Erica Eyer is the Little Larks Well Being Coach. She was a participant in the second cohort of Lark’s Song’s certified coach training program. When she signed up for the program, she “literally had no idea” what she was going to do with the certification, but felt like it was on the path God had planned for her to take. Erica explains, “my coaching certification has taken me down a path that has allowed me to serve others in a greater capacity than my nursing degree or ministry position would ever have allowed me to, which is something I would never have expected or imagined.”
When Erica was going through her LSCC training in 2015, she began co-leading coaching retreats for teenage girls to uncover their true selves and step into their best.
The LSCC certification has enabled Erica to do things she never thought were possible. She was a part of the team that developed the Little Larks well-being curriculum and helped start a Ceelelo School in Zambia. The curriculum has reached over 100 students in Grant and Wabash Counties through Superhero Camp, is being used as trauma intervention for children in Mexico, and continues to be used in schools and orphanages in central Zambia. She has done premarital coaching, coaching for students, and is beginning to work with foster families, as well. She has also been able to use coaching as she teaches Yoga at Sender Wellness in Marion.
“What I experienced in coaching with Erica was like taking off blinders. I work in social services and in the mental health field. Not much surprises me at this point in life. The difference I felt after my first appointment was visceral as well as ethereal. Erica is compassionate, intuitive yet not so much that she won't call me on my crap.”
Erica leading students at Ivy Tech through a group coaching activity around seeing their character strengths and acknowledging them in each other.
When Lark’s Song started partnering with Ivy Tech to offer coaching services to their students last fall, Erica jumped right in. She co-coaches a group of first-generation college students and students who are a part the Associate Accelerated Program, which allows students to graduate with an associates degree in 11 months, and she co-leads a well-being training for students with Megan Gilmore and Emily Hathway for first-time students at the beginning of the semester. In addition to these group coaching opportunities, she also holds office hours at Ivy Tech for students to have additional individual coaching. Erica works with these students on overcoming obstacles, identifying their VIA Character Strengths, and using mindfulness training. Research has shown that these interventions both increase well-being and levels of happiness while decreasing depression and anxiety.
Emily Hathway, Erica Eyer, Megan Gilmore, Bria McCarty and Levi Huffman finishing up a day of training 28 educational coaches in the Chilanga district of Lusaka, Zambia.
Erica’s clients express her impact on their lives in their own words:
“Working with Erica has been life-changing. I had no idea I was being held back by so many limiting beliefs. She helped me uncover those and taught me about overcoming obstacles. I started working with Erica when I was 16 years old and now at 21 I don’t think I would be where I am without coaching.”
“Erica helped me see my worth and how valuable I am.”
“I value justice and fairness and doing things the right way no matter the cost and that is a really hard way to live, and in high school it doesn’t help you make friends either. Erica helped me see how to use those values to make the world a better place, and she also helped me see that sometimes those values were really just hurting me or others - that I wasn’t being just or fair. It changed the way I looked at the world and helps me realize that I might not always be right even though what I think is right.”
The most valuable insight from the Lark’s Song Certified Coach training program to Erica is the learning around living at choice. Erica explains, “It was as if I finally had the formula for solving all my complex thoughts.” This mindset changed the way Erica looks at life and problems and people’s capability.
Erica leading the Green Team at Superhero Camp in Matter Park.
“I get to teach people how magical they are; I get to help them see the rare jewel that lies deep inside them and that they are a gift to the world. I know that all sounds so woo-woo and a little too self-help-ish, but I went into nursing because I wanted to see people healthy, I went into ministry because I wanted to see people restored to wholeness. Coaching has offered me a way to see people be both healthy and whole.”
To anyone considering entering the LSCC training program, Erica explains that the program will make participants into better people, which in turn will make their families and coworkers better. She says, “The program changes you, coaching requires you to let down your walls and wash off the BS and really see what is there. It makes you break down who you thought you were and see the raw material you have in you and to rebuild in a way that's true to you and not to others.”
For more information on the coach certification program and to register, visit larkssong.com/overview.
BY Jaylan Miller | Writing Intern