Jenilee Rachel Coaching

10/07/2026

You were never meant to carry your story alone. That ends here.

For the woman quietly holding it all together while falling apart inside...
This isn’t about fixing everything.
It is about finding your footing again.
Reconnecting with who you are.
And reclaiming your voice.
You don’t have to have all the answers to take the next step.

Life coaching with Jenilee Rachel Coaching at Encompass Health 45.

10/07/2026

NEW post - travel coaching and global work

"Don't Lose the Lessons: Processing Travel Moments Overseas" by Jenilee Goodwin

A year ago I shared a story with you about my experience in Vietnam and the beautiful moment I had with Jesus during a drive along the South China Sea. It was a way of processing and debriefing through writing. In fact, putting that moment into words helped me uncover the way my travels through Vietnam had impacted my heart.

I’ve been life coaching for three years now—representing hundreds of hours of sitting with clients. In sessions I often hear about a trip or vacation or place or moment, whether from years ago or a more recent time, that was integral in someone’s healing or recovery. I hear stories of faraway places, unknown destinations, and hidden secrets in countries around the world. I even hear sweet, healing moments from sitting on a park bench or visiting a coffee shop or finding a cute bookstore in the town where you live.

As a coach, I’ve been able to speak at conferences and hear face-to-face about how impactful it was to learn something through people, cultures, and the history of a certain place. I’ve participated in online webinars, courses, and retreats, knowing that everyone who attends is pulling out unique insights, highlighting growth points, or even forging hopes for the future.

But what happens when the trip ends or a term closes or a conference is over? What does everyone do to let it sink in or make a difference?

I’ve always thought there might be a gap between the work we do, the things we participate in, the places we live, and the very real, very important lessons we are learning along the way. Many of us have:

Piles of forgotten conference notes
Book never read
Workshops never applied
Journaled prayers with hopes and dreams undefined
Moments with Jesus that lose momentum in the pace of a busy life
Stories that don’t make the newsletter
Personal growth that lags or fades without marking the experience in some way
Places traveled that we can’t always share about
I’m learning that having a process for verbalizing or remembering or intentionally going back through the travels, places, and moments is extremely needed and helpful for personal growth, healing, recovery, self-awareness, and spiritual health.

This is even more needed in global work. We get to see amazing things, visit incredible sights, and drive unbelievable roads with the most beautiful views. We also see the hardest, poorest, unsafe, and truly difficult places. As workers, we have opportunities to meet, have tea, and talk with precious, unique people.

We need to remember, to be challenged in our professional and spiritual and personal growth. We need accountability to be purposeful and intentional with the things we see and the lessons we learn so we don’t forget the impact of it all.

God speaks to us through these experiences. He’s using this global life to work in our hearts, show us more of who He is, and become real to us in powerful ways.

Are you paying attention? Are you allowing it to grow and change you? Have you forgotten the wonder of this global life? Has it all become so normal that you’re missing what He’s showing you?

Personal growth can happen in the moment but more often, it’s after, sometimes long after the trip or the journey that we experience something that our mind, body, or nervous system remembers.

I can think of a specific moment in Honduras a couple years ago. I was talking with someone and turned to look at a garden at the same time my nose smelled the flowers. My eyes welled up with tears, and I immediately felt the impact of missing a home I’ll probably never see again. I’d moved quickly and my time in that home ended without a healthy goodbye. This moment in Honduras was grief, nostalgia, hope, and longing to explore and process. The tears were saying something important that I needed to journal and pray about.

There was another moment in Texas, seeing a store that I recognized from South Africa. I felt memories and feelings in that store that I didn’t know I still felt. I needed to mark that moment somehow and give myself permission to feel it. I stepped into the store and felt transported back to another mall in another place across the world. I could see a pencil bag that I’d had overseas. I could read phrases that meant funny things in British or South African English. My heart remembered so many things in that small store.

I’m guessing that you’re feeling some of this as you’re reading this post. There might be a trip you remember, a place that still hurts to think about, a smell that instantly reminds you of a specific moment in time.

Purposeful coaching, centered around these things, can be a healthy part of processing. From being new to the field to re-entry back into your passport country, reviewing your travels can reveal such valuable information and personal growth points.

All of this is why I love the idea and practice of a life coaching session or season of sessions to intentionally break down the travels, go over the notes, look for the lessons, and plan for purposeful future trips. Travel coaching can be specific to things you’d like to process or trips you’d like to debrief.

Having a coaching session scheduled can help give you space to process, debrief, and give opportunity for God to meet you in this global life. There are multiple ways that this can help solidify the daily lessons of living abroad. It can be helpful for men, women, and even couples together.

Travel coaching is for those needing:

Recovery and Rest
Healing and Renewal
Personal Growth
Spiritual Growth
To Mark a Life Milestone
Sabbath Practice
Debrief of Travels or Journeys
Discernment

Now that your mind is thinking back through flights, long bus rides, broken down carts, bumpy taxi rides, and questionable hotel or hostel stays, let’s do a little practice of processing what you’re remembering.

A Few Questions for Reflection or Journaling:
Before you move on to the next trip, team meeting, language lesson, ministry responsibility, or travel plan, take a few moments to consider:

-What place or experience comes to mind immediately as you read this?
-What emotions surface when you think about it?
-What did God show you there that you haven’t wanted to forget?
-What lesson did you learn that deserves more attention, thought, or prayer?
-Is there a conversation, prayer, grief, joy, or celebration that still feels unfinished?
-What part of your global life are you taking for granted because it has become normal?
-What memory keeps returning to you, and what might it be asking you to pay attention to?
-If you were to journal about that experience today, what would you write?
-If you could share the memories, lessons, experiences, and trials with someone, how would it feel to say it out loud?

