Visual Coaching
coaching + sketch noting = a map of your thoughts
What is visual coaching?
If your thinking tends to be non-linear, associative, or too big to hold in your head all at once then visual coaching was basically made for you.
It's a standard coaching session with one significant addition: as we talk, I'm drawing. Your thoughts, patterns, and insights take shape on a shared screen in real time. By the end of the session you have a visual map of where we went. Something you can return to, build on, and actually see.
For people who think in systems, connections, and tangents, having your inner landscape made visible has a way of cutting through the noise faster than words alone.
It’s ideal for:
Untangling thinking that feels too complex or interconnected to organize on your own
Brainstorming and creative exploration where you need to see the whole picture at once
Planning projects with a lot of moving parts, where linear lists aren't cutting it
Making sense of systems and dynamics — relationship patterns, business structures, life decisions
Any session where you've been going in circles and need something to shift
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Colleen .B
“The illustrations Annalee created during our visual coaching sessions are a beautiful representation of who I am; they are a map as well as a looking glass into the past and the future. Her artistic talent coupled with her wise intuition lead me to feel seen, heard, and “captured” in a visual work of art.”
BUT, IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE DRAWING…
Coaching happens through conversation, curiosity, and paying close attention to what's actually going on for you.
You bring the topic and a sense of exploration. I bring deep listening, pattern recognition, and the ability to notice what's emerging before you've quite found the words for it.
As we talk, the image becomes a third voice in the conversation reflecting your thinking back to you in a form you can actually see, question, and build on.
I’m Annalee
ICF certified trauma-informed coach, trained in working with neurodivergent folks and land-based art therapy, and a visual practitioner with over 13 years of experience translating complex conversations into images for organizations, communities, and individuals.
The combination of those two things - deep coaching presence and the ability to draw what's happening in real time - is genuinely rare. Most coaches can't draw. Most visual practitioners aren't coaches. This is both, fully.
Visual coaching works best as part of a larger coaching relationship
You can book a visual coaching session in between your regular sessions.
Returning clients can book a one-off visual coaching session for a brainstorming boost.
I love
Making things visible
(including the fine print)
The Details
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Visual coaching sessions with me cost:
220 CAD/ 1 hrInitial coaching sessions are 1hr and 15 mins long to make time for intake review and housekeeping, and cost: 152 CAD - regular initial session
253 CAD -initial coaching session + visuals
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I work with 10 consistent clients at any given time.
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24 hrs notice is required for cancellations.
The full cost of a session will be charged for missed sessions without notice.
Exceptions can be made for illness and emergencies.
FAQ:
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The simple answer is a question: how well resourced do you feel?
I think of coaching as something we do when we have resources and want to improve our lives. Therapy comes in when we are underresourced and need help to get our head above water. If therapy is a life preserver, coaching is a sail for your sail boat.
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I’m trained specifically to work with neurodivergent folks. I actually find that coaching everyone as if they are neurodivergent is more effective.
By that I mean:I’m curious about how each person, specifically, functions.
I believe that adaptations are for all humans and not just a few people on the fringes.
I take a strengths based approach no matter who I’m working with.
I use the social model of disability in my work. There are some specific challenges that neurodivergent folks (diagnosed or not) often face. For example overusing areas of gifted-ness to compensate for challenge areas, and dealing with specific trauma around rejection, self trust, and being controlled.
My work is based in the unschooling approach to self-directed learning. This is a way of learning that works especially well for many neurodivergent folks.
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It means I’m a big ol’ nerd about the nervous system.
I’m well versed in how the difficult things we’ve experienced in life show up in our bodies. I’m practiced at sensing when you get activated, and I know how to help you ground in your strength.It does not meanwe will directly work on trauma the way you might with a therapist.
It’s important to work with a trauma-informed coach because coaching will always push us out of our comfort zone. We don’t have blocks for no reason. They’re usually survival strategies. You deserve support from someone who understands this, and knows how to open more choices for you in a way that doesn’t flood your nervous system.
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No. The images that come out of visual coaching are sketch notes, and not full polished pieces.
Graphic recording takes my full 150% attention. I can’t coach and draw at that level at the same time. However, I’ve been graphic recording for over a decade and my visual translation skills are finely tuned even when I’m multi tasking. You’re in expert hands.If you’re after a polished, tailor made graphic, strategic illustration is the way to get there.
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I send you a link to download all the files for your personal use!
You get print (PDF), web (JPG) and source (PSD) files.
Please make sure you download your images, and store them somewhere secure. I’m not able to archive files due to size and volume. -
Pretty much anything you like!
I’ve had clients print their images out as vision boards, use them as images as visual aids in presentations or during conversations, snip them down into clip art and more.
The only (minor) limitation is that all custom images I create are licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license.
If you are Indigenous, intellectual property rights for your image are transferred to you directly under the principles of OCAP. -
You may want more than one visual session. Especially for a long and complex project,
A caveat: I find visual coaching works best as a tool to deploy within an ongoing coaching relationship. Coaching is about partnership and process. If we just focus on getting a visual output your benefits from the coaching its self won’t be as fruitful.
If you’re looking for a polished, tailor made graphic, strategic illustration might be a better fit for you.
You’ve still got questions? Not sure if this is the right fit for you? Maybe you need to feel it out.
No problem. You can book a free, 30 min chat to get to know each other before we put pen to paper.
WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH
(spoiler: it’s more than just a picture)
The image itself turns out to be surprisingly useful long after the session ends. People use them as vision boards, as visual aids when pitching ideas or explaining complex concepts to others, as anchors in presentations and reports. Something about having your thinking rendered visually gives it a kind of authority, both for yourself and for the people you share it with.
Inside the session, something shifts too. When your thoughts are being captured as they arrive, the mind doesn't need to hold onto them so tightly. There's less circling back, less fixating, less trying to keep everything in view at once. Ideas come in more cleanly. We cover more ground, more quickly, with less effort, because the image is doing the holding for you.
And then there's something harder to name but that I hear a lot: people tell me it feels like being received. Like their inner world was taken seriously enough to be worth drawing. For people who have spent a lot of their lives feeling like their thoughts were too much, too scattered, or too hard to explain, that turns out to matter quite a bit.