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Margo Davis-Hollander, Ontological Life Coach
Margo Davis-Hollander’s ontological life coaching services include professional and personal development for individuals, group facilitation and organizational change. She also offers life enhancing workshops and seminars on challenging issues ranging from effective communication in the workplace, chronic illness and communication for couples, to major life transitions and other compelling topics. Viewing herself as an agent for change, Margo works with clients to open doors to life’s richness, depth and sense of greater purpose.
Ontology is the science of being, and ontological life coaching helps clients create exciting new ways of being in the world. Through an effective combination of conversation, exploration, movement, insight and goal setting, clients learn to rethink patterns, define and work toward aspirations, and approach life with renewed purpose, vigor and joy. Areas of focus may include life management through vision, professional development and career change, wellness, fitness, and confidence building, to name a few. Margo has a special interest in empowering women and couples in opening to new possibilities throughout the life cycle. She also has long been committed to sustainable living and development, and has an interest in participating in a wider dialogue about societal and global transformation.
An educator, counselor, facilitator and artist for more than 20 years, Margo holds a BA in counseling and art from Burlington College, VT, and has completed post-graduate work through the Ontological Life Coaching Program at the Newfield Network, CO, and the Psychotherapy Training Program at Carriage House Associates, VT. She has engaged in theological studies at the Emerson Institute, and the Unity School, and in personal development trainings at the Insight Meditation Society, Enlighten Next, and the Vipassina Center. Margo also studied at the University of Vermont, Burlington, apprenticed as an artist in Paris, and studied graphic design at the Pratt Institute, NY. She has received acclaim for her intricate botanical prints distributed through Pier I Imports, Wild Apple Graphics and Frontier Cooperative Herbs.
Margo brings a wealth of skills, knowledge, sensitivity and energy to individuals, groups and organizations seeking positive change. With Lawrence Davis-Hollander, her professional and life partner—and fellow ontological life coach—Margo has formed a practice called Dynamic Change. Individually and together, Margo and Lawrence are bringing a bold new form of coaching to the Berkshires and beyond.
Lawrence Davis-Hollander, Coach and Educator
Lawrence Davis-Hollander is an ontological coach dedicated to helping people profoundly shift their ways of experiencing themselves and the world. Ontology is the science of being, and Lawrence’s work focuses on the art and science of being and becoming, helping people reach meaningful new heights and depths in their lives with remarkable results. He describes his craft as “ helping clients become more authentic and seamless so they fully realize their abilities and are a stronger force for good in the world.” Lawrence recognizes a greater emerging intelligence that wants to find expression in all of us in a time where a lack of meaning and an increase in speed have left society adrift.
As a trained mediator, facilitator and ontological coach, he works with individuals and groups in many domains including personal and professional development, leadership, business, self care, creating and maintaining partner relationships, family vision, and life transitions. An important aspect of his work is helping businesses transform traditional conversations and cultures to new ways of being and performing. He provides empowering executive and leadership coaching, conducts learning trainings on a variety of topics including communication, integrity and trust building, building emotional capacity, and emotional intelligence. He is currently writing a book about lifestyle creation to support a manageable and sane life
Davis-Hollander is former director and founder of the Eastern Native Seed Conservancy, a non-profit organization based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, devoted to the preservation and promotion of heritage food plants. He was trained as a botanist and ecologist at Connecticut College and has conducted vegetation inventories for the Nature Conservancy. His graduate work was in ethnobotany at Harvard University with Richard Evans Schultes, one of the world’s foremost ethnobotanists, concentrating on the significance of Native American medicinal plants in the Northeast.
He worked in the field with Native Americans throughout the Northeast, is a former research associate at the Institute for American Indian Studies in Connecticut, and lecturer on traditional agriculture. His background includes extensive work with plants and seeds, organic farming and gardening. He is author of The Tomato Festival Cookbook (2004)—based on his frequent consumption and use of heirloom tomatoes—published by Storey Press. He is a long time board member of the Berkshire Cooperative, and a member of the Bartholomew’s Cobble committee, a preserve owned by the Trustees of Reservations.
Together with his life partner and fellow ontological life coach, Margo Davis-Hollander, Lawrence is helping individuals and organizations find compelling, meaningful and practical new ways of being, relating and finding purpose in the world.