Do you feel unfulfilled about work, and want to do work that matters?

This call is for people who are in an unsatisfying work situation. For instance, maybe you can relate to any of these situations:

Ugh.

You get up from your chair, feeling shell-shocked after the “conversation” you just had with your boss (does being demeaned and belittled count as a conversation?!?). It seems your friends were right: you really are in an abusive relationship—with your work. And the idea of leaving that relationship scares the crap out of you.

You’re really competent and everyone knows it!

Which should be a good thing… except Sally just roped you into giving her presentation tomorrow and Ted treats you like his personal research assistant. How on earth are you supposed to take care of yourself—let alone (finally!) write your book—when everyone wants your help all the damn time?

Yawn...

You’re finishing your morning smoothie while pondering how to spend the rest of the day. Maybe another Yoga class? Anything but spending another day having inane conversations with your retired friends at the pool. You're grateful for your good financial situation, but whatever happened to your drive and sense of purpose? There must be more to life than this!

Woohoo, you’ve made it!

You’re looking at your calendar and your stomach sinks. You finally have more clients than you can handle. Which is great… once you figure out how to have a full client load and something resembling a life. You are so overwhelmed that you hardly remember why you started doing this work—that used to be so dear to your heart—in the first place.

Sigh.

It is midnight. You’re still at work. Again. Your neck is hurting from sitting at your desk all day. Again. If you are honest with yourself, you’ve had doubts about becoming a lawyer all along. But you have no idea how to walk away from this job and its golden handcuffs … before it destroys your health and relationship.

If any of these work situations resonates with you—or if you have your own unsatisfying work situation to add to that collection—I might be able to help you.

This call is for people who want to move from a work situation that—kinda, sorta, or totally—sucks to a work life that feels aligned, meaningful, and sustainable.

It’s a chance to take a step back and look at your situation with someone who:

• isn’t your friend or family member (so you’ll get a more objective perspective),
• specializes in work-related transitions and stuckness, and
• who is committed to helping you make any transitions as safely as possible.

Essentially, I help people figure out what kind of work actually fits them, and then create a safe, realistic path to get there.

What you’ll leave the call with

By the end of our conversation, you’ll have:

1. Clarity on what’s actually wrong in your current work situation (and what isn't),
2. Clarity about what an aligned work situation would look like for you, and
3. New insights about how to safely create a more aligned, meaningful, and sustainable work situation over the course of the next year—including what to do first.

This call works best if you are:  

• Already aware that internal “stuff” can make it harder to act on what you want to do—and be willing to work through that stuff with help.
• Willing to deal with the uncomfortable feelings that often come up when things change for the better.
• Open to things like meditation or energy work. (No previous experience is required.)

You also need to understand that this assessment call is not mental health advice. Please contact a mental health professional if you are experiencing mental health issues.

I get along particularly well with people who can relate to these situations:

• You are at a social gathering where people talk about their drive for prestige or money and barely manage to suppress a yawn—seriously, don’t these people have anything better to do with their time?
• You want to order something online and your heart lights up when you realize you can order it from a B-Corp or another small, ethical business—instead of from Amazon.
• You watch a movie and can’t help but root for the underdog.

Hi, if we haven't met before, I'm Dr. Louise Schriewer. I used to be a high-paid lawyer in Germany when I had a sobering insight: While sitting in a dentist chair and getting a root canal, I realized I preferred this experience to being in the office. Oof. 

It took me a while to muster up the courage to leave my legal career, but I eventually moved to the US to be with the love of my life, and start my own business.

Since then, I have helped people from six continents and many different cultures. 

I have supported people from various professional backgrounds, including: academics, accountants, actors, attorneys, business owners, CEOs of small companies, medical doctors, police officers, pilots, personal assistants, secretaries, school teachers, scientists, tech professionals, therapists, and writers.

I have also worked with people who are on parental leave, retired or semi-retired, or going through a career transition.

My work with clients is informed by a decade of overall coaching experience, a certification in habit coaching, extensive experience in productivity coaching, and different certifications and trainings in energy work.

While my approach can work across cultures and industries and for people in quite different situations, it isn’t a fit for everyone.

Most importantly, it’s not a fit for people whose main life goal is to gain power, follow tradition, or make the most amount of money possible.

