Online and Phone Coaching for Gay Men and LGBT Individuals, Couples, and Families
Certified Professional Coach Michael Schreiber, Ph.D.
Joining Hands Coaching Offers Lifestyle-Affirming, Results-Oriented Help With Gay Shame, Internalized Homophobia, Coming Out, Creating Healthy Relationships, and Succeeding at Work and School
You can achieve success without stress, self-doubt, anxiety, and fear — Let me show you how!
Hey there! If you’re here, that means you’re a gay man or other LGBTQ individual who is ready to break out of the ordinary, stressful life you’ve been tolerating and become free to be extraordinary.
You want to ditch the status quo, stop scrambling on the success treadmill, and commit to taking actions that will really and truly build a better life for you, but perhaps you’re having trouble getting started.
You probably already know what it is you need to do to grow your business, or to make your personal life more satisfying.
But what you may not know is why you aren’t doing those things consistently, or how to overcome what it is that is blocking you from success.
Where did things go wrong? Well, during childhood, many of us begin to feel that we are different from our peers. By the time we become aware of our non-heterosexuality, we already may have encountered homophobia, even from the people we depend on to love and protect us.
When this happens, it can instill a deep sense of shame and brokenness, which impacts our self-esteem and sense of who we are supposed to be. In some cases, we can even be left with a pervasive sense of impostor syndrome.
When deep down inside we feel like there is something that is broken, something that is wrong, something that we need to be ashamed of, it can cause us to acquire limiting beliefs that negatively impact our confidence, to the point that we feel we aren’t capable of achieving what we really want out of life.
Maybe you’ve convinced yourself that if you want to succeed at work, you need to sacrifice happiness at home and joyful connection in your personal relationships.
Does optimizing for success in one sphere really need to cost you so much?
You want to be the hero — but why does everything feel so HARD?
One of the many ways gay men and other LGBT folk tend to deal with their sense of shame and brokenness is to overcompensate, working so hard to be perfect that no one will ever notice how broken they really are.
Maybe you’ve been content with getting by through your heroic perfectionism, even if that means constant struggle, and coping with unhappiness, stress, alienation, loneliness, and a host of other issues that leave you feeling depleted, emotionally exhausted, and unable to pursue the things that really matter to you in your spare time.
Perhaps you’re not quite burning out, but you’ve known that you need to make some changes.
How long are you willing to tolerate struggling just to be content? Surely not forever…
Not taking action is comfortable, because it is so familiar, but the cost of complacency accumulates over time. Yet, where to start? What’s the first action you should take?
Hiring me as your coach. Here’s why.
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.”
— W. Edwards Demming
What’s your process for creating success, achievement, and connection in your life?
How well is it working for you?
What if I could get you better results — with less effort, and less stress — while creating win-wins that meet the needs of everyone and everything important to you in life?
What if spending time at work and at home felt positive and regenerative for you?
What if you felt confident you were doing exactly the right thing to maximize your success — all the time?
What if you felt totally comfortable being who you are, and living your life the way you choose?
How interested would you be in learning about that?
In my coaching practice, Joining Hands Coaching, I help gay men and other LGBTQ individuals achieve the things they dream about, but tell themselves are impossible — and I would love to help you achieve your dreams.
Many of my clients are already powerful, confident, and successful in certain areas, but despite a track record of success, something holds them back from achieving all that is truly possible for them. It might be shame, it might be self-doubt, it might be internalized homophobia — but it’s there.
Once you have acknowledged that your life is not as wonderful as it could be, you may be tempted to try to fix things on your own, or to rely on friends and family for advice. However, self-help books, motivational videos, and friendly advice can only get you so far.
Perhaps you’ve tried therapy or counseling in the past, but became frustrated by lack of progress, or the feeling that there’s no end in sight to needing the “help” you’re getting.
Coaching is different.
As a Certified Professional Coach, I am trained to provide you with a non-judgmental, lifestyle affirming space for you to uncover and fully explore your feelings, your ideas, and your goals, just as a therapist or counselor might — but coaching goes beyond mere understanding.
When you work with me as your coach, once we understand where you are now, we’ll become laser focused on co-creating repeatable actions, processes and habits that support you in making changes in your life that you decide are most important to you. You’ll become accountable for progress towards your goals, and you can count on me to push you to achieve to the limits of your capability.
If what you truly want is sustainable change, what you need is a professional who is results-oriented and trained to help you keep your promises to yourself — without inserting their own agenda.
My promise to you: I will never give you advice that is in anyone’s best interest other than your own. Instead of telling you what to do, as a friend or family member might, or listening passively, as a therapist or counselor would, I will work with you to generate pragmatic insights and solutions that serve your interests and respect who you really are.
Coaching gives my clients a secret weapon against everything holding them back — a competitive edge that their un-coached peers just don't have access to.
