“Recognizing that you are not where you want to be is a starting point to begin changing your life.” - Deborah Day

Personal Coaching

Work With Alison

Let me help you realize your dreams.

1:1 Personal Coaching

Answers to Your Questions About Coaching

Limiting Beliefs

Should You Do Coaching or Therapy?

What Can Personal Coaching Help You With?

The Process

  • Work Through Difficult Emotions

    Get strategies to identify and handle tough emotions such as grief, embarrassment, anger, rage, disappointment, sadness, and anything that may be feeling overwhelming. These could be due to a recent loss, recent life change, work difficulties, relationship challenges or other life experiences.

  • Identify Mental Blocks

    Which limiting beliefs were created in your childhood that are holding you back from creating the life you really want? How can learning more about how the brain works help you overcome mental blocks?

  • Accomplish Bigger Goals

    We all need to feel alive. Setting bigger, more challenging goals that stretch our limits is one of the best ways to feel good. We need novelty and growth. Let's identify some places where you could aim higher and then get to work achieving your plans.

What I Help With

Physical Health & Weight Loss

Build sustainable habits for a healthier body and mind without burnout or guilt.

Sanity

Find balance, reduce overwhelm, and create a life that actually feels good to live.

Relationships & Dating

Build deeper, more fulfilling connections by developing emotional awareness and healthy boundaries.

Career Advancement

Break through self-doubt, gain clarity, and confidently step into the next phase of your career.

Emotional Resilience

Learn how to process emotions, regulate stress, and navigate life’s challenges with confidence.

Trauma Healing & Nervous System Regulation

Learn how to calm your nervous system, break free from old survival patterns, and create a sense of inner safety.

Grief & Loss

Navigate loss with resilience, processing emotions in a way that honors both your pain and your healing.

Self-Worth & Confidence

Overcome limiting beliefs and step into a life where you feel truly enough.

Purpose & Meaning

Get unstuck and discover what truly lights you up, so you can build a life that feels aligned and fulfilling.

Creation

Unlock your creative potential by moving past perfectionism, fear, and self-doubt.

Decision-Making & Life Transitions

Gain clarity and direction when making big decisions or navigating major life changes.

Habit & Behavior Change

Rewire the patterns that keep you stuck and develop lasting habits that support your goals and well-being.

The Cebulla Method

"Cebulla" is Polish for onion, and that’s exactly how I approach coaching—helping you peel back the layers of conditioning, fear, and self-doubt to uncover what’s underneath. Sometimes that means letting the tears flow, but beneath those layers lies clarity, resilience, and the truth of who you really are.

Each layer we peel represents something that’s shaped you: childhood wounds, societal and familial expectations, perceived limitations, and the unconscious patterns you’ve carried without realizing it. As we bring those hidden layers into awareness—gently, at your own pace—you begin to feel more whole, more aligned, and more fully present in your life.

This isn’t about fixing you—it’s about uncovering the you that’s already there, beneath all the noise. When the unconscious becomes conscious, healing begins, and you gain the clarity and emotional strength to live with purpose, connection, and truth.

  • Mindfulness

    The Cebulla Coaching Method integrates mindfulness as a foundation for transformation, helping clients cultivate deep self-awareness and presence. By learning to observe thoughts and emotions without judgment, clients develop the ability to respond to life’s challenges with clarity rather than reactivity.

  • Intention

    Too often, life passes us by while we wait for clarity or the “right time” to take action. The Cebulla Coaching Method helps clients break out of autopilot (or “Zombie Mode”), define what truly matters to them, and move forward with purpose—so they can create a life they’re fully present for, rather than one they drift through.

  • Emotional Fortitude

    Many people don’t realize they’re either shutting down or overreacting to emotions—both of which can be harmful in different ways. The Cebulla Coaching Method helps clients recognize these patterns, develop emotional regulation skills, and build the resilience needed to respond to life’s challenges with strength, clarity, and self-trust.

A Trauma-Informed Approach to Coaching

My coaching isn’t just about setting goals and taking action—it’s about creating a safe, supportive space where real transformation can happen. I take a trauma-informed approach, meaning I recognize how past experiences shape the way we think, feel, and navigate challenges. This isn’t about reliving the past, but about understanding how old patterns—whether from childhood, relationships, or life experiences—can impact our ability to move forward.

For the past six years, I’ve worked in trauma-informed care, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) science education, and population health, leading educational sessions featuring field experts such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Ed Tronick, and Elaine Miller-Karas. My deep knowledge in this field allows me to approach coaching with a nuanced understanding of the nervous system, emotional regulation, and how healing truly works.

With a trauma-informed lens, we work at a pace that feels safe and sustainable for you, honoring your nervous system and emotional capacity. You’ll gain tools for self-regulation, emotional resilience, and breaking cycles that no longer serve you—without pressure, judgment, or a “push through it” mentality.

This isn’t just coaching—it’s deep, intentional work that prioritizes your well-being and long-term growth.

I’m pictured here (top left) with SNL’s Darrell Hammond, film director Michelle Esrick, PACEs Connection founder Jane Stevens, and The Body Keeps the Score bestselling author and psychiatrist Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. I had the honor of producing a live Zoom talk series to promote the film Cracked Up when it launched on Netflix in 2020.

Working with me, you will:

  • Peel back the layers of fear, self-doubt, and conditioning to uncover your true self.

  • Develop emotional resilience and learn to process feelings without shutting down or overreacting.

