I’m Allison Staiger, and I’m a care-based business & Leadership coach.
I work with people offering care-based services (therapists, coaches, educators, helpers and healers) to help build disruptive small businesses and substantiate their care leadership practices.
I assume that most folks I work with hold personal, as well as professional care identities and responsibilities.
And I believe that your purpose, your value, and your care, extends beyond making other people’s lives easier, while yours stays hard.
For over ten years, I have worked supporting caregivers as a psychotherapist in private practice. I am one of the rare birds who enjoyed the business-building side of my private practice as much as I enjoy the clinical side. In the last six years, I have built my private practice, Highwire Therapy (and then rebuilt, when I moved states), as well as Allison Staiger Coaching & Consulting (formerly known as The Matriarchy). Both started as dreams, grew to side projects, and are now my beautiful, flourishing business babies.
In my work as a therapist supporting caregivers, and as a caregiver myself, I can recite the scripts by heart: “you didn’t get into this field to make money,” “you exist to help other people be great,” “if you cared enough, you could hack it.” Further, as a woman and mother, I have lived experience with how our identities, along with our commitments to care as a value, get weaponized against us and are used to keep up quiet, under-resourced, and compliant.
It is my goal as a coach to help rebellious, justice-oriented, and fiery care-based service providers nurture their own vision into existence, to create small businesses that reflect equity-centered values, and legitimize care as a leadership practice.
Who DO I THINK I AM?
First, I am a lifelong learner, dot-connector, skeptical optimist, and resource-gatherer.
I have a masters in social work, have been a licensed clinical social worker since 2014, and been certified in perinatal mental health through postpartum support international since 2020.
I am in the process of being dual certified in Coaching and Leadership by the Institute for Equity-Centered Coaching.
I have started (and then moved and re-started) two care-based businesses, so I know the pleasure and the pain that comes with being an entrepreneur.
As a therapist, I have spent the duration of my career learning to treat trauma and have created my own model for trauma-informed care, so when I say I’m trauma-informed, I’m not just using a buzzword.
I have worked in community social service agencies and mental health clinics, as a teacher, in research and academic social work, in a group practice, and in private practice as a licensed clinical social worker, specializing in supporting caregivers. I am well-versed in the plight of the self-sacrificing care professional.
I am certified in Copywriting for Culture Makers and Social Media for Culture Makers, by Kelly Diels.
I am certified in Financial Social Work, so I can speak to the money, honey.
I am a mother, and that is a valuable part of my resume.
Aries Sun, Virgo Rising, Gemini Moon, for those who know.
You can learn more about my values here.
So why work with me?
ELEVATE CARE AS A VALUABLE LEADERSHIP PRACTICE (VERSUS A PRACTICE THAT EXISTS TO MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR TRADITIONAL LEADERS)
NAME THAT CARE-BASED PROFESSIONS ARE INHERENTLY RADICAL AND POLITICAL (VERSUS “BEING NEUTRAL”)
WORK TO DE-GENDER CARE (VERSUS SEEING IT AS A FEMININE DUTY)
GET REAL ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE ROOTS OF OUR PROFESSIONS, AS WE KNOW THEM TODAY, ARE LIKELY COLONIAL, RACIST, AND PATRIARCHAL (VERSUS STAYING QUIET)
BUILD CARE-BASED BUSINESSES THAT THRIVE OFF OF ABUNDANCE, SOVEREIGNTY, AND GENERATIVITY (VERSUS EXTRACTION, MARTYRDOM, AND EXPLOITATION)
CULTIVATE COMMUNITY, COLLABORATION, AND RECIPROCITY (EVEN IF YOU ARE A SOLO PROVIDER)
USE A MODEL OF TRAUMA-INFORMED LEADERSHIP DEVELOPED FROM YEARS OF PRACTICE AS A TRAUMA THERAPIST (VERSUS AGITATING AND GASLIGHTING IN THE NAME OF SALES)
OFFER HIGH-TOUCH 1:1 AND GROUP SERVICES TO CREATE A COMMUNITY (VERSUS CREATING A CROWD)
START FROM A STRENGTHS-BASED PERSPECTIVE THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE MOST OF WHAT YOU NEED TO THRIVE (VERSUS STARTING WITH “DEFICITS”)
NORMALIZE ANGER AND RAGE AS NECESSARY FUEL FOR CULTURE-CHANGING (VERSUS DEMONIZING OR WEAPONIZING IT)
NURTURE ATTUNEMENT AND SECURE ATTACHMENT WITH YOUR BUSINESS (VERSUS BEING STUCK IN DYSREGULATION AND ONE-SIZE-FITS ALL BLUEPRINTS THAT…DON’T FIT)
There are a lot of coaches out there.
Here’s what I do differently:
BELIEVE THAT YOUR COMPLEX AND NUANCED STORY IS THE CENTER LINE TO YOUR VALUES AND VISION, AND SHOULD BE WOVEN THROUGHOUT YOUR BUSINESS IN AN AUTHENTIC WAY (VERSUS PERFORMING A ROLE OR USING AN OVERLY SIMPLISTIC “SUCCESS NARRATIVE”
UPHOLD PARENTING AS EXPERTISE AND LINEAGE (VERSUS OTHERING AND OVERLOOKING THEM AS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS)
HAVE AN EVOLVING AND CRITICAL SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS TO EXAMINE HOW SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION IMPACT OUR LIVES AND BUSINESSES (VERSUS BYPASSING OR CALLING RACISM A “MINDSET ISSUE”)
APPLAUD HAVING GENERATIONS OF ITERATIONS IN YOUR BUSINESS (VERSUS PERPETUATING THE MYTH OF THE LINEAR PATH AND FINITE END POINT AS SUCCESS)
ASSUME YOU HAVE CAREGIVING RESPONSIBILITIES IN YOUR DAILY LIFE, WHICH FACTOR INTO HOW YOU ENGAGE WITH YOUR BUSINESS (VERSUS ASSUME THAT THERE IS SOMEONE ELSE HANDLING THAT FOR YOU)
HELP CREATE YOUR BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM (VERSUS ASSEMBLY LINE)
SUBSTANTIATE CARE-BASED BUSINESSES AND CAREGIVERS AS VALUED AND VALUABLE LEADERS OF OUR NEW WORLD (VERSUS PAYING LIP SERVICE AND STRIPPING AWAY RESOURCES).
