Bret T Alderman

First, a few bona fides: Not only have I completed an ICF-certified coaching program, I possess a PhD in Psychology and have published in the field.

​As a life coach trained in psychology, I draw from a formidable array of insights and techniques from both disciplines. My hybrid approach helps me help others lead more empowered, extraordinary, and purposeful lives.

  I received my PhD in Depth Psychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2013. My first book was published by Routledge in their Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies series in 2016. I have taught courses on the roots of human behavior, neuroscience, and biopsychology at UC Berkeley through the Summer Institute for the Gifted and presently I teach Intercultural Communication through Alliant University.

  Those are some of my credentials and accomplishments, but they can only tell you so much about me. As strange as it may sound, it is probably more important to my work as a coach the fact that in my twenties and thirties I worked long, grueling hours on fishing boats in the bone-chilling cold of the Bering Sea. I know what frozen sleet in high winds feels like as it cuts into your hands and face. I also know that working a 40-hour shift in sub-freezing temperature can teach you a few things about life, limits, and adversity:

​  The most difficult of life circumstances contain transformative potential, if we are willing to embrace the difficulty. What makes life’s difficulties transformative is the attitude we take towards them, and I'm not talking here about some cliché conception of positive thinking. No.  What I mean is this: It is a game-changer when we fully understand that there is long-term growth hidden within short-term discomfort, even if the discomfort involves real suffering.  

  Our own personal limits—whether physical, psychological, intellectual or otherwise—are never quite what we imagine. They are real, but illusory: We are almost always capable of much more than we believe. Endurance athletes know this well. The so-called "wall" that marathoners run up against is not made of concrete. It is not  made up of depleted muscle glycogen, limits in lung capacity, or the number of callouses on a person's feet.  First and foremost, the wall is made of limiting beliefs . . . and those beliefs can be taken down, brick by metaphorical brick.  I've seen it happen, and I've felt the exhilaration that accompanies the collapse of such self-imposed limitations.  

  Everyone has the ability to turn adversity into advantage. Often times adversity provides the energy and impetus needed to help us take our first steps towards a new life. Adversity often announces growth to come. Disaster, or what appears like disaster on first glance, is at times the best thing that could ever happen to us. It is just hard to see it that way when you're in the thick of it. Divorce is a perfect example, a gut-wrenchingly-painful one that I know well. All of life's setbacks have the potential to increase our resilience, creativity, and character.