(917) 714-4794 | mccm04156@gmail.com
(917) 714-4794 | mm649@nyu.edu
Encouragement Ink, LLC.
✦ Professional Coaching
✦ Social-Emotional Coaching Books for Kids & Parents
✦ Professional Customized Book Clubs
Integrated One-on-One Coaching for Creatives, Lawyers, Career Changers, and Parents
Redefine Your Own Fit
In personal and work settings, unspoken and spoken rules, as well as personal and professional expectations, can influence our decision-making and beliefs about ourselves and our abilities.
But what does that really mean?
In trying to answer this question, we may try to accommodate these conditions to find personal and professional alignment, show a genuine desire to get along, and, quite simply, because we are told they are necessary. This can generally make a great deal of sense and help us find a place where our personal expectations, interests, and professional paths flow together.
Yet, at other times, we may find ourselves discouraged, question our choices, and wonder if we are engaged with our full selves.
We may ask: Is this really a good fit?
The psychologist Alfred Adler noted that our strengths exist within us, even as we feel we struggle to fit into our current circumstances. At Encouragement Ink, we believe that this is actually good news. We believe that, in coaching, your idea of what fits, along with encouragement, is exactly what you need to nourish your goals.
So, what does coaching look like?
We believe that coaching is a place where your current story and your purpose take lead. Here, you will be encouraged to express your interests at all levels and identify pathways toward the actualization of your goals, even if you are seeking to fortify the course you are already on. In taking this coaching journey, we will explore your personal and professional drive. We will not saddle you with a list of rules to follow, but we will encourage you to find meaning in the moment, identify and operationalize your inner strengths, and thrive.
We are coaches from shared and distinct backgrounds. We have experienced career changes and redefinition. We will walk alongside you within the creative, legal, career-changing, and parenting realms as you approach and redefine your own fit.
Meet our Coaches
Melissa Martin, Esq., MA
Professional Experience
I earned my Master of Arts in Psychology from Pepperdine University. I am currently a PhD candidate in psychological counseling at Regent University, with a concentration in life coaching. I am also a psychoanalytic candidate at a psychoanalytic institute in New York City and have worked as a therapist at an affiliated mental health clinic since 2017. However, my background is in law, and I have been an attorney admitted to practice in the State of New York since 2003.
My Style
My coaching style is integrative and draws from my background as an attorney and training in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy. During my Master’s program, I became interested in an integrative approach to mental health and wellness, including coaching. I bring my personal knowledge of working as an attorney, training in psychology, and experience of career change to the coaching field. I offer a place for you to not only identify your interests and strengths but to experience the encouragement to redefine and actualize your personal and professional goals, whether you want to move forward in or add to your present space, or create an entirely new one.
Dr. Mary C. McCluskey, LCSW
Professional Experience
I received my doctorate in clinical social work from the University of Pennsylvania, my master’s in social work from Columbia University, and have taught social work at New York University since 2015. I am the founder of The Empowerment Opportunity, LCSW, PLLC, a therapy group practice in NYC. I am the author of multiple peer-reviewed articles published in the Clinical Social Work Journal and am the author and illustrator of two Mom’s Choice Gold award winning socioemotional children’s books. Before becoming a therapist, author, and coach, I headed up the law firm management division at Fulcrum Information Services, a conference company. Working closely with partners in law firms to create conference content, I gained deep insight into the many struggles lawyers face. I have also worked in employee assistance programs, helping professionals achieve a greater work-life balance.
My Style
My style is open and collaborative. My background in business, psychotherapy, and art informs my approach, which is always tailored to meet your goals and needs. My goal is always to help you succeed on whatever path you choose. I believe in a whole-brain approach, which means I encourage you to use activities that engage both sides of your brain. This is important for helping clear any blocks you might have in moving toward your goals. (For more information, contact me about my upcoming book club, Whole Brain Living).
Current Coaching Groups
The Artist's Way Virtual Coaching Group
As creatives, it can be easy to lose our hopes and dreams to our own doubts and the pressures around us. Pursuing your creative dreams can be disheartening and isolating. Rekindle and ignite your inner creative flame and keep it lit through this 12-week group amongst fellow artists - poets, writers, dancers, musicians, photographers, painters, actors, and other creatives.
The Artist’s Way for Transitioning Lawyers
Transitioning from the law is a significant life change and, for most, will entail a sense of loss. Like any loss, grieving is an essential part of the process. Scientific research has shown that healing predominantly happens in the brain’s right hemisphere. This 12-week online course, called The Artist’s Way for Transitioning Lawyers, is tailored for those leaving behind their hard-earned career in law. Throughout the 12 weeks, you will learn how to recover a meaningful sense of identity and possibility by tapping into your creativity and utilizing the right side of the brain. This course uses the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron as well as the Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal. In addition to the daily exercises in the book, the facilitators will teach you new ways of accepting and embracing this significant life change.
Social-Emotional Coaching Books for Kids and Families
A Mom’s Choice Gold Award Winning historical fiction book series by Dr. Mary C. McCluskey teaches both parents, caregivers and children how to develop leadership skills, cope with adversity, and build resilience. These interactive books address how to identify and express feelings including jealousy, fear, shame, anger and grief.
Book Links
Online Book Clubs
If you are a reader of self-help books and would like a professional coach to help you better understand the concepts and develop a plan on how to incorporate them into your day to day, we can help keep you accountable. Look out for our upcoming book clubs or contact us to do a private book club.
