KAREN V. BADING, MA, CPPM Ontological and Leadership Coach, Facilitator, Speaker, Certified NLP Trainer Karen V. Bading, MA, CPPM brings to Seek Solutions a lifelong passion for stories. In coaching individuals or organizations, she listens for the story that wants to happen--the living story of leadership and greatness. Fast paced and funny one moment, heart centered and quiet the next, and always informed by a quick intelligence, Karen delights in moving individuals and groups past their perceived limits. She leads telecourses on "language as action" including: "5 Declarations: Simple Words that Change Lives," "Requests and Agreements: Conversations that Work," and "Complaints for Action: Moving from Whining to Win/Win"; Other learning programs include "The Leadership Story" based in part on Joseph Campbell's archetypal work on the Hero's Journey.

Karen strives to be one who, in the words of Peter Senge, the author of The Fifth Discipline, "thinks with the heart and feels with the mind." She works primarily with managers and teams in technical environments; and also coaches artists. For Karen, the breakthrough results of her clients reveal the artistry of engineering and management, and the rigor of the arts. Clients include Agilent, EDS, MCI, Hewlett-Packard, Rockwell-Collins, Oracle, PG&E, City of Pasadena, CIGNA, and Los Angeles Educational Partnership.

She holds a Bachelor's Degree in English from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (stories), a Master's Degree in Counseling from Rhode Island College (more stories), and is a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Trainer and Syntax Consultant (changing the stories). She is also certified by Newfield Network in Coaching for Personal and Professional Mastery (CPPM) (changing the storyteller and the story) and is currently studying Appreciative Inquiry (creating new community stories). Her work integrates three decades of experience as an educator, psychotherapist, corporate trainer, organizational development consultant, speaker, business owner and coach.

Play includes travel, food, books, learning, community projects and conversation. At home, she weaves a shared story with Jim, her husband of twenty-one years, Annie, her daughter of eighteen years and Lee and Misty, two gracefully aging cats.