Today, I am on my way to becoming a Co-Active Certified Life Coach, a space where every person is resourceful, creative & whole, where everything and everyone is accepted and where we dance and grow change.
Meet Dina, an Executive Function Coach on her way to become a Co-Active Certified Life Coach and a homeschooling mom to two neurodivergent wonders. She is Indonesian, based in Jakarta, but was born and raised in Singapore and Southern California. She helps parents, neurodivergents, and individuals rediscover their truth and find the power within to grow change in their lives.
We asked Dina a few questions to learn more about her approach to life & coaching.
Q: How did you decide that you wanted to become a coach?
A: Over a span of six months, my grandfather (who raised me) passed away, both of my children were diagnosed with Neurodiverse profiles, and I resigned from a job I held for 13 years. The grief was devastating; I lost my identity, all sense of control, and struggled to keep afloat. I was introduced to Life & Parent Coaching through Sanity School by Impact Parents, founded by Elaine Taylor-Klaus and Diane Dempster - fabulous coaches and amazing human beings! My coaching sessions, the training cohort, and Impact Parent’s coach approach to parenting changed my life, took me out of survival, and showed me a glimpse of what it meant to thrive. Fully knowing that I wasn’t alone on my journey of parenting neurodivergents created a desire to help other parents find support in their grief and isolation.
This led me on a quest to deepen my learning of Neurodiversity and Executive Functions (EF) and I became an EF coach working with parents, teenagers, and neurodivergents. While working on EF strategies with my clients, I often come to a point where I wonder, “What else is here? What else is missing? Is there something else behind these EF challenges?” And yes, there is; it’s called Life. Today, I am on my way to becoming a Co-Active Certified Life Coach, a space where every person is resourceful, creative & whole, where everything and everyone is accepted and where we dance and grow change.
Q: What do you know now that you wish you would have known when you were younger?
A: When my daughter asked me what type of teenager I was, I said the kind you do not want to be around. I wore black, was always angry or sad, slept a lot, and talked in mono-syllables. What I didn’t know back then was that I was depressed. Back then, if you grew up in a typical Asian household, you would know that emotions were squashed on first sight. You do not acknowledge fear or sadness; instead, you ignore and co-exist with anything other than “happy.” It never occurred to me to ask for help or even tell people what I was experiencing and feeling. There was no knowledge of trauma or depression, and going to a psychologist was considered taboo. Looking back on what I know now, I wish I had known it was depression, that all emotions are valid and that asking for help is allowed and celebrated.
Connect with Dina Djunaedi on LinkedIn.
