Sometimes people need a little nudge to get out of a rut and sometimes the nudge has to come from someone other than a family member or friend.

Juli An Panfilio wants to offer that resource with her business BeJuled. She is a personal life coach.

Personal life coaches offer an alternative to therapists, ministry or other forms of counseling.

“You go to a therapist and you’re there for an hour and you leave and you’re so inspired,” Panfilio said.

“Then you go home and suddenly it comes back why you went there in the first place,” she added.

Her work doesn’t end when people leave her sessions, she said.

“I want to go beyond the average. I do not do it via telephone — it’s impersonal, which I see is becoming a worldwide problem, which is why we are not in touch with who we are,” Panfilio said.

“I will physically be in my client’s life. I will come to their home if I need to, shop with them, do whatever to get them past a barrier something they are having a hard time with, something they are procrastinating on because they are fearful, be that positive or conscious voice in their head until it becomes their own,” she added.

Panfilio wants to be a “cheerleader” for her clients. She said people don’t necessarily have to be in trouble, but may be people who just need motivation to accomplish tasks such as a lifestyle change.

The advantage of having a paid life coach instead of listening to and relying on friends and family is that a coach has an independent point of view. Often family or friends are part of the structure that hold people back, Panfilio said.

Plus, she added, she isn’t shocked or disappointed if the client wants to talk about something that’s taboo in society or within the family circle.

“I’m an extremely open person,” she said. “There isn’t anything I couldn’t work with.”

Panfilio, who had a 25-year career in nursing, is also a resource for people who are facing tough challenges.

She said she is offering assistance to people dealing with the process of dying, be it the person who is dying or the family and friends who will be left behind.

“People don’t seem to want to talk about it, they are fearful, don’t know what to expect,” Panfilio said. “They want someone with them when their loved one is dying or they themselves are.

“The dying process is not always pretty,” she said. “And when it happens, it is so final.”

Panfilio gathered much of her insight while growing up in and around a nursing home, living with her grandmother who ran one.

“I have literally worked all of my life around dying, sick, old, physical, mental recovering issues,” she said. “My grandmother started one of the first nursing homes/rehabs and it was next door to her house out in the country, so

I grew up there. It was my home. It became a part of me.”

Panfilio said she has found that many need a little help, a little cheerleading, in this day and age.

“We think that we are doings, not beings. We want to get back to that inner peace that we know is there, but getting there is not always easy,” she said.

Panfilio, who lives in Langley but runs her business out of Admirals Cove, offers her services in private or group settings. She also gives lectures and workshops for groups and businesses.

To learn more about BeJuled, visit www.ckwebsites.com/bejuled/index.html.

You can follow Panfilio’s thoughts on life at her blog

bejuledcoaching.blogspot.com. To contact her, call 360-678-0250 or e-mail to juli@bejuledcoaching.com.