Life coaching and co-parenting education are two forms of supportive engagement that focus on improving an individual’s communication skills so that they can more effectively work through life’s challenges. Mediation is another tool that can improve understanding, while teaching us to listen to others’ beliefs and opinions without judgment.

 
 

Communicating with a life coach can help you meet challenges and create a better sense of well-being. It can set you on a path to finding joy every day. Please visit with me on my new Youtube channel and on Substack.

Trailer Park Wisdom with Dr. Harold Smith

Daybreak LifE Coaching LLC

P.O. Box 1111 Mesilla, New Mexico, 88046, U.S.A.

TEL: 1-575-222-0189

 daybreaklifecoach@gmail.com / trailerparkwisdom2026@gmail.com

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Improving your Communication Skills

 

Life coaching is a uniquely therapeutic educational process. It is not psychotherapy. It is not counseling. It engages a coach with an individual or a group of individuals seeking assistance in addressing non-mental health related challenges in communication they are facing in their personal or professional relationships.

Life coaches do not diagnose mental or behavioral health related conditions, nor do they provide psychotherapy or counseling for mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders. Those involvements require different educational and licensure pathways.

Many refer to life coaching as “talking therapy,” however, in my practice I prefer to define it as “listening therapy.” You have the power to change your life in productive ways. My job is to listen carefully to what you are saying and then guide you in the direction of your aspirations and goals with clarity and confidence.

Life coaching is an unregulated industry, and therefore it is of the utmost importance that those engaging in this form of support hold significant education, training, and work experience in order to provide an ethical, safe and confidential space for clients. The life coach and client work as a team to overcome obstacles preventing the client from moving forward in their efforts to become an effective communicator, and lead a fulfilling and happy life.

This process enables the client to build confidence and a sense of well-being in their professional life, or in personal relationship situations, for example, when a high level of conflict, or residual feelings from past events impede a person’s pursuit of happiness. Studies show that people generally spend approximately 70% of their waking life communicating. Let me help you become a better listener and a better communicator of your thoughts and feelings to others. This will open the door to many benefits.

I conduct my life coaching sessions in English with clients from various countries across many time zones via Zoom video call or other forms of compatible video software. My understanding of various cultures and societal norms allows me to adapt these sessions to the unique characteristics of differing cultures and clients’ personal needs from all walks of life and circumstances.

I do not provide life coaching sessions for minors, unless they are accompanied by a parent, or by an adult subscriber approved by their parents, in order to support improved communication between adolescents and adults.

You can also visit my Youtube channel at Trailer Park Wisdom with Dr. Harold Smith, where I talk about various challenges and ways in which you might overcome stumbling blocks that are keeping you from communicating more effectively and embracing your situation and finding joy and a sense of well-being in your daily life.

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Harold W. Smith, Ph.D.

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Coaching Strategies

For Individuals, Groups and Families

Life coaching strategies vary among coaches, however, basic techniques are established by university programs and various professional organizations focused on healing processes for individuals facing challenges in their personal or professional lives. For individuals who do not have known mental health conditions or behavioral disorders, I have found great success using both the holistic and semi-structured inquiry-based exploratory methods.

Holistic coaching is a powerful strategy for approaching various aspects of a person's life – body, mind, and spirit, through a process of guided listening on the part of the life coach, in order to help individuals verbalize their thoughts and in that conversational process discover various aspects of themselves that they have previously not been aware of.

The inquiry-based exploratory method guides question and answer sessions that generate clarity for the client, as well as goal setting and goal attainment over time. This method is particularly effective in group sessions, where input from all participants is important. These methods can be combined with great results. 

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Life Coaching areas to consider

In today’s fast-paced and increasingly complicated and stressful world, we all face challenges as we navigate our personal and professional lives.

Explore the categories that represent particular challenges that you are facing and decide if interacting with a life coach might help you work through those issues. If you don’t see your challenge here, let’s talk about what that might be and how we might approach helping you achieve better results in developing your communication skills.

Parenting vs. Co-parenting

Effective and healthy communication begins at home. It is the place where people learn how to listen, how to process information, and how to speak in civil and constructive ways. How successful we are at expressing our ideas and emotions among those we love will determine how effectively we communicate with others in our working life and in the world beyond.

