To Whom it May Concern:
I first met Gerardo Ojeda-Ebert several years ago as we attended the same religious institution in Seattle, WA (…). When a trip was offered to Central-Eastern Europe (Czech Republic and Poland) in May 2015 I began to know him better and learned much of his history (…). On our trip he led an extremely diverse interfaith group of Americans, all highly motivated and educated and with very different energies and strength. He was the glue that made the trip work. After leaving Poland for years he returned and spoke as a native. He has an amazing proclivity for languages, speaking at least seven, and having the ability to switch mid-sentence from English to Polish to Spanish. When reunited with people he had not seen for years you could tell how much he meant to them and how excited they were that he had returned. Never once on the trip he was frustrated or upset despite many opportunities to do so.
While I do not have a personal experience with his work as a counselor and Life Coach, I know he is an extremely caring individual that easily relates to people all over the world regardless of education, language or religion. He is a wonderful non-judgmental listener. More importantly, he is fundamentally a good person who does charitable work all over the globe without worrying about his personal circumstances. I feel extremely comfortable recommending Gerardo without any reservations.
Sincerely yours, Arnold Levin MD
I enjoyed my time working with Gerardo as my life integration coach. He has a naturally warm, caring presence and gives the impression that there is nothing else more important in the world right now than what I have to say. It was easy to open up and explore the personal and professional challenges I brought to our sessions. I look forward to the opportunity to be coached by Gerardo again!
Gerardo is other-worldly! I have never met anyone like him, and it is an honor to spend time in his company. He is this amazing balance of wisdom, peace, grace, humor, brightness, clarity, ease and pure charisma, and I feel so incredibly fortunate to have him as a life coach. He asks all kinds of "ah-ha" questions that allow me to tap into that place of deep knowing within. And, Gerardo has a natural and wonderful way of helping me, and others, to feel deeply held and fully supported throughout the process of leading one out of their own fog. It is an honor to know you, Gerardo! You make the world lighter and brighter with your magnificence presence.
Before working with Gerardo I was dealing with some inner blockages and hurt parts of myself. This had manifested itself in depression and anxiety. Gerardo is a kind and loving soul and his presence alone is healing. He helped me to reframe my past traumas in a positive light and to find the hidden treasure in my experience. Gerardo is a gift to the world. Thank you Gerardo for your powerful presence and your kind soul. I truly value our time together and loved every moment working with you.
As a Transformational Life Coach, Gerardo (Ojeda-Ebert) expertly got me to discuss aspects of my life which I felt needed to be improved. He transformed these into actionable items that will result to the improvements sought for during the session.
Gerardo is an amazing citizen of the world, who brings a wealth of life-time deep experiences to his coaching practice. He is very talented and skilled in many coaching, counseling, and consulting capacities. He brings all of these experiences and skills to the coaching encounter, being completely present, caring, and empathetic. His insights lead to many “A-ha” moments. He is a truly unique and outstanding coach!
I felt completely comfortable the first time I sat down and spoke with Gerardo. Gerardo is a very accepting and kind person and he provides a space that allows me to put my guard down. Gerardo asks excellent questions. Questions that I either don’t think of, don’t think are important, or are just too chicken to ask on my own. It is very refreshing to work with a life coach as genuine and sincere as Gerardo who has a way of narrowing right in on the real issues! I always walk away from our sessions feeling self- empowered and ready to move forward in my life.
I was fortunate to be a member of Gerardo Ojeda-Ebert's heritage tour of the Czech Republic and Poland in 2015. As a retired teacher myself, I was impressed by the generosity with which Gerardo used his many skills to make our tour a comfortable yet meaningful experience. His attention to logistical details was exemplary, but his careful familiarity with people was unique: we Americans had a significantly more profound interaction with the people we met, thanks to Gerardo.