In working with me, you will learn to overcome shame and self-doubt, thereby enabling you to authentically express your chosen identity without fear and to do your best work.
After working with me, my clients finally get to enjoy feeling what a life filled with success, peace, ease, and accomplishment is like.
Does that sound like something that would interest you?
If so, I'd love to give you the opportunity to experience the kinds of transformational results my method of deep, powerful one-on-one coaching can achieve; just use the contact form at the bottom of this page to let me know when would be a good time to schedule a 15-minute strategy session, and I will be happy to demonstrate exactly the coaching process I will use to help you manifest your true self and win every success you deserve.
If a call is too much to ask without having experienced for yourself how powerful coaching with me can be — don't worry, I'm not offended — just kindly use the contact form below to send me your top priority, biggest challenge, or number-one goal, and perhaps why that's important to you.
In return, I'll send you five empowering questions that will help you gain clarity on how you can get from where you are to where you'd most like to be, and what the next steps for you should look like. You don't have to share the answers with me if you don't want to — but I'm always curious!
Either way, you’ll discover that my approach in coaching is to help my clients convert their dreams into simple step-by-step projects that my clients then find are really doable for them — with systems in place to ensure they can complete them successfully.
In working with me, you will stop wishing for things to be different, stop telling yourself what you cannot have, and instead engage with me in the process of co-creating your preferred reality.
Do you feel out of touch with your life's purpose, or even as though your life has no purpose at all?
Are you ashamed of who you are, or the way your life turned out?
Can you just not shake the feeling that you're "doing it wrong" in your career?
Is your business not as profitable or as satisfying as you’d really like it to be?
Is your life missing emotional intimacy that you crave?
Would you like to feel less guilty about living your lifestyle your way?
Do you want more meaningful, successful, and satisfying relationships — without all the drama?
Would you love to feel more powerful, accomplished, and confident at work?
I look forward to hearing about your goals and how I can make them achievable for you. It’s a fun and rewarding process, for both client and coach.
Remember, when you schedule your free strategy conversation with me, you have nothing to risk, and everything to gain.
Client Testimonials
“Before I worked with Michael, I was unsure of myself in social situations due to internal conflict, and I lacked confidence that I could make new friends in any reliable manner. I had my doubts whether success coaching could really help me given my long struggle and attempts to use more traditional help methods, but after working with Michael for only a few months, I’ve noticed some promising improvement in my self-confidence along side my ability to relate to others in a more genuine and productive social way. I’d easily recommend Michael’s coaching to anyone needing to improve their confidence or social abilities.”
I offer my services on a sliding fee scale, so no one is turned away based on financial need, and I am happy to do so, because I am passionate about increasing LGBT representation at the highest levels of performance in all areas of life.
Appointments are typically conducted virtually, as either audio or video calls, using Zoom.us free teleconferencing software, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, phone calls, or whatever means of real-time communication is most convenient for you!
“I have had ongoing weekly telephone sessions with Michael for several months on the topic of growing, marketing, and managing, my business and brainstorming strategies to resolve client problems. While most of my clients (and me!) are straight arrow, Michael always provides a fresh perspective and amazing insight to any problem. He’s like my gay best friend who listens to the problems and helps me figure out how to solve them! Michael brings an exceptionally rare combination of scientific training, Coach Training, and natural Empathy that seamlessly fuses his PhD with the ability to understand and appreciate your feelings. Recommend 100%.”
In-person appointments are available for clients located in the Metropolitan Detroit area (office space in Southfield Town Center).
Email and text support is included between sessions, and I love connecting my clients with additional resources to help them succeed.
During our first coaching session, we will create understanding of what it is that you want to achieve, based on the values and beliefs that drive your core aspirations, as well as your previous life experiences. We will use tools to help you clarify your values and goals, as well as to envision what your life will look like when our time working together is complete.
During each subsequent session, we will identify a goal related to your aspirations, and by working on that sub-goal, we’ll be moving you a step closer to achieving your overall mission. At the beginning of each session, we will also review your progress from the previous session and work together in creating accountability for any promises to yourself made in the previous session. This process enables you to work on one thing at a time — with minimal stress and maximum support — and creates a system that supports you in building sustainable change.
If you’d prefer to learn more about me and my background before taking the next step, a full description of my background and all the services I offer is available at my web site, www.joininghands.coach. You can listen to an interview I gave describing my coaching approach here.
I enjoy designing custom coaching solutions for my clients, so don’t hesitate to ask!
Regards,
Michael Schreiber, Ph.D., CPC, ELI-MP
Principal, Joining Hands Coaching
http://www.joininghands.coach
michael@joininghands.coach
Phone/MMS: +1 (646) 450-1386
https://linkedin.com/in/michaelthomasschreiber/