Arlington, Virginia
Executive & transition coaching in Arlington, VA.
One-on-one coaching for thoughtful professionals and leaders working through career, leadership, and life transitions. Based in Arlington, working locally and virtually.
Who This Is For
For people in the middle of a real shift.
Most people who reach out to me are not in crisis. They are capable and experienced, and they can feel that something has shifted. The role that once fit doesn’t anymore. The promotion arrived, and with it a version of leadership no one prepared them for. The pace that carried them for a decade is costing more than it returns.
Some are executives stepping into bigger roles. Some are rethinking a career that looks successful from the outside. Some are coming back from burnout and unwilling to rebuild the same life that produced it. And some simply keep circling a question that will not leave: what is the next chapter actually for?
Transitions I work with
- Executive and leadership transitions
- Career transitions and career changes
- New roles, promotions, and expanded scope
- Recalibration after burnout or overwork
- Identity shifts, at work and beyond it
- Questions of purpose, meaning, and next chapters
What We Work On
Clarity first. Then movement.
Transition coaching is a structured way to think about your own life and work, with someone trained to help you do it well. In practice, we work on seeing your situation clearly (what is ending, what is beginning, what you actually want), making decisions grounded in your values rather than your fears, working through the identity questions that big transitions surface, and designing small experiments before big leaps.
The work is reflective but not passive. You leave sessions with sharper thinking, real decisions, and concrete next steps.
People find their way here under different labels: career transition coach, executive coach, leadership coach, life transition coaching. The titles matter less than the work, which is helping you think clearly about a life in motion.
Why Me
Psychology, leadership, and lived experience.
I’m an organizational psychologist (PhD in industrial-organizational psychology), a trained coach, and a former executive. I’ve spent my career studying what helps people grow and thrive at work, and I’ve lived the other side of it: leading teams, making the tradeoffs, carrying roles that looked great on paper and cost more than they appeared to.
That combination shapes how I coach. Leadership coaching with me is grounded in evidence, not trends. And because I’ve been an operator, I understand the worlds my clients work in, from boardroom dynamics to Sunday-night dread. You can read more about my background here, and about how coaching works here.
How It Works
Three steps, no pressure at any of them.
An introductory conversation.
We start with a 30-minute call. No pitch. You share where you are, I share how I work, and we both get a feel for whether this is a fit.
A clarity session.
If we move forward, we begin with a deeper session to map your current situation: your work, your energy, your values, and what this transition is actually asking of you.
A coaching partnership.
From there we meet regularly over several months, moving from insight to decisions to real change. Enough structure to keep momentum, enough space to think.
Where I Work
Rooted in Arlington. Available anywhere.
I live and work in Arlington, Virginia, and many of my clients are here in the DC area: Arlington, Alexandria, McLean, Falls Church, and Washington itself. If you’ve been searching for an executive coach or career coach in Arlington, VA and want someone who knows this area’s particular blend of ambition and exhaustion, I’d be glad to talk.
Most sessions happen over video, which means I also work with clients across the country. Local clients sometimes prefer to meet in person, and we can usually make that work.
Get in Touch
Start with a conversation.
If any of this sounds like the season you’re in, share a little about where you are below. You’ll be able to find a time to talk directly.
Or email directly: allisonyostphd@gmail.com