Testimonials
As a Coach
“Of my many experiences being coached/counseled, working with Joseph has been one of the most powerful. At the end of many of our sessions I am left feeling amazed at the way Joseph’s process allows for incredibly deep insights and inner shifts to take place.
As a professional coach and facilitator myself, there are very few colleagues whom I trust to combine a highly refined level of mastery with an understanding of how sacred this work truly is and Joseph does exactly that.”
Debra Hickok, CPCC, PCC • Featherstone Personal and Professional Coaching
“Joseph helped me lower myself into my own pool of wisdom. And he did it with elegance, without using an extra syllable. There was silence, and the work went on in the silence. When it was over, the change I sought had taken root and I felt rooted in my power.”
Guthrie Sayen, PhD, Professional Certified Coach
“Transformative, strategic and practical, my work with Joseph has helped me shift deep patterns that had been getting in the way of me living my best life—personally and professionally.
As a coach, I feel truly grateful to be working with someone of Joseph’s caliber, with his tremendous knowledge of coaching techniques combined with a powerful ability to listen deeply and support forward movement. I can imagine no better partner for [the] journey.”
Karen Burke, Mechanical Engineer, MBA, Professional Certified Coach
Voted Executive Coach of the Year 2012 – International Coach Federation of New England
“After working with Joseph, I felt like I had been to the gym, working out with a psycho-spiritual trainer. I felt strong and clear; more in-the-know. I felt great!”
Dave, Internationally-renowned Musician/Educator
“At a time of transition in my life, Joseph was an amazingly sensitive coach—holding up the mirror for me to explore the many reflections I saw.”
Marty Jacobs, Leadership and O. D. Consultant
“Joseph exemplifies my ideal in an executive coach. The quality of his listening is extraordinary: every session he identifies issues and themes that have completely escaped me; these often become the core of my own transformative insights. The depth of his skill is inspiring: his expertise in the realms of leadership and personal development have helped me move through significant psychological blocks, expanding my ability to create what I really want in my life.
Perhaps most importantly, his commitment to empowering my own decision-making is unwavering: even during my periods of felt hopelessness he powerfully resists my requests to have him tell me what to do (give me advice). Instead he takes the high road by constantly invoking my own ability to think clearly, and thus accomplishes the deeper and more lasting goal of expanding my capacity to make the right decisions for my life. For these gifts, and his additional gifts of compassion, authenticity and integrity, I am ever grateful for his professional and personal support.”
Benyamin, Professor of Entrepreneurial Management, UMass Boston
“What I appreciate most about Joseph is how well he listens. I always feel heard and respected during our coaching sessions. I have been able to explore issues that have not been easy for me to discuss but which have been important in helping me clarify my sense of purpose and gain confidence in my abilities. It is clear that Joseph’s goal in our work is for me to live the life that is right for me. He has ideas and will share them, but he has never said what I SHOULD do. I also appreciate his ability to help me rebound from difficulties I have faced along the way. He is very skilled at helping me regain a sense of perspective and balance so that I can continue my efforts.”
David, Entrepreneur
“Joseph provides the scaffolding needed for individuals to construct their own bold approaches to the challenges they face and to build the confidence needed to take courageous action in meeting those challenges. He carries out his work with great care, and with tremendous respect for the dignity and vulnerability of those he serves.”
Bob, Assoc. Professor of Physics, UMass Amherst | CEO and Owner, Pioneer Valley Educational Press
“Joseph is truly an amazing coach in that he coaches from all aspects of his being. He listens from his heart and intuition, which allows him to hear not only what I am saying, but also what I am not saying, and to move with me wherever I need to go. Throughout our work together, I have found Joseph to have a way of seeing into my true core that is not of this world. Despite previous years of introspective work with other professionals, it was not until I started working with Joseph that I began to move forward in my life in ways that I had always dreamed.
Joseph has a unique way of encouraging and challenging me to gain awareness of my inner blocks. At the same time, he supports me to truly listen to my higher self and to what I really want. He helps me to take action and be accountable to myself. He shares his wisdom and insight in such a way that never imposes his own agenda. He is gentle and powerful, at the same time. When working with Joseph, I always feel safe and heard and I leave our sessions with direction and balance.”
