Taking care of yourself and your mental health means maintaining routine habits and coping tools, and knowing how to navigate crises, unpredictable setbacks, and inevitable stumbles.
I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 in 1998, and have been stable for over 20 years. In my coaching, I emphasize an action-oriented, integrated personal care system, detailed in my mental health guidebook, Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life.
Let me help you figure out your own path to a stable life.
Please contact me to find out more!
About Ellen
I’m an award-winning author, teacher, speaker, and mental health advocate. [Watch my TED talk, “Finding balance in bipolar”.]
Diagnosed with Bipolar I shortly before I turned 30, I recount my four-year struggle to find stability in my graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me. Marbles became a New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into six foreign languages.
Along with my own story, it was important to me to include practical, personal and clinical tools and techniques, things my readers could use themselves. Its companion book takes that even farther: Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life is a handbook for maintaining mental health, with short- and long-term strategies to get and stay stable. The esteemed Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) featured Rock Steady as “Best Graphic Medicine of 2018”, and both books received a Media Partner Award from NAMI Washington (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Marbles and Rock Steady are now being used by counselors, psychiatrists, professors, and readers all over the world, with and without diagnoses.
I’ve had the profound honor of hearing from a wide range of people who connect with my work - in person and in writing - from patients, therapists, researchers, and readers, young and aged and from around the world. These conversations and questions inspired me to start working as a coach, so I can help people one-on-one. I’m excited that my path has taken me here!
About the Program
My program focuses on helping you integrate a wide range of healthy skills and techniques into your own life in a way that makes sense for you. Maintaining stability means maintaining what I call SMEDMERTS (sleep, meds, eating, doctor, mindfulness/meditation, exercise, routine, coping tools, and support system) as well as self-acceptance, self-awareness, and self-compassion.
I am a mentor, accountability partner, co-problem-solver, active listener, and cheerleader. I listen, question, and problem-solve from the point of view of someone who knows what mental illness feels like from the inside. I will keep you company. I will help you:
Clarify your goals for long term stability, including the techniques and skills of SMEDMERTS, mood regulation, and self-compassion.
Create personalized, realistic plans of action.
Maintain your motivation.
Connect with and apply your strengths.
Prepare for future problem-solving on your own.
My coaching complements - but doesn’t replace - your work with a licensed clinician. In my program, we focus on taking action: identifying goals, problem-solving, and integrating skills and techniques for long-term stability. You’ll need to have a connection with a mental health professional for deep-rooted issues, crises, and meds.
I’m excited to share my personal experience, knowledge, and resources to help you move your life forward. I am the coach I wish I’d had after I was first diagnosed. I am wholeheartedly dedicated to having a mentally healthy life, and if you are, too, I hope we have the opportunity to work together.
Packages
Rock Steady Program, Part 1: Foundations
8 sessions, 90 mins. each, meeting once a week.
This program will help clarify your goals, map a personalized plan of action, and develop and reinforce skills and tools for your long-term stability. We'll problem-solve with an understanding of what bipolar is like from the inside. Includes customized homework between sessions, unlimited emails, and some actual mail via post.
Rock Steady Program, Part 2: Broaden & Deepen
4 sessions, 90 mins. each, meeting once a week.
With the goal of long-term stability, the second step for making new habits last is to practice and reinforce them. Part 2 gives you the time and accountability to stay on track and deepen the skills, routines, and tools you developed in Part 1, and the opportunity to add new ones. Includes unlimited emails and some actual mail via post. Prerequisite: Rock Steady Program, Part 1.
This program may be repeated to create a longer, ongoing series of sessions. Discount for scheduling multiple consecutive Broaden & Deepens.
Rock Steady Program, Part 3: Maintenance
Single sessions, 90 mins. each, individually scheduled.
Schedule a tune-up after you graduate the Rock Steady Program for some extra accountability, or to keep yourself on track. Check in anytime you need to reboot or problem-solve. Includes unlimited emails. Prerequisite: Rock Steady Program, Part 1.
Let's Do Lunch!
One informal hour.
Just want to chat or ask a question? Want to talk bipolar with someone who knows what it's like from the inside? Let's do lunch! Includes limited emails.
Payment Policies
My fee is $150 per hour; $225 for a 90-min. session. A detailed price list is in the application, including discounts for multiple reservations. The full amount of the sessions needs to be paid at least 24 hours before the session. Scheduling and payment are via Square or PayPal.
Praise for Rock Steady Coaching
“It was awesome to feel validated and chat with someone who has experience navigating similar issues... Finding Ellen’s books helped me structure a path back to healthy living after a manic crisis. Rock Steady coaching took that framework even further and personalized my connection with the content.”
– C.S., Seattle, WA
“While I’m grateful for psychiatric care, talking with someone who offers practical advice and understands my weirdo brain makes me feel confident, like I’m learning how to keep balance, rather than needing ‘fixing’.”
– L.O., Sacramento, CA
“Ellen has been a great coach for me. She is an inspiration as an artist and as a human being!”
- Maria Bamford, comedian
Praise for Rock Steady, the Book
“Rock Steady is truly a must-read for anyone who struggles with a mental disorder or someone who finds comfort in daily structure. Forney addresses readers with the tone of a caring friend, and her approach will likely make her fans eager for more grounding advice.”
- Booklist
“Forney's second book [Rock Steady] is packed with strategies, tools, and tips for living with mental illness—all presented in the same relatable, comic form that made her first book [Marbles] so beloved.”
The Journal of the American Psychiatric Association (JAMA) featured Rock Steady in “Best Graphic Medicine of 2018”, and Rock Steady and Marbles received a Media Partner Award from NAMI Washington (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
Apply
Ready to start? Please contact me to set up a free 20-min. consultation, and let me know what you’re hoping to work on with me. The application is optional but will be very helpful!
All sessions are over Zoom. If you have disability issues that impede a video call, please let me know and we can discuss options. You need to be 18 or over, and fluent in English.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life, by Ellen Forney
Contact
I’d love to hear from you!
rocksteadycoach@protonmail.com
212 Broadway E, #20442 Seattle WA 98102