Introducing: Writing Coach Danette Relic

Since coaching is all about relationships, I’ve written these extended bios as letters to you. Enjoy!
~ Chris

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Hello you,

Sometimes Danette and I try to remember where our colleague-ship began but it all feels very mythical. I like to remember the time we were having a get-to-know-each-other brunch at a local pub when a barista from the coffee shop next door walked up to our table under the front window with a message for us. I can’t remember the message but I do remember being surprised that he knew we were there. I asked him, and he just shook his head—which made us laugh—and then he said, “Exactly”. He could hear our laughing from next door.

A week later, I looked up the pub to get their address and saw a fresh review on Yelp. “Everything was great except the laughing hyena girls at the front”. And so it began.

Since that afternoon, we’ve been co-facilitating and co-creating on a regular basis. Danette ran art workshops at my annual “Winterglow” retreat, we co-facilitated an evening on self-love at a spa (where we received facials and full body massages as compensation, no complaints there!), she was the artistic consultant on my “6 Reasons You’re Not Writing Right Now” e-class, and she has co-facilitated countless Firefly retreats and workshops. Meanwhile, we have spent four years meeting bi-weekly at Art Picnic, a small group of women business owners who get together to make art and talk through the ups and downs of heart-based entrepreneurship.

When it came time to think about Firefly coaches, Danette was right there. She’s my most consistent collaborator and creative ally. She has an other-worldly capacity at creating comfort among groups and forming deep personal connections. And of course, she’s understood Firefly from the very start, before it was even really flying, just fire.

In other parts of her life, Danette is a CTI-trained life coach and visual artist with a fine art degree from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She makes stunning, colourful art and writes heart-rending blog posts on her website about breakups and birthdays and creating creative sanctuaries everywhere you go. She has studied expressive arts therapy and regularly assists in weekend tantra workshops about reconnecting to pleasure and sensuality. She’s currently working on writing a book about marrying yourself.

As a coach, Danette is a deep diver and a bright light. She’s not afraid of feelings and she embraces them as the pathway to clarity and productivity. Danette helps clients explore what scares them and helps them celebrate what’s on the other side of those fears. She is a master of metaphors and can reflect feelings and stories with incredible nuance and poetry.

I’m elated to have Danette on board as a Firefly coach, leading her clients into all the hidden corners they secretly want to go.

Still curious?

You can read lots more about Danette on her own website, Radical Creative Sanctuary

What clients are saying about Danette:

Danette has a talent for really tuning in and listening in order to get to the heart of the matter. Prior to working with Danette, I struggled with my memoir project for months (despite attending a lengthy and expensive memoir course offered by a separate company). After just 1 hour with Danette I felt inspired and prepared to take bold new steps in my writing. Through Danette's care and expertise I now feel clear and confident about where I am in my writing process. She helped me determine what was previously keeping me stuck and gave me some excellent strategies that have re-ignited my desire to write my memoir. Thanks to Danette my story will now get the space and tenderness it deserves. ~ Valerie Tih Teacher, mother, writer and founder of Step Up Sri Lanka

I believe every writer needs a champion for their work, someone who can hold a space for for the words that are calling to be written. Danette is both champion and guide. She knows how to ask the questions a writer needs to hear to get very clear on the next step. Danette helped me see that I needed to let go of some limiting beliefs to make room for the vision that wanted to emerge. I left with a more spacious container in which to honor my writing and share my journey in a narrative that continues to unfold. ~ Sue Ann Gleason Nourishment Coach, Chocolate Aficionado & Marketing Strategist