Kelly Tisdel, CLC

Inspired Teacher, Mentor, Coach

I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. The waves were a refuge, the forests medicine, and the night skies beckoned my imagination. Time and again, nature has been my saving grace. Since I was young, I've been drawn to areas of need. Throughout my life, questions have guided me, "How can I serve? What is my truth? What is mine to do?" 

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These curiosities led me from Northland College in Wisconsin where I graduated with an Elementary Education degree and Environmental Education minor, to Ashland, Oregon where I helped start a school that was founded on the principles of freedom called The HeartLight School. And when the time came to change direction, I found myself sailing on a 39-foot boat from Fiji to New Zealand. My own personal right of passage designed by life itself.  

​​Traveling woke dormant places within me and ushered me into an era of deep listening. After a year away, I moved back to Ashland, Oregon and stepped into my role as a Waldorf Class teacher which was my profession for 16 years. Teachers stay with their class through multiple grades. In this way, a deep bond and connection with each student occurs.  I held my first class from 3rd– 8th grade, and then rotated through the middle school grades. Over the course of these years, I learned much about the adolescent and what they're craving in terms of being met in authentic relationship, how to see them, and how to bring out their gifts and unique genius. My work with parents of the youth I've served have come through these years of classroom experience and mentoring. 

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Within this journey, co-created a business, Inner Guide Expeditions. It began in 2012 and is still currently in operation. We focused on serving middle school and high school youth by providing transformational wilderness trips, international expeditions, mentoring, and circles. I was an active mentor and guide through our business for seven years taking youth on 15-21 day expeditions in locations such as The Northern Cascades in Washington, The Tour du Mont Blanc in Europe, and the southern stretches of Iceland. The trips lent themselves to self-awareness, emotional literacy, deep reflection, and connection. As we landed home, we continued the work and relationships by meeting in ongoing circles and one-on-one mentoring. I have continued serving youth through mentoring and in circles since that time. 

I am a life coach through Life Coaching Academy. The skills I've learned through this training have been invaluable, namely an inquiry-based model of helping clients. I get out of the way, move into the larger field, and allow the moment to guide into deeper exploration and curiosity. Questions become the gateway to more awareness. I use these skills to help teens access the truth of who they are and help parents find the deeper well of resource and intuition within them in order to parent the individuating teen person before them. ​

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My goal for each person I work with is to create a space where true healing and overall wellness can occur by being a safe place for them to open. I am convinced that by truly seeing someone, connecting with who they are in an authentic way, and giving time for their unfoldment without an inserted agenda creates the greatest potential for growth, awareness, and ease in oneself.

I am honored to serve each individual and family who finds their way to me. 

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