Emotional Intelligence and Regulation 

We each have a choice to communicate with kindness and empathy, or assertiveness or aggression without regard for the feelings of others – in both personal and professional situations. Communicating with kindness and empathy goes against the current model for communicating in most western cultures. This emphasis is ego based, instead of a focus on the needs of others. Understanding what emotional intelligence is can provide you with new and improved communication tools.

Managing Stress and Solving Problems

As we get older the stress that comes from managing our lives can be overwhelming. We notice this the most when we are faced with problems that need solving in order to move on to a better and happier future. Understanding where we have been, and the person we used to be, can be very useful in our understanding the person we have become and what we want for ourselves in the future.

Navigating Solitude: Loneliness vs. Happiness

It is a common mistake to think being with someone will make us happy, and being alone will automatically cause us to be lonely. One has relatively little to do with the other. Understanding your personality type, and the needs you have right now, based on your current circumstances, your age and your physical and mental state, can clarify your pathway moving forward.

Self Esteem and Confidence Building

Building confidence is a natural process of trial and error. Conquering our fears of both failing and succeeding takes patience and forgiveness. It does not happen overnight, and it is easy to become disoriented in the process of learning. Knowing who we are, our talents as well as our shortcomings, are very helpful in identifying the beliefs that prevent us from having it all.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Preference

Understanding your sexual orientation and whom you are attracted to in physical, emotional and spiritual terms, can be one of the easiest or possibly the most arduous realizations of your life. If it were simply a matter of trusting your feelings and accepting yourself as the owner of those feelings, without endless interference from family and society, discovery would be a great joy.

Online Dating and Relationship Building

Online dating is a mine field. There’s no way around it. People are less honest online, and vulnerable participants can fall prey to those with nefarious intentions. Gone are most of the traditional ways in which people could meet and socialize. There are valuable techniques you can learn that can help protect you while you navigate cyber dating and hook-up sites, or getting to know someone the old fashion way.

Parents Coping with Sexual Identification in Children

Parents come in two flavors – those who try to mold their children into their own images, and those who celebrate their differences as they grow from infancy into young adulthood. Judging your children is not helpful. It stunts their growth. Attempting to control them is even more damaging. Learning that your children are not your property is the first step in good parenting.

Overly Assertive Communicators and Bullying

There is a misconception that bullies are little humans in primary or secondary schools. They are not. Bullies come in all shapes, sizes, genders and ages, and the number of them appears to be increasing. If you bully others, you need a life coach. If you allow others to bully you, you need a life coach. Once you recognize the futility of this dynamic, you can change your life.

Aging and Health Care Self Advocacy

People who say ‘Age is just a number,’ or ‘You’re only as old as you feel,’ are neither old nor aware of the aging brain or the body attached to it. Knowing when is the right time to surrender oneself to the assistance of others, or to remain stubbornly independent and self-reliant, is perhaps the most challenging decision you will ever be forced to make. Talking about it can help you make the right one.

Communicating Effectively Through Chronic & Terminal Illnesses

Mortality is a funny thing. It does not discriminate. It is the great equalizer, the human condition that places each of us on the same level, at the same rank, and in line for the same outcome. Navigating chronic and terminal illnesses tests us to see how well (or how poorly) we have equipped ourselves to face the realities of our own mortality. Talking with someone helps -- a lot.

End-of-Life Decision Making

Never in the history of modern society have there been so many options and choices people can make in terms of how they want to spend their twilight years, and that delicate period just before ‘the end.’ Quality of life have become the buzz words among those having to make tough decisions. Talking about these decisions can help you make the best choices for you.

Workplace and Career Navigation

Many life coaches focus their practices on attempting to help their clients identify and operationalize their strengths and talents, in order to maximize their potential for career or financial success. Mine does not. I am far more interested in helping you identify the source of your fears and your happiness, so that what you choose to do is fulfilling in unseen ways.

Individuals and Families Coping with Incarceration

The stigma of having someone close to us in trouble with the law and facing incarceration or other forms of punishment, can be intense, shaming, and frightening. In order to support the person facing these challenges, while maintaining the dignity of the family and of everyone involved, is no easy task. Life’s challenges can be best handled when one faces them head on.

