The Rural We: Mark Power
The professional coach helps clients navigate change and develop resilience.
Resilience is something we all need, especially now. Mark Power, a professional coach who lives in Red Hook, New York, teaches mindfulness and helps people create strategies for living fully. A longtime practitioner in the Buddhist tradition, he spent years as a chaplain in hospice and palliative care. Now, instead of life and death transitions, he’s focusing on helping people make meaningful transitions during periods of unexpected change.
I grew up in New Hampshire, but in my mid-teens moved to the west coach and spent most of my life there. I was doing a lot work internationally — in China I built a program based on principles of mindfulness — and was teaching at the business school at Indiana University. When my wife and I moved from Seattle to this area six years ago to be closer to our daughters, I felt a need to move from the end-of-life transition work I was doing as a chaplain in hospice to being more focused on intentional transitions that young adults, or people in mid career might be going through, so I became a coach. Bringing meaning and purpose to the fore — that’s my underlying intention.
“Building Resilience” is a five-week series online I’m currently doing with my sister, who’s a wellness coach. Resilience is such as important quality. For us, it is the capacity to restore a sense of wholeness, positivity, and creativity in a time of persistent stress, crisis, and uncertainty. We built this course as an experiential walk through the landscape of returning to positivity. The course involves brief exercises that help us learn to stop, feel, grieve, and embody some intention that takes us beyond reaction. It helps us be more purposeful, even when it feels like the world is against us.
We limit the number of participants to around 20, and we’ve found, in running this course, that the greatest benefit is the relationships within the class that start to build. Participants get a sense of connection and support with people all over the world. I’d never offered a workshop online before, and wasn’t sure how it would go. The first ime we did it, we found that It works beautifully, and the fact that it can connect people in such different geographical locations really enriched the process.
I offer brief introductions to mindful presence practices on Facebook Live every Wednesday at noon (@markpowercoaching). It’s a no risk/no cost way for people to check out if it’s something that might work for them. I guide the exercises in relations to common human challenges, like communication and conflict.
I’ve been married 36 years, have two daughters and a granddaughter. It’s a rich life, a rich practice, and we’re finally settling in the Hudson Valley area.
