Know yourself.
Understanding what matters to you makes it easier to recognize what you need and make decisions you trust.
About Sharleen Young
I believe people can hear what they need when they have space to be honest.
I’m Sharleen Young, a professionally trained life coach, former business owner and longtime family mental-health advocate.
Sharleen Young · Life coach & host of Your Life Story Podcast
I lost my father when I was twelve and grew up alongside serious mental-health challenges in my family. Later, nearly three decades in business taught me how personal a practical decision can become when livelihoods, relationships and identity are involved.
These experiences taught me that love and exhaustion, strength and uncertainty, gratitude and grief can exist at the same time. They also taught me that understanding another person’s situation does not mean knowing what is right for them.
I can stay with complexity without rushing you toward an answer. I will bring empathy and honesty; the decision remains yours.
Nearly 30 years in business
Running a business taught me that work is rarely just about work.
Decisions about growth, money, employees, partnerships and change can become deeply personal. A business can be tied to your identity, your relationships, your sense of responsibility and the life you have built around it.
For nearly three decades, I experienced those realities firsthand as a business owner. That experience now informs my work with small business owners who need space to think clearly about both what their business needs and what they need.
You don’t need someone to tell you what your answer should be. Sometimes you need the space to hear your own.
How my background informs my coaching
Experience, training and respect for scope.
I am a professionally trained life coach with a BA in Psychology. My background also includes nearly three decades of business leadership and many years supporting and advocating for families affected by mental illness, including facilitating support groups and serving on the board of AMI-Québec.
Experience matters. So does knowing its limits. I work within the scope of coaching and will tell you directly if another kind of professional support would better meet your needs.
Read the coaching scope
Things I believe are important
Care for yourself as someone who matters.
The way you care for yourself affects what you are able to bring to your relationships, responsibilities and the people who depend on you.
Pay attention to what is yours.
You cannot control every person or circumstance around you. You can explore your own choices, boundaries and actions.
Take action that belongs to you.
Insight matters, but coaching doesn’t end there. We turn what you discover into decisions and actions you can follow through on.
What working with me feels like
Safe, exploratory and free from judgment.
We work in partnership to understand what is happening, name the change you want to make and take action you can follow through on.
Written by Sharleen
Hear my voice before we meet.
When Two Opposing Feelings Are Both True
Sometimes clarity does not come from choosing which feeling is right. It comes from allowing both to be true.
Read the perspective
Changing the Story I Told Myself About My Body
A personal reflection on pain, movement, fear and the future that opened when an old story began to change.
Read the perspective