About Me
​I’m Cate Blouke – author and host of the popular life advice blog and podcast Settling Is Bullshit, former academic, glutton for learning, and practitioner of joy. I love helping people find their way to greater satisfaction, fulfillment, and wholehearted living.
Stuff You Probably Want to Know
My coaching style is gentle, playful, and inquisitive. I'm trained in the Enneagram, positive psychology, and the Co-Active approach to coaching. That means I start with self-awareness and self-compassion, and I will treat you as the expert on your own experience. I’ll ask you questions that will push you to turn within. I’ll hold space for the tenderness that emerges. I’ll be your personal cheerleader. I'll probably use swear words from time to time and give you as many book and podcast recommendations as you could ever hope for (but only if you want them). We’ll laugh. We’ll probably cry. And I promise that you’ll feel seen.
My mission as a coach is to help you believe that you are both capable and worthy of achieving your dreams, and to provide the support and accountability you need to take meaningful action in that direction. You deserve joy.
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I'll give you homework. I'll encourage you to take notes, to write, to reflect. I'll believe in the best in and for you, and I'll gently push you when you need it.
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If you want to know more of the nitty gritty details of my life, I talk about it a lot on the podcast. But the highlights are that I use she/her pronouns and will respect yours; I consider myself both an ally and member of the LGBTQIA+ community; I have personal experience with addiction recovery, disordered eating, trauma therapy, late-life ADHD diagnosis, and making major life changes even when I was scared as hell. I fundamentally believe change is possible for all of us, and I'll believe it for you if you can't believe it for yourself just yet.​
Education
I hold a BA in English from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2006) and a PhD in Rhetoric from the University of Texas at Austin (2015). I spent more than a decade formally studying how the words we use and stories we tell shape who we are. This deeply informs my approach to coaching and understanding of the world.
Training
In addition to my formal degrees, I have received extensive training in coaching. I am an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, hold a Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology, and have completed multiple training programs in coaching with the Enneagram, neurodiversity coaching, and the Co-Active coaching methods.
