The Consciousness Collaborative

Joanne Lutz - Transition Coaching Massachusetts


Founder of The Consciousness Collaborative, Joanne Lutz, provides transition coaching for individuals, couples, and independent business persons.  With Joanne’s unique perspective and ability to support the emergence of a client’s own wisdom, clients move through fear and achieve a new perspective and tangible results; they discover a Third Option.



Human beings spend their entire lives in transition: from single, to married, to widowed or divorced, from this job to that, from “on our own” to parenting, from one decision to the next, from breathing in to breathing out.  Transition coaching is about mindfully moving through these changes - not operating on auto-pilot with a sense of doing what “must” be done.  Whether your personal transition is a profound shift in daily life or simply wanting to feel differently about who you see when you look in the mirror, support is vital to finding a new path - a Third Option.

Often we believe there are only two choices: “either this, or that.”  Typically, the “either / or” outlook is rooted in fear, habit, and feelings of defeat.  In turn, we gravitate toward the lesser of those perceived evils, but the result is never satisfying.  We live our lives trying to prevent something from happening, rather than choosing what we want.  The upshot: “You get what you settle for,” just as Louise told Thelma.*

In most situations, there is another way, an approach outside the box, a path that is revitalizing and not just a matter of settling. The Third Option does NOT represent a compromise.  It is a new idea, energy, or entity springing forth from a well of inner knowing.  And while the knowing is always within, it often requires a bit of coaxing and support to reveal itself.  To this end, Joanne offers transition coaching, serving: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.

In 1996, my soon-to-be husband and I were in a financial free fall and neither of us had a viable solution for recovery.  I had completed my funeral director apprenticeship and exited that career, where I made very little income, to help grow my husband’s contracting business.  After a series of unfortunate events, his business filed for bankruptcy. 

For a short while, I opened my own contracting business, with me managing the business end and him doing the hands-on work, but I hated it and his body was beginning to feel the pressure of being back in the field.  Like many others, we had rent, health insurance, food, and child support payments we were responsible for, and minimal income in jobs we didn’t enjoy.  What we each needed was a third option. 

We needed to earn a good income, something that wasn’t capped by a lack of experience, and the flexibility to allow time for being a great Dad.  Our therapist listened to both of us, honoring our individual skill sets, and suggested we might try selling real estate.

Wow!  Neither of us would have thought of this, despite my long history of salesmanship and his extraordinary knowledge of houses and building.  And there it was, a third option that allowed us unlimited income potential, no prior experience to be successful, and the flexibility to attend mid-day school plays and afternoon little league games. 

As a result of this Third Option, I sold real estate for 12 years, and my husband has been a realtor longer than we’ve been married.  There was no compromise.  We moved through our fears of not having enough money, of not being successful, of believing we could each only do what we’d already done before.  By speaking our individual truths about what we each wanted, and feeling the paralysis that stymied us, we moved through the fear, opening a space to listen to the new option. 

In other scenarios, the idea comes from one of us, not an outside source, but the process is the same: honoring the feelings that exist, speaking and feeling the truth of them, and allowing the third option to emerge.

Joanne Lutz, creator of Third Option Coaching, listens to your inner wisdom, and helps you shift your personal paradigm to discover the Third Option that works for you.  Through provocative questions, she elicits information from your mind; with keen perception she invites you to notice what messages your body wants to share; and through the gift of her personal growth work, she attunes to your energy inviting your emotions to be heard and felt.  All of these modes create a space, facilitating your connection with the essential YOU.  Third Option Coaching reveals and empowers the YOU who can make grounded decisions, speak your truth with clarity and compassion, and learn to appreciate your unique, personal gifts and the gifts of others.  

Third Option Coaching offers transition coaching for clients in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.  While Joanne’s client base tends to be local to her home state of Massachusetts, the coaching-by-phone option opens her services to the world.

Joanne Lutz is a graduate of the Institute for Conscious Counseling and Coaching.  Her program of study, “New Pathways and Re-Education of Emotional and Somatic Patterns,” was created and taught by April Prita Manganiello, MS, LMHC, LMFT, BCPC.  In addition to this specific coaching program, Joanne’s experience includes intensive personal growth work and training since 1995.  This included work with Dr. Bunny Duhl, the mentor who introduced Joanne to the notion of a Third Option.  Combined with her education and experience, Joanne’s life and career choices have uniquely prepared her for Third Option Coaching.  Her resume includes a wide range of positions including: personnel recruiter, apprentice funeral director, real estate agent, and professional organizing consultant, all of which allowed her to support clients during significant transitions in their lives. 

Founding The Consciousness Collaborative in 2008 was the first of many concrete creations Joanne designed to serve a public interested in personal growth and development.  Joanne is the co-creator and facilitator of the What’s Next?! Workshop series and its affiliated programs.  She invented and facilitates the Why Do We Lie?!  Communication Without Caretaking seminars, established and co-facilitated a women’s support group, and works with members of The Consciousness Collaborative to develop dynamic learning experiences for people seeking personal growth.

To arrange an appointment by phone or in person, or to learn about upcoming classes Joanne will be facilitating, contact Joanne Lutz at 617-827-0803.

Read what clients have to say about working with Joanne.

*From the award winning 1991 film, Thelma and Louise 

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