Hey Coach!
Dr. Paula Raines focuses on potential to help people achieve their dreams

Ask anyone who knows Dr. Paula Raines and the term "human dynamo" is likely to come up. In a stately old house on West Second Street, her office reflects a warmth and vitality with bright colors, plants and toys providing inspiration for her clients.

A former lawyer and mediator, Raines is now president and owner of Psychology, Inc. P.S.C. and the Enneagram Training Center, offering psychotherapy, consulting, and educational and coaching services to individuals and businesses. She runs a variety of personal growth workshops, and is officially an adjunct faculty member at the University of Kentucky Medical School's Department of Psychiatry.

Immediately upon finishing law school at the University of Kentucky, Raines went on to earn a psych degree (M.S. plus additional Rank I certification in Counseling Psychology at U.K., and a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology from the Union Institute for Advanced Studies). For a number of years, she combined careers as a lawyer, mediator and psychologist. Cofounder of Mediation Associates, L.L.C. and a volunteer at the Mediation Center of Kentucky, both in Lexington, she has legal experience in private and corporate practice and has educated lawyers in the interface between law and psychology.

Though legal training taught her to use a "more rational, balanced part" of herself, Raines says psychology has always felt more right to her than law. Citing Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell as influences, she's a proponent of transpersonal psychology, and believes in focusing on the potential and possibilities for the mind, body, spirit and emotion. It's on these Jungian concepts that Raines bases her personal and professional coaching, which she calls "a way of moving a business forward dramatically." And coaching is fast becoming the heart of her busy career.

Having completed training at Professional Coaches Institute in San Rafael, California, the Iowa native helps both individuals and corporate employees identify and remove blocks to achieving their goals. Essentially, a coach creates an alliance that allows a client to live his dreams instead of just surviving on a day-to-day basis, just as a sports coach helps an athlete achieve his potential.

"In coaching we joke about having these wonderful goals and wonderful ideas," she says, "and then life happens..." That's when a coach steps in, not as a critic, but as an ally to help with goal setting, willpower and "way power" (or strategies for goal-reaching).

Her growing list of corporate clients include Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the Kentucky Cabinet for Human Resources, the Toyota-sponsored Kentucky Women's Forum, Space Center Storage, Inc., Providence Montessori School, Regional Adult Basic Education Teachers, and numerous business, mental health, legal and educational professionals.

Interspersed throughout her constantly expanding workshop repertoire are several regular offerings. An Enneagram teacher for 11 years, Raines conducts "The Enneagram of Character Development or Personality," a system of identifying nine different character structures to better understand the need for diverse points of view. In association with Action for Results, a Boston consulting and training firm, Raines has created a three-day intensive program using the Enneagram to help corporations move from hierarchical structures to a team approach.

Leaming to use intuition to make quick yet solid decisions in today's hi-tech business world is the focus of "Uses and Development of Intuition," while "Personal and Professional Integrity" explores forming and using a personal values system to develop discernment in business and personal living.

The majority of corporate CEOs and managers are in "Mid-life Transition," and Raines' aptly-named workshop helps corporations make their workplace a much easier environment during this performance-affecting time by providing understanding and support. "The Psychology of Hope" teaches people how to incorporate more hope into their lives by stressing the setting and keeping of goals.

"Almost all of what I do is about awakening people to the depth of who they are and the possibilities that they have ... bringing hope into their lives. So often people feel like they're trapped or stuck or lost in the world and hopefully what I can bring them is the significance of hope. I think they have it but it gets overrun by the craziness in the modem world.

"All my life, I've followed my dream," she continues, "and my dreams have guided me through my life to what I'm going to do next."

Stay tuned, folks. It's guaranteed to be interesting.

Kathy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.

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