Gerardo was the instructor/ facilitator for a study tour of the 1000 years of Jewish life, past and present, in Poland and the Czech Republic. The trip was sponsored by Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue, of which he and I are members, in May of 2015. Gerardo held several pre-trip workshops on the Jewish history of these countries, and then acted on site as tour facilitator. Gerardo's expert knowledge of the Jewish experience in Central Europe is born of both a life lived in this area and extensive study. Gerardo lived in East Germany and Poland as a sociology and philosophy student, professional historical investigator at the Polish Academy of Sciences and as a Yiddish drama actor during the Communist era. As such, Gerardo was an actor and singer with the Jewish State Theatre in Warsaw and became active member and worked for Solidarity after the historical events of the summer of 1980.
I being of German Jewish heritage and having lost extended family in the Holocaust, found Gerardo lessons to be priceless. They gave me a profound understand of who and where I came from, and thus, who I am.
If you are reading this, it means that you've come to the right place in your search for a Life Coach that will, undoubtedly, positively impact your life. There is no mistake here. Gerardo and I have worked on many projects together, and every time I have found his leadership, his charisma, his patience and depth of knowledge to be not only invaluable for the project at hand, but also transformative for me personally. What is his secret? Just ask him about his life-journey and you will understand. When you look for a good therapist, you hopefully search for one that has gone through whatever it is you are going through, so that you can be sure they know what they are talking about and can really help you. This applies to finding a Life-Coach as well. Gerardo's life-story has brought him to many continents over many decades, caused him to face and overcome more challenges and adversity than you and I will ever face. Life has been his teacher. And now he is simply passing on what she has taught him. You couldn't have come to a better place. Welcome.
B'Shalom,
Twice I have traveled to Jewish sites in Poland with Dr. Gerardo Ojeda-Ebert, and have found him to be the very best kind of travel guide and facilitator. Gerardo is virtually a native speaker of Polish and is familiar with all the fine points of Polish customs and the practicalities of traveling throughout the country. Even better, he is deeply knowledgeable about the history and spirit of the area, in love with its people, and devoted to preparing his fellow travelers to experience the country with eyes and hearts wide open. As a Jew I found Gerardo’s insights to be transformative. Rather than focusing on the evil of those who collaborated in the Holocaust, he encouraged us to celebrate the goodness of the many Poles who risked their own lives to save their Jewish neighbors. We all have the potential to respond to life’s challenges with either hate or love, fearfulness or courage. Travel with Gerardo was a daily reminder to expand my own consciousness and view the people around me with more empathy and compassion.
I am delighted to recommend Gerardo-Ebert as a life coach. I participated in the heritage trip to Central Europe that Gerardo led. He created a period of in depth study which greatly enriched the travel experience in addition to the amazing itinerary.
Gerardo combines detailed organization with enthusiastic leadership. He opens his heart wide and has the ability to convey facts and information along with the inspiration and support to help you reach for your most cherished goals.
I worked with Gerardo when I was the Executive Director of Community for Youth at Risk, a non-profit organization in Seattle, WA, that offers mentoring and youth development programs to high school students at risk of not completing high school. Each year, our program included about 180 students and 150 volunteers. Our students came from varying socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
Gerardo joined the organization initially as a volunteer mentor in 2001, but he contributed much more than that role required.
Gerardo was embraced by the entire community of fellow mentors and students with whom he participated. He has a friendly, warm, and caring presence that endeared him to others. As a mentor, he was matched with a freshman who was living in a household that was experiencing multiple issues. Gerardo was not only a wonderful mentor to his student; he became a huge support to his mentee’s entire family as well. He was able to find additional community resources to help them deal with the issues they were facing. That’s Gerardo! He goes above and beyond to help solve problems.
Community for Youth asked mentors for a commitment of involvement for one school year. Gerardo renewed his commitment for four years. He continued to be a mentor to his student, and stayed with him through high school graduation. He also filled the gap for other students when their mentors moved away, he actively participated in building a community among mentors and students, and he contributed to the organization in many other ways as well. Because Gerardo believed so strongly in the organization, he volunteered to help with mentor recruitment and as a mentor coach. He was an enthusiastic advocate for the organization. He and his wife also organized fund raising initiatives that supported the organization. Gerardo facilitated a Mind Mapping workshop for the Board of CfY when we were exploring our strategic direction.
Gerardo enthusiastically embraces people and causes that he cares about. He has the passion and energy for making this world a better place. He has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate that passion over and over again.