I help people who want to do work that matters to them, and that’s a fundamentally different motivation and approach to life. If that's what drives you, we might get along great!

When it comes to work, our culture generally encourages people to fit into an existing mold. But imagine if someone just handed you a random pair of shoes and demanded that you start wearing it... without any regard for the actual size and shape of your feet. Would it be any surprise if you ended up with sore feet and blisters?

Now imagine you had never worn well-fitting shoes in your life—because you live in a culture where shoes get distributed based on the random system I just described.

That's essentially what's going on with work. Throughout most of human history, random external factors usually decided what work you would end up doing. If you were the firstborn son of a king, you were expected to become a king yourself (even if, in your heart of hearts, you'd rather be a monk). If you were born as the daughter of a seamstress, chances are you'd become a seamstress (even if your inherent leadership skills rivalled Cleopatra's).

Today, there's thankfully a lot more choice and social mobility in the workplace. Today, culture tell you that you can be anything you want to be... as long as you want to become a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. While I'm exaggerating, the underlying cultural assumption—that people should fit into a pre-existing work-mold, rather than that work should fit people—hasn't changed completely.

These days, you're still expected to fit into a mold, you just get a bit more say about what that mold is for you.

People who are unhappy with their work situation are the ones who notice that misalignment: their "mass-produced shoes" just doesn't fit their feet.

Which brings up the question on what to do about that.

A lot of career change advice doesn't address the underlying root of the issue (finding the right fit for the "feet" you already have, rather than trying to fit them into an existing mold). These cookie-cutter processes often present you with a few, slightly more carefully chosen "shoes" (work scenarios) to pick from. While this can help people find work that's a somewhat less terrible fit for them, it doesn't solve the underlying issue of mis-alignment.

When I work with someone, I tailor my approach 100% to the person in order to help them gain clarity about their ideal work situation. This often includes exploring fit across different dimensions of your being. After all, if you care about meaning and purpose, it's not enough that your work pays the bills.

This individual, customized attention takes more time and energy than cookie-cutter processes you can find in books. However, it results in the work equivalent of a tailor-made shoe... one that's a great fit for you.

Because my approach is so customized, I can't tell you ahead of time what your "tailor-made shoe" will look like.

Sometimes, the path forward includes crafting a "new shoe" from scratch. For instance, I have helped clients who wanted to start a business, or wanted to transition from a business to a job.

More often, your existing work situation can be adjusted so that it's a much better fit for you. This can mean finding a way to decrease overwhelm or setting more boundaries in your current work situation. Sometimes, it's about making a calculated transition to a similar job with better conditions. It can also mean working more with your ideal clients, customers, or colleagues.

Whatever path can take you to your comfortable, tailor-made shoe... I'm committed to helping you make it as gentle and safe as possible.

Some coaches advocate for a “burning the boats/ships" mentality where you remove any option of going back to a previous situation.

I don't.

Precisely because I took a huge leap of faith in my work life, I know about the downsides of "burning the boats". Yes, it got me where I wanted to go but it was extremely hard on my nervous system to change my career, my work identity, the continent I was living on, and my relationship status all at the same time.

What people don’t tell you about making a massive change very quickly is that you don’t adjust to a change immediately. You can fast-pace change but you cannot fast-pace integration.

For instance, people can become a parent in a second (when their newborn enters the world). However, adjusting to being a new parent is a long process that can take years. The same is true for drastic career changes—your nervous system needs a lot of time to integrate them.

That’s why I’m committed to helping you do this differently: in a way that is as gentle and safe as possible. Often this means making small, immediate adjustments to your current work situation so that things get better right away.

I won't help you burn your boat. I'll help you use your existing boat to get to where you want to go.

If what I’ve written so far resonates with you, I'd love to connect and help you explore what's possible for you!

Please follow these 3 simple steps: 

Step 1: Please fill out the form below. This helps me understand you a bit better before we meet.

Step 2: Click the “Request your free session” button. Please make sure your form went through. You will see the message: "Thank you, your form has been successfully submitted."

Step 3: I'll respond to you within two business days with the link for scheduling your session. Please check your junk and promotions folder if you don't receive a response. Sometimes, my email might land there.

That's all! Thank you, and I look forward to our time together.