About Ana Flores

I bring to coaching over 10 years of experience as a registered occupational therapist collaborating with adults and children through life-impacting events. My work as an occupational therapist has included working with infants, children, adults and their families through neurological, orthopedic, emotional, psychiatric, and soft-tissue injuries in a variety of settings: homes and work sites, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and supported-independent living environments.

As a clinician, consultant, researcher, educator and administrator, I have gained experience in facilitating change in many settings with clients and staff. I have worked with women to address issues specific to their needs, including sexuality, work-life balance and connecting with their own beliefs. My postgraduate work focused on empowerment with individuals living with the effects of a brain injury.

Occupational therapy and coaching are complementary professions – both help enable people to work through life-impacting events. Occupational therapy deals with adjusting to the psychosocial, physical, cognitive and environmental factors affecting participation in meaningful pursuits through evaluation of the individual, environment and activity. Coaching is concerned with assisting people, through dialogue, to make enduring changes in their lives so that they can fully engage in their desired pursuits.

I was inducted into the wonderful world of motherhood four years ago with the birth of my daughter, Aquinnah, and again two years ago with the birth of my son, Nathaniel. After returning to work following the birth of my son, I experienced firsthand the day-to-day busyness that being a working mother often entails. A combination of events led to a liberating insight.

A key revelation for me was that putting most of my own needs after all of my family’s, employer’s and after all of the tiny details of everyday life with two young children, was not benefiting anyone.  I learned that caring for your own emotional, physical and spiritual well-being leads to living with integrity, greater confidence, positive energy and the ability to truly care for others in the moment, rather than rushing through each day or plodding through the motions of the daily routine.

Realizing that many of us are in a continual state of flux between harmony and chaos, I wanted to draw on my occupational therapy and coaching experience to collaborate with women through their own exploration of grounding themselves, living with integrity and caring for themselves. Thus, WomanMpowered was born.