I worked alongside Gerardo Ojeda-Ebert from 2002-2006 when we both served as Board members of the Interfaith Council of Washington (ICW) in Seattle, Washington. I shortly came to appreciate Gerardo’s enormous commitment and passion for building interfaith understanding, especially when it came to youth programming! I served as President of the ICW Board for several of those years, and it was heartening to watch as Gerardo spearheaded many innovative, interfaith programs and events for youth in our community. This included creation of day-long “Uncommon Bond” events to build understanding and friendship between teens of different faith backgrounds, an adult-volunteer “Mentoring Together” program for at-risk youth, and collaboration with several other organizations in the Seattle area that are advocates for youth. Gerardo has a deep commitment to building bridges of understanding across perceived boundaries of age, religion, and ethnicity—and his enthusiasm spills over to others. He is a person of great depth and personal integrity who will always add valuable, inclusive leadership to any team effort.
During the four years of intensive cooperation with Dr. Gerardo Ojeda preparing and executing our project to support children at risk and orphaned in Barranquilla, Colombia, I could witness the deep commitment that Dr. Ojeda-Ebert has as an advocate for at risk or orphaned children and youth. Dr. Ojeda was the author of the full documentation (460 pages long) with guidelines and concrete instruction for our childcare model and operations manual for the Family Style Children's Orphanage we created together in Barranquilla. He also was repeatedly our onsite trainer and coach during preparation and execution of the family style orphanage project in Barranquilla. This was done with the cooperation of the ICBF (Colombian Institute for Family Welfare) and with the financial sponsorship of the Benjamin Kullmann Foundation in Lichtenstein, Europe.
I could also see the direct work with children that Dr. Ojeda-Ebert facilitates and witness the incredible effect of empowerment that his techniques and work have on children. In just a few months of being with us our kids at the family style orphanage improved their physical, emotional health, as well as behavior and academic performance by 80%! Dr. Ojeda-Ebert child care model and operation manual worked wonders! All our staff, volunteers and advocates in Barranquilla participated also in his authored three day long transformational training (The Enlightened Lizard Training) facilitated by Dr. Ojeda-Ebert and I personally experienced the transformative empowerment of his coaching and training. I can only strongly recommend Dr. Ojeda-Ebert as a life coach, consultant and trainer for any program or organization that has as its goal the transformation and empowerment of orphaned children and youth at risk, as well as for the empowerment of responsible adults dealing with life issues.
Dr. Gerardo Ojeda - Ebert marked the beginning of a huge project for our country that will benefit many at risk children and orphans in Colombia, government entities have an eye on his authored new childcare model and Operations Manual of the family style orphanage home we created here under his leadership and coaching and we hope it will be soon replicated by other NGO’s in the country.
During his authored training “Illumination of Lagartos "( The Enlightened Lizard training) we found that the transformational methodology used by Dr. Gerardo is very positive and really effective for empowering these children as well as all of our staff, volunteers and advocates who participated. As the operative project coordinator I feel totally confident that the work we are doing under the guidance of Dr. Gerardo in the Benjamin Kullmann Foundation will be very extremely helpful for the improvement of the life of our kids.
Participating in Barranquilla the three days training authored and facilitated by Dr. Gerardo Ojeda-Ebert, allowed me to realize the perspective with which I was up to date projecting myself in life. I discovered how the successes and failures took place in the past and what to transform into the future. In my family life, it was enough to accept that there were situations that could not be changed (that “change” was not the solution) and I felt better taking the decision to observe them from another point of view, until I decided to undertake the actions to re-contextualize such situations. As a result of his training I now love/embrace more deeply my family, my roots and my story. Professionally, I understood that progress is determined by the ability to transcend and enjoy the process rather than be obsessed with a pre established the result (that can limit a more precious outcome), I learned to listen and better respect others, their human essence, to identify the appearance of the “reptilian state” (The core emotions and the sub-conscious activation of our most ancient brain parts). As a result I got to uproot unnecessary burdens, and open to attract what I know and feel I deserve, I became responsible for my-self and I could build a new genuine communication with my-self (internal sub-personalities) at different stages. I learned to listen to body signals and make sense of the silence. I got to feel a deeper love and respect for each other's existence.
