Susan Bernstein, MBA PhD
Life & Career Coach

Founder of Work from Within, LLC
 

For my personal transformation story, click here

For my professional background, click here

If you seek greater meaning, fulfillment, and prosperity and want a partner to support you on your journey -- a person who cares deeply helping you find your own way "from the inside out" -- I would be honored to assist you.

If you are considering a life or career transformation, large or small, you may want to know that the person you engage to assist you has had first-hand experience in navigating life and career transitions.  

 

Below, you'll find both my personal transformation story and professional background and credentials.

My Personal Transformation Story
I faced a major transition in a five-week period in early 2001. My marriage crumbled, my job evaporated, my health deteriorated, and my close-knit family experienced a major crisis. As a former strategy consultant to major corporations, I was so accustomed to making detailed plans for the future. But in the face of so much change, I could barely forecast what each new day would bring. Somehow, I kept moving — figuratively and literally — through the chaos.

I discovered that I could find my direction in a new and satisfying way. Rather than following a linear, prescribed path, I began to listen to my inner wisdom by paying attention to my body as well as my mind.  By listening to my body — from the inside out — I learned what I needed to be comfortable and flexible in the world. By focusing on my breathing, I began to sense when I felt anxious about the future and could take a deeper breath and re-center myself in the present moment. By taking the time to notice how my arms or my head or any body part felt, I could listen to my body’s messages about what I needed at any given moment. By moving and adjusting my body in simple ways that felt right, I felt more energized and grounded.  All of these inner awareness practices helped to organize and complement the ideas that were floating around my rational mind.

In late 2001, I felt a strong desire to dedicate my efforts to helping people to navigate career and life transitions. I wanted to create a self-expressed career where I could care for and inspire people in a highly personal way. I began PhD studies in somatic psychology at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Unlike the MBA I earned a decade earlier at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, this education allowed me to integrate my intellect with my body wisdom. Drawing from research in psychoneurobiology, physics, and the creative arts, the field of somatic psychology acknowledges the impact of experiences on our bodies. Breath flow, movement habits, muscle tone, cognitive patterns, affective expression, and relational habits are shaped by past and present experiences.

I discovered that when we attune to the messages of our bodies, we can open up to tremendous learning and change. To assist you in a life, career, or any other transition, I am happy to teach you many tools and frameworks.  I can also introduce you to mind and body awareness processes that can help you enhance your self-knowledge, bring you greater joy and ease, and help you make decisions based on your own inner needs.

In 2006, I wanted to grow my business to the next level.  I took a money coaching workshop with Deborah Price, author of Money Magic, thinking that I'd get some financial assistance.  I got much more than that!  Deborah helped me understand deeply-held but flawed beliefs about money.  Since money is currency of exchange, I realized that I had previously unconscious patterns that were holding me back from experiencing true prosperity.  The money coaching workshop was one of the most powerful trainings I have ever experienced.  It answered my desire for connecting my need for self-expression in my work with the prosperity I wanted.  Talking about abundance, earning money,  and feeling upbeat and positive about my life and my livelihood has become so much easier. 

Since the Money Magic principles and Deborah's workshop was so transformative for me, I decided to become certified as a Money Coach!  This means I have the tools and training to assist clients with creating a new, healthy relationship with money and prosperity. 

I love share with my clients a blend of the pragmatic sensibilities and planning abilities I honed through 15 years in marketing and management consulting.  Clients also get the benefit of my creative energy and deep caring heart. I have lived and worked in Phoenix, Washington DC, Seattle, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Indonesia, and have made my home in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area, where I enjoy hiking, dancing, writing, and cooking fragrant Asian specialties.

My Professional Background
Prior to founding Work from Within, I spent fifteen years in marketing, management consulting, and executive development roles. At Accenture, I crafted strategies for Fortune 500 retail and healthcare clients. I also developed the Advanced Management Program, a mini-MBA to help fast-track new managers with core business analytics. For Intel, I created innovative tools to increase salesforce productivity. For a company acquired by Franklin-Covey, I developed and marketed new time management training products to leading corporations. I also launched a company to help children exponentially increase their learning capacity.

I earned an MBA at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in Somatic Psychology from the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.  My doctoral research investigates the ways in which body awareness becomes a form of wisdom in the career transition process.  It weaves together theories regarding learning, motivation, self-efficacy, transformational processes, body-based learning, and integrates the disciplines of philosophy, biology, and psychology. 

I am a certified Money Coach through the Money Coaching Institute.