Mara Castello, CEC, Relationship Empowerment Coach
As a Facilitator/Consultant
“We did right by hiring Joseph DiCenso for a staff training. Not only did the training have lasting and operational effects, but it was also an inspiration and an education to work with Joseph throughout the process.
As co-director of a residential arts retreat center, I handle innumerable staff concerns regarding workflow, communication, and decision-making. Joseph helped me identify the challenges in our organization and better articulate them, supported a process whereby we utilized feedback from our staff, and created a tailored training on decision-making processes.
Over the course of the three-hour workshop we managed to assess and summarize the needs and strengths of our organization, gain overview and orientation for multiple approaches to decision-making, and through experiential activities, develop some operable experiments that we are still continuing to this day. In addition, we set up a system by which to evaluate and continue creating experiments based on the assessed needs.
Honestly, there have been several times over the past year when we have used this training as a model for what is possible for clear, functional change in the organization, and Joseph’s name has come up several times as someone we plan to work with again in the future. I cannot recommend his work highly enough.”
Margit Galanter
Co-Director, Earthdance Workshop and Retreat Center
“I highly recommend Joseph to anyone needing facilitation to unleash the most potential from a small business team.
In our LLC incorporation retreat, he quickly got to the heart of the issues and did so in a way that was gentle, elegant and crystal clear. Skillfully leading us to see what was missing and to get to the real issues in the room, he then helped us to come to a resolve in a really masterful way.
Joseph distilled a mess of complex issues into clear next steps and impeccably held up everyone’s needs with an integrity I’ve found in few facilitators. Joseph is really gifted that way. His exquisite facilitation was absolutely invaluable at the most critical stage of our incorporation!”
Jeff Clearwater Lernould
Founder, NorthEast Solar Design
“Thank you again for helping us reach down into ourselves and release the personal blockages within us that were unconsciously undermining our progress. Your insight, clarity and facilitation were invaluable. Thanks for sharing your Gift!”
Will Stark
“Joseph helped us see our organization and our issues in the context of how organizations function, in general, and how people work together. Then, he gave us concrete tools to use in problem-solving, focusing on specific shortcomings we identified in our own workplace.
Most importantly, Joseph gave us a process we can replicate and frameworks we can apply on our own, which has enabled us to continue and evolve—for many months, now—the work we began during the training.”
R.K., office manager
“I have experienced Joseph walking ever so closely, skillfully and lovingly alongside the participant, assisting them in their process with phenomenal insight and tender care. I would easily entrust my most vulnerable self to Joseph, trusting in his wisdom and skill to bring healing. Joseph facilitates freedom for the soul to manifest its destiny.”
Lynne, Psychotherapist
“Joseph has awesome instincts for homing in on just what it is a person needs at any given moment that will bring out that person’s own magnificence. He’s an “empty vessel;” someone with the flexibility to go with what’s there in the moment. He resists going in with a set idea as to what will most help someone, yet he beautifully weaves in whatever he is learning as he goes.”
Christopher, Publishing Sales Representative
“First, Joseph sets the tone…by his own joy, care, enthusiasm, self-confidence, humility, courage and open mind. Yet what strikes me most about experencing his work is his ability to listen, to really listen, and his timing; like the musician who’s perfectly comfortable playing in the present moment and fully aware of the space surrounding it, where anything can happen… Joseph is a gifted teacher, a rare gem.”
Jill, Vocalist
“… I thank you for being the messenger of permission for me to be myself.”
Jennifer, Acupuncturist
“You made it safe and joyful—yes, joyful—to explore conflict.”
Paul, Project Manager in Software Development, IBM
“It was WONDERFUL having your grounded and mellow presence in the retreat. You radiate trust for the group and its ability to be the best solver of its own problems. I am so happy to have worked with you. It is fun and I have gotten (and am sure I will continue to get) lots from our work together.”
Robin
“It was an extreme joy to meet you and to be with you in the training. In addition to your open heart, your utter authenticity—lack of pretense— is a quality I very much admire and aspire to.”
Sam
“Probably the most effective and most productive training for facilitation and communication skills that I have received…”
Gene