By cooperating with Dr. Ojeda-Ebert in the creation in Barranquilla of his authored family style orphanage (Casa Hogar) with the Kullman Foundation, I have experienced love as a state of greater complacency with our existence, practicing faith, hope, and charity. What I did not know was that a tender smile, welcoming hugs and attune to the pain of others, would open doors for me to appreciate even more the organized structure of the family system and work for the welfare of the family itself especially for children with problems that add serious difficulties in their academic, physical, nutritional and emotional development. Maybe we can not erase completely the negative impact of their previous traumatic life experiences but offer the security of having the warmth of a home and healthy new structures, boundaries and empowerment experiences has deeply healing capacities. I can only recommend Dr. Ojeda-Ebert as a deeply compassionate, passionate, committed and highly effective life coach, consultant and / or trainer for any project development related to advocacy, protection and empowerment of at risk children and youth, as well as a Family Counselor and Life-Coach for personal transformational growth both for individuals, couples, family groups and organizations.
Dear Gerardo, Dear Brother!
We are inspired and empowered by your work in Barranquilla, Colombia. There is something enormously beautiful and transcendent in your work with orphaned kids. We saw in the photos that you are surrounded with sensitive and beautiful people in such work there. After reading your notes on your work in Barranquilla, we feel we also have become better people! We congratulate you also for the chosen role model, Dr. Janusz Korcak, you could not have chosen a better one for this kind of orphan child care and child & youth empowerment work you are doing! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT! Hugs from your extended Polish family.
“I never laughed so much while I was learning so much! Thank you, Dr. Gerardo. You helped me get my dream job!”
Dr. Gerardo saved my family. He gave me and my husband a safe and respectful space to work through our issues. And he gave my husband the tools to manage his anger and proneness to having dangerous accidents. It’s a miracle.
Dear Gerardo,
Thanks for your consideration to serving on the North Branch Advisory Board for Camp Fire USA.
You are knowledgeable and concerned about children and young people, and the issues they face growing up in Seattle today. You are known and are recognized in the community. Because of these things you have been recommended to help shape the future of Camp Fire USA in Seattle as a member of the North King County Branch Advisory Board.
The purpose of the advisory board is to develop annual branch program goals based on community needs and the Council's mission and programs, develop membership and promote program participation.(…)
I hope you will come and consider serving on the advisory board. Look forward to hearing from you.
I never imagined couching could be so fun. Sometimes there were tears, but mostly my sessions were filled with moments of illuminating ah-ha’s!
To whom it may concern,
We have known Dr. Gerardo Ojeda-Ebert both personally and professionally for many years. It is an honor for us to write this letter of recommendation in support of his move to Seattle and his plans to begin a new chapter in his professional career. Dr. Ojeda-Ebert is an extraordinary professional-very talented, very responsible and always pursues his work with passion and with a unique interdisciplinary mindset.
He has a Master in Arts in Sociology and Philosophy from Germany and a Doctorate in Social Sciences from The Nederland's. Dr. Ojeda-Ebert is an accomplished social communication expert, having studies, trained and worked as such in Chile, Spain, Germany and Poland. He has also trained in psychotherapy in Poland. His holistic mindset leads him to favor the integration of different disciplines, methods and techniques to treat groups as well as individual persons. He is known for being a life-long student.
Dr. Ojeda-Ebert was one of the founders of our psychological and mental health clinic in Warsaw, Poland ( Centrum Zdrowia Psychicznego,CZP) in 1998. CZP was one of the first private mental healthcare clinics in Poland after the regime change in 1989. Dr. Ojeda-Ebert was also a co-developer of both our professional programs and interdisciplinary team structure.
Together with psychologist Elzbieta Brodowska, Dr. Ojeda-Ebert has particularly devoted to the development of our preventive mental health caching program for parent, as well as to our nationwide campaign on depression. He organized the campaign in cooperation with the leading national media Gazeta Wyborcza (Newspaper) and Polish Public Television and radio.
We wish Dr. Ojeda-Ebert- our friend, partner and colleague a successful professional career as a counselor and coach in Seattle, WA.