You might even set aside fifteen minutes this week to revisit an old journal entry, scroll through photos from a trip, reread your newsletters, or simply sit quietly with the Lord and ask, “What was happening in me during that season?”

The places we’ve lived, the people we’ve loved, the roads we’ve traveled, and the experiences we’ve had are not insignificant. They are part of the story God is writing in us.

Don’t rush past them.

Pause. Remember. Reflect.

And pay attention to what He might still be saying.

Honestly, it’s one of the biggest gifts of this global life. So take the opportunity to dive deeper into what you’re learning, where you’re growing, and what feels like it might be missing.

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Jenilee Goodwin is a certified professional life coach, a certified autism coach, and an ordained minister with over 20 years in career ministry.

10/03/2026

Sharing from Beverly Hallberg. These are her words but I know they will resonate with many of you. Sadly, her words could be my words, her thoughts so similar to my own.

I'm putting the link to the full article on her Substack in the comments so you can read the rest of her story.

October is month. Read and share.

From her article:

"For those who haven’t experienced abuse, it can be hard to understand why someone stays, but abuse is confusing because it is cyclical—the lows are punctuated by highs, and in between, there were moments when the man I thought I had married seemed to return, complete with apologies for what he had done. In one handwritten letter, he wrote, “I have projected fears and undue criticism upon you. The things which I have done were wrong and inexcusable.” Repeatedly, I heard “I’m sorry,” pledges of changing, and plans to fix our problems, typically with lots of spiritual language. I wanted to believe him—I needed to believe him—because I didn’t believe in divorce.
..Yet through it all, I clung to the hope that if he truly wanted to change, as he claimed, I would walk that path with him. I had already mourned the man I thought he was and worked to find joy in life despite my home circumstances, and I loved him—and valued our marriage—enough to stay, as long as it remained safe. I kept reading that some people can’t change, yet my faith told me transformation is always possible. I now know that change must begin with a genuine desire—a desire he never had.
..When you love someone, it’s tempting to believe that forgiveness and support are the best way to help them. But real change requires their willingness, sustained effort, and consistent action. The most loving thing I could do for my husband was let him live the life he wanted, not rescuing him from the consequences of his actions. Excusing harm may feel like compassion, but without accountability, abuse only deepens—damaging both the one causing it and the one enduring it.
..On the days I struggle, I remind myself that my ex-husband wants me to carry the blame for his abuse and the divorce that followed. It’s part of his control that lingers. So instead, I focus on what I know to be true: I meant my vows—he didn’t. I loved him—he didn’t love me. I sought healing—he sought harm. And ultimately, after chance after chance, he chose himself.
..Abuse doesn’t define me. It is a chapter in my life, not the whole story. I’ve found healing, I have joy, and I now carry a deep empathy for the abused that I didn’t have before. What a strange, awful, beautiful gift to be able to look someone in the eyes and sincerely say, “You’re not alone, and there is hope.” I know with certainty that life after abuse can be meaningful—because I’m living proof that what man meant for evil, God can use for good."

-- written by Beverly Hallberg from her Substack

10/01/2026

Find it on NeuroDiverse Christian Couples YouTube and Podcast!

Hear the story behind the interest in IFS from Stephanie C Holmes MA herself 😂 it’s a good one!

09/30/2026

Travel Is About More Than Travel

Over the years, I’ve lived on three continents and experienced everyday life in France, Senegal, South Africa, and the United States. I’ve also explored Honduras, the Caribbean, Turkey, Ivory Coast, Vietnam, Canada, and Botswana.

I’ve hiked waterfalls and mountains and game parks, all therapeutic in their own way.

I’ve sat on safaris where the vastness of the landscape reminded me how small my worries were.

I’ve wandered through ancient ruins and thought about the generations of people who came before me.

I’ve experienced the uncomfortable growth that comes from navigating unfamiliar places, cultures, and languages.

What I’ve learned is that people rarely travel just because they want a trip.

Often there’s something deeper happening.

Read the whole post - link in comments

09/28/2026

I never planned to be an influencer.

Honestly, I was just trying to survive my own story, learn what worked, and share what I was learning along the way.

But over the years, something exciting happened.

Women started reading the books. Buying the journals. Taking the walks. Drinking the water. Learning about boundaries. Understanding neurodiversity. Spending time with Jesus. Going to therapy. Getting coaching. Doing their own healing work.

And then they’d come back and tell me:
“I heard your voice in my head.”

Not in a weird or creepy way.

In a:

“Wait... is that actually my responsibility?”
or
“I remembered what you taught me.”
or
“I finally used the boundary.”
kind of way.

The coolest part?
It doesn’t stop there.

They start sharing what they’re learning with a friend over coffee. With their kids. With their spouse. With a sister. With a small group. With someone else who is struggling.

What began as one coaching conversation becomes healthier families, stronger friendships, better boundaries, more self-awareness, and women who stop carrying the world on their shoulders alone.

That’s the kind of influence I’m interested in.

Not followers.
Not algorithms.
Not going viral.

Multiplication.

Watching clients become healthier, wiser, stronger, and more themselves... and then helping other women do the same.

And honestly?

That’s pretty amazing.

👇 What’s something you’ve learned that completely changed how you show up in your relationships, parenting, faith, or everyday life?

09/27/2026

If we've talked about spoons, read this!

When we talk about “capacity” on the mission field, most of us instinctively think about productivity. We equate capacity with how much we can accomplish in a day, how many people we can meet with,…