  • Break free from autopilot and start living with clear intention and purpose.

  • Build the confidence to take action on the life you actually want.

  • Learn practical tools to regulate your nervous system and navigate challenges with clarity.

I will:

  • Create a safe space for you to explore your emotions and patterns without judgment.

  • Challenge limiting beliefs and guide you toward new perspectives.

  • Help you stay accountable to your growth and the commitments you make to yourself.

  • Teach you how to navigate life’s uncertainties with mindfulness and emotional strength.

  • Support you in making real, lasting change—not just surface-level improvements.

Personal coaching is for high achievers who:

  • Have checked all the “right” boxes—career, success, stability—but still feel like something is missing.

  • Want to level up, not just in work, but in relationships, emotional resilience, and overall fulfillment.

  • Are great at setting and achieving goals but struggle with overwhelm, burnout, or feeling disconnected from what they truly want.

  • Are driven, capable, and ambitious—but know they’re meant for more and want to align their success with real meaning.

  • Want to build deep confidence, clarity, and emotional strength to navigate life’s biggest challenges.

  • Are ready to step into their next evolution—with purpose, intention, and a mindset built for lasting success.

You’ve built a great life. Now let’s make it extraordinary. 🚀

Give it a try on your own

TRY A HABIT CHANGE PRACTICE

Notice Irritability

About Me

Alison Cebulla

Alison has been facilitating personal growth and support groups for over 14 years, including 4 cohorts of the popular Job Grief Support Group. She is a certified health coach and holds a Master’s in Public Health from Boston University and a BS from UC Berkeley.

She has taught workshops in cities around the world to help people feel more connected to others and to cultivate genuine and authentic kindness and gratitude (not the toxic spiritual bypassing kind). You can hear her on her podcast Latchkey Urchins & Friends, which heals trauma with humor.

In 2024, she founded Tend Collective.
In 2012, she founded Kind Warrior.

She has worked professionally with trauma experts such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Ed Tronick, and more as the producer of live events at PACEs Connection (2019-2022). A highlight of her career was explaining Adverse Childhood Experiences science to actor Jane Fonda!

Anonymous past client, USA:

Alison is acutely insightful when it comes to coaching. She provided a soft landing to listen and for both my partner and I to feel heard. My partner was worried about isolation and the pace based on therapy sessions we had together, but the meetings with Alison were a safe space. In addition, Alison opened up our perspective on options, strengths, and empathy towards one another to shift away from the narrowness we were stuck in; I recommend Alison as someone who can guide and provide a new perspective and teach about ways of viewing behaviors that may have served a purpose in the past but are no longer helpful.

Anonymous past client, New York, New York:

Before working with Alison, I was struggling in a tumultuous relationship. We worked on rooting out reasons why the relationship was adverse. I discovered that I my "story of love" and what I patterned and mimicked was flawed.  I was recreating an unhealthy familial example in my own relationship, and in turn, it was driving her away. I felt it was extremely hard to deal with these realizations and the changes I needed to make.  As a result, I sought out talk therapy as I continued to develop with Alison. I appreciated the combination because Alison was more direct in some issues and pointed out topics that I would further explore with my therapist. In the end, I discovered I slid into depression when dealing with these issues. Moving forward, I will now face emotional challenges by trying to always gain perspective and realize where my attitude stems from. Alison's coaching was what I needed because of her ability to be direct where appropriate yet consistently empathic. I valued her intuition, knowledge, and experience. I recommend her to anyone seeking to improve their relationships, romantic or otherwise.

Maria Kelly, San Luis Obispo, California:

In May 2017, right before I started working with Alison, my life had become a repeat of patterns in my work and personal relationships, and they all ended up with me feeling frustrated and inadequate and losing my joy for life on a daily basis. Realizing I needed a ‘hard stop’ on the repeats, I looked to coaching, as my therapy work was well rounded and not a resource I needed to go back to at that time. I needed integration so my ‘best self’ would be consistent and present in my relationships with others.

What really happened after Alison and I started to work together? I needed to get on a solid relationship footing with myself. We did this with weekly phone calls, realistic goal setting and identifying desired outcomes. The best part of it all? Alison guided me in a way that allowed what was going to work for me to truly flow from within me so that I could own every aspect of my desired outcomes of emotional, professional, and financial well-being. Helping set a life path versus a quick fix and this took me out of the repeat zone.

How did Alison do this? She listened and provided thoughtful feedback and a sense of curiosity that helped me be more curious about exploring what is my ‘best self’? Through comfortable check ins and an amazing reading list, I felt completely supported to feel safe and good about digging in and doing the work I needed to do to help me get my joy back.

A year later, it’s still 2 steps forward and 1 step back because that’s life! Being able to take these daily steps with clarity and love of who I am and what I bring to my professional and personal relationships has brought a sense of ease to my life that I never had before. The work is still unfolding as a lifetime of repeats takes diligence and thoughtfulness. The insight that I had that summarizes all of this:

Sometimes, the question I want to ask is not the one that needs to be answered. Once I did the work with myself, external relationships continued to fall into place.

BP, Berlin, Germany:

Alison helped me through a very tough time in my life—a testimony to the fact that nothing scares her. She has a way of making you feel safe and able to work through serious issues while always keeping a lightness and laughter that makes you look forward to sessions with her. Still today, I have her voice in my head coaching me through so many situations, reminding me, "if you don't like the result you're getting, try something different!”

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