Hello!
I'm Chyonne Kreltszheim, and I'm the founder of Being: the Change.
Let's get the formalities out of the way, shall we?
FORMAL QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor of Laws (Honours), Monash University (1999)
Bachelor of Science, Monash University (1999)
Certificate IV in Coaching (2010)
Graduate Diploma in Ontological Coaching (2017)
I have also studied Negotiation and Advanced Negotiation (Difficult Conversations) at Harvard Negotiation Institute (part of Harvard Law School), as well as numerous other professional development courses that are outlined in my LinkedIn profile.
BUT Who am I REALLY?
I've always been obsessed with learning. My first career aspiration was to be a librarian, just so that I could be around books all day and accumulate knowledge and stories to my heart's content. My interests have varied over the years, but the one thing I've been insatiably curious about is human behaviour. I have a deep-seated need to understand why we do what we do - and why we don't do what perhaps we should do - and how to change all of that.
But a different journey unfolded. After high school, I decided to pursue Psychology (not surprisingly, given my interest in human behaviour) - and hedged my bets by combining it with studies in Law. When Psychology turned out to be about "rats and stats" (not people, as I'd expected), I followed the herd into a legal career that lasted for the better part of 12 years.
Now, while I was busy climbing the corporate ladder as a lawyer, a new industry had sprung up around the very thing that I was passionate about: coaching. In 2010, I had what's often referred to as a "crisis of meaning", which seems to be a rite of passage for most people in their 30s. Instead of complaining about it, I decided to take a leap of faith into a new career in the coaching industry. Coaching led me to facilitation, and the rest is history as they say... I'd finally found my dream career!
The story doesn't end there of course, and much of what I learned over the following five or so years has been the inspiration for Being: the Change (see below). But I consider myself extremely fortunate to do work that I love - so much so that it doesn't feel like work. It just feels like the thing that I was born to do! And I am incredibly grateful that the thing I was born to do also creates value for others. I am truly blessed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Now, here are a sample of the questions I am asked, uh, frequently:
Q: Why did you change careers?
A: I had reached a stage in my legal career where further growth in a particular direction wasn't appealing to me. It didn't satisfy my needs in terms of curiosity and self-expression and so on. My last significant role as a lawyer involved working on bigger, sexier projects, which meant taking a more peripheral role as part of a large team. I longed to work in a more personal environment where I could see what I was contributing.
Q: Do you enjoy being a facilitator?
A: I LOVE IT. When I decided to change careers, I asked myself: "What am I passionate about - that I would do for the love of it, even if I wasn't being paid?" I only needed to glance around my home to see that I was surrounded by books on psychology, business, communication, and personal growth. And I love helping people. I always felt incredibly energised after giving one of my friends or colleagues a pep talk on their latest drama. I considered returning to university to study psychology, but a mentor suggested that I try coaching first - on the basis that it was a bit more hands-on. (I actually studied a semester of psychology as an undergrad and struggled with the "rats and stats" approach.) My coaching studies led me to discover facilitation - and here I am! I honestly can't think of anything I'd rather do more.
Q: What about coaching?
A: You know, for a long time, I thought I preferred running workshops to coaching. The extraverted part of me (I can be introverted as well) enjoys working with large groups of people and appreciates the diversity that comes from the different perspectives in the room. That said, my training is first and foremost as a coach, and I have learned to value the quiet yet profound shifts that occur in the coaching context.
Workshops are fantastic for introducing new ideas and developing skills in an interactive environment. But coaching is where things really start to gain traction as we explore deeper and more specifically into a client’s “way of being”. It’s extremely rewarding work!
Q: Do you miss being a lawyer?
A: I can't say that I miss it, but I do like exercising my "legal brain" (it's still there, somewhere!) from time to time. When it switches on, it feels like I'm powering up a highly specialised computer to solve a very specific problem. My attention to detail increases dramatically and I become extremely systematic in my thinking. It's just a different way of thinking - useful in some situations and not so much in others. I tend to be more effective as a facilitator when I allow myself (and therefore my clients) to be comfortable in uncertainty - and my legal brain doesn't readily allow for that.
Q: Is your hair naturally curly?
A: Yes, even though my mother cut the crusts off my sandwiches when I was a kid. Go figure.