Exploring Multiple Forms of Communication

Most people equate communication with talking, although in many cultures the spoken word is but a fraction of ways in which one can communicate meaningfully, accurately, heartfully and constructively. Intuitive communication, even silence, are valuable forms of conveying ideas and feelings between people. Identifying and learning to use these many forms effectively, can benefit you in many ways.
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Empowering people to express themselves in productive and loving ways

How we communicate with children is influenced by how parents communicate with each other in all situations.
It is never too early or too late to learn to be a good writer. In an age of global access to communication and the advent of technology that allows us to communicate with people all over the globe, our ability to express ourselves in writing has never been more important.
Communication begins at home. It is where people learn how to listen and speak to each other with respect and kindness.
Meaningful communication leads to two-way harmonious dialog that creates happy people.

Good and effective communication is not a natural talent. It is an acquired skill. Anyone, regardless of their age, circumstances, or level of education can improve their communication skills. Practice is key, and with effort and guidance these skills can help you engage in more harmonious and productive relationships.

 
 

Life Coaching Fees

The fee for a 75 minute life coaching session is $75 USD. Clients may sign up for a series of 6 or 12 weekly sessions, which will be held using Zoom or another compatible meeting application. Clients may also participate in a group session for a minimum of 3 weeks with minimum 2 and maximum 4 members. at $55 per person USD. Sessions will be scheduled in the time zone of the client and at their convenience.

Inquire

Co-Parenting Fees

The fee for a 75-minute co-parenting communication or mediation session for one parent is $55 USD, and for couples is $110 USD. These sessions are conducted on a private pay basis only. Insurance providers cannot be billed for these services. Clients may sign up for a series of 6 or 12 sessions. Sessions will be scheduled in the client’s time zone and at their convenience.  

Payment and Refunds

Dr. Smith engages in life coaching and co-parenting communication or mediation sessions in English through DAYBreak Life Coaching LLC and adds gross receipts tax of .0839 as required by New Mexico law. Fees will be required in advance and any refunds will be discussed and agreed upon by the client and Dr. Smith. All payments are made through PayPal.

 

Listening — Speaking — Exploring

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Education, Training, and Career FOCUS 

Harold W. Smith, Ph.D.

Harold W. Smith, Ph.D.

Dr. Harold Smith holds an interdisciplinary doctorate degree bridging Nursing Science and Family and Community Health, with a specialization in Gerontology and Aging, from New Mexico State University, and is a National Institutes of Health qualified human subjects researcher.

He completed extensive graduate studies in international public health policy and administration from Walden University, and obtained advanced training in ethical guidelines for human subjects research from Harvard University’s School of Public Health. He has also completed training in conflict resolution mediation from the University of New Mexico’s School of Law.

He holds a master’s degree in Educational Institutional Management and Leadership from New Mexico State University, and a baccalaureate degree in Communications from Oregon State University.

Dr. Smith has served southern New Mexico’s district family courts as a court-appointed parenting coordinator, and worked with many families suffering in high-conflict situations. He has worked extensively as a state licensed care provider and certified nursing assistant in direct patient care for chronically and terminally ill individuals, and with families facing end-of-life decisions.

He has worked as a grant writer and developed faculty research programs, and taught research methodology at New Mexico State University’s School of Nursing. He has worked in private, government, and non-profit sector corporations and organizations in technical and commercial writing and research support roles, both overseas and in the U.S. He has taught English as a Second Language throughout the k-12 levels, scholarly writing and research methods at the graduate school level, and has developed and taught continuing education adult learning courses for non-traditional track adults, including formerly incarcerated individuals. He has also developed and taught accelerated learning and gifted education programs at the secondary school level.

Dr. Smith owns and operates Daybreak Life Coaching LLC and conducts both face-to-face and online life coaching and co-parenting education sessions for individuals seeking help in improving their communication skills and life circumstances. He also shares information about the benefits of life coaching and provides advice on his YouTube channel: Trailer Park Wisdom with Dr. Smith.

He is currently authoring two non-fiction narrative books on life coaching, including “Trailer Park Wisdom — An Unconventional Approach to Life Coaching,” and an anthology entitled “Interviews With 20 Extraordinary People.” These publications will be available later this year and Dr. Smith will be providing excerpts from these on Substack.