develop prototype plans for your top two options — not detailed life plans, but concrete enough to be evaluated. What would this actually require? What would need to be true for it to work? What can you test before you decide?
This stage borrows from design thinking methodology: building your way forward rather than planning your way forward. Small experiments reveal things that reflection alone cannot.
STAGE 4: Launch Session 7
The final session is about consolidation and commitment. You leave with a clear path, adjusted based on what you've learned, and a concrete set of first steps. This is not a graduation — it is a departure point.
WHAT TO EXPECT
What This Asks of You
This program is not a passive experience. Between each session, you'll complete structured exercises — reflection work, assessments, and planning activities — that form the substance of each conversation. Sessions without preparation are less productive. The clients who get the most out of this program are the ones who treat the between-session work as seriously as the sessions themselves.
The total time commitment, including sessions, is typically 12–16 hours spread over the course of the engagement. What you build in that time is yours to keep.
Is This the Right Fit?
Tide Coaching works best for women who are within two to three years of retirement, or who have recently retired and are ready to approach the next chapter with intention. If you're uncertain whether the program is right for where you are, the first step is a conversation.
