The problem you name is rarely the problem you have
Client-centered coaching and consulting that finds the real issue, then moves people and organizations forward from their strengths.
Who we help
We work with people, and with the places they work
Individuals and professionals
You came in with something specific: a transition, a plateau, a decision that matters. We start there, find what is actually underneath it, and build a path forward from your strengths and what you most want.
Leaders and executives
The role asks for something different than the work that got you here. We work on leadership presence, judgment under pressure, and staying in the job without burning out of it.
Organizations
When your best people stall or burn out, another workshop will not bring them back. We work from outside the system to surface what is hard to see, then build from the capability already on your payroll.
Schools and educators
The people who serve students give until there is little left, and a wellness day rarely reaches the real strain. We help school teams move from surviving to thriving.
How we work
Find the core. Locate the inflection point. Build from strength.
The presenting problem is often a symptom that finally grew loud enough to notice. The leader who has stalled, the team that has lost its momentum, the program that keeps getting stuck in the same place. Fix the symptom and leave the core untouched, and it simply resurfaces somewhere else. So we do not begin by repairing what looks broken. We begin by working backward to the real issue, because naming it correctly changes the entire conversation about what to do next.
01 Find the core
We start with what you have named, then look underneath it for the issue that is actually driving the pattern. That is usually a very different conversation than the one we walked in with.
02 Locate the inflection point
Every person and every organization has one place where a small, well aimed change moves everything downstream. We find that point rather than spreading effort evenly across everything at once.
03 Build from strength
Lasting change grows from capability and motivation, not from shame or pressure. We connect what is already strong to what you genuinely want, which is what makes the change hold after the work ends.
What sets us apart
Most coaching helps you set goals. We work on what makes them hold
Plans are the easy part. The harder part, the part that decides whether anything actually changes, is behavior: why people do what they do, and what makes a new habit hold. That is the work we are trained for. Our backgrounds are in psychology and behavior analysis, disciplines whose subject is behavior itself, and the principles travel, because people are people whether the setting is a boardroom, a clinic, a school, or a kitchen table.
In practice that means a few things. We work from outside the system and in confidence, which is usually the only way the real issue surfaces. We work with the whole person rather than the role, so progress carries across someone's work and life. And we build on strengths and on what someone genuinely wants rather than on pressure, because that is what makes change last.
Coaching and consulting are not psychotherapy or clinical treatment. Our work is forward looking and practical, and if what you need is clinical care, we will say so.
Who we are
Led by Vivian David-Nicolas, PsyD
Vivian brings more than thirty years across psychology, leadership, and human performance, with a doctorate in psychology and organizations she has founded and led in the United States and the Middle East.
Kristina Grubbs, M.S., BCBA
Kristina is a board certified behavior analyst, executive coach, and healthcare operations leader who has spent over twenty years leading multi-site operations, developing teams, and turning behavioral science into practical leadership systems.
Between us we pair a deep understanding of human behavior with real experience running organizations, not only advising them.
Also part of our work
Independent Facilitation, person-centered planning, and Self-Determination
B&D has spent years working alongside people with developmental and intellectual disabilities and their families across California: independent facilitation, person-centered planning, Self-Determination Program support, IEP and IPP consultation, and advocacy. That work continues. It is also where much of what we believe about strengths, choice, and self-direction was learned first. If that is what brought you here, you are in the right place.
Start with what brought you in
Most engagements begin with a defined window to find the real issue, and a clear, honest read of where the capability already is and the lightest change that frees it. Tell us what is going on and we will tell you plainly whether we are the right people for it.