My Services - How it is to work with me
How it works to work with me
My goal has always been to create a simple and user-friendly system, so you feel confident in “typing” yourself and can use my learning materials to work on your style independently if you wish.
However, I love to offer my services. I know it’s difficult to see ourselves clearly. And I love meeting people, connecting with you and being a part of your style journey. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be trusted as your guide.
Your Options
I don’t do typing or analysis from photos. I need to meet you to make my analysis, and also to make sure I can explain the analysis to you in the way that works.
I prefer to do an initial 30-minute Gentle Guidance session and then do follow up 60-minute practical “Workshop” type sessions.
The initial GG session plants the seeds of change which you nurture and tend on your own. You can take time to reflect on what I said, work through my Foundations exercises, and find the way to make the quadrant and archetypes your own. This gives you the greatest control and ownership over your style process.
The follow-up sessions are so much fun! We do online shopping, look at pinterest, or analyze your outfits together to come up with new ideas or subtle changes you can make. We also talk more about your essence, keywords, life and style challenges, all the good stuff! I have clients who've come back many times because it's so helpful and so fun to just chat about style for an hour together with someone who gets what you're trying to do.
I do offer 60-minute Style Talks because I know that some people really want an in-depth, slower-paced, more intense conversation about their style. I love Style Talks and I want that service to be available to you. However, currently I structure my pricing to incentivize the combination of the GG start up session + follow-up sessions.
How Gentle Guidance Works: Practical Details
I release new GG times and advertise them on my Instagram profile or to my mailing list. You can go in to the calendly page and choose your date and time. You pay when you book. Immediately after booking you receive a confirmation e-mail with the Zoom link for our meeting and a Form for you to fill out.
I ask you to upload some photos of yourself (neutral photos but also outfit photos), to write a bit about who you are, and to share any inspiration boards you want me to see. You’ll need to make sure you have Zoom installed on your computer or phone (it’s free).
You’ll receive a 24-hour reminder before the talk. During our talk, I will make a recording. I’ll send you the recording after the session (and thereafter remove it from my computer). After the GG, you’ll also receive the Foundations Workbook so you can start doing style work with your quadrant.
A few months after GG you’ll get a follow-up mail inviting you to book a “Style Work” session, but you are of course free to book this session any time you want.
How I analyze you
My system is about finding the greatest harmony between your essence (the total experience of you), your aesthetics (how you dress) and your style logic (how you make your style decisions).
When you fill in the form and send in photos and inspiration boards, I analyze these to get a sense for your aesthetic preferences and the essence I can read from photos. This is really helpful to me, even though photos can never tell the full pictures.
During our call, I will ask you some questions about you and your style story. We spend about 8-10 minutes asking questions and getting to know you. I will usually ask first about your current style situation and what you would like help with! After that there’s no formula to it - I just ask questions based on my intuition and what I’m curious about.
During this Q&A session, I focus on listening and taking notes. During this part of the call I am analyzing three things.
First, I am obviously analyzing your essence, how I experience you. I have a sense for which quadrant you would fit into or which keywords come to mind. This is a combination of your appearance, voice, mannerisms, presence, way of speaking, the totality of how I experience you. This part is hard for me to explain because it’s mostly intuitive work.
Second, I am analyzing the information you’re telling me. I ask questions related to your style process, your struggles and your instincts, what makes you happy and what annoys you. It’s so helpful to hear from you! I am analyzing how your style process could best be matched up with the Style Logics of the quadrants, and how it relates to your essence. This is logical work, making sense of the patterns in what you’re telling me.
Third, I am analyzing your communication style. Every person has their own type of need. Some people want me to be really direct and to give them as much info as possible. Some people want me to be more gentle and to phrase things as suggestions. Some people are stuck in a land of concepts and need guidance to sensations and images. Etc etc. So much of the *success* of the Gentle Guidance hinges not only on the content of my analysis but my ability to deliver it to you in a way that actually lands and helps you. So this is a critical part of the experience and another reason why I do analysis as a conversation and not via photos etc.
After the initial Q&A I will tell you where I put you in the system. I will draw the quadrant and show you on the map where you fit in. Your placement depends on how I experience your essence and also what you communicate about your Style Logic. My goal is to generate the *most harmonious fit* in my system - the place where you will best honor the Essence of you and have the most effective and enjoyable style process.
After showing you where you fit in, I will talk to you about how the quadrant can help you in terms of style logic, and which archetypes you can use and HOW they specifically can help you. You may have read this info or heard it in a video before, but I am going to explain it to *you* in a special way so that you understand what I’m saying and how to actually use the material. So even if you *know* what archetype or quadrant you are, I promise you that you will gain a new clarity and confidence in using this information.
Finally, I will tell you some keywords relating to your essence and your aesthetics. Sometimes we talk about this a lot! I have visual suggestions based on the keywords and this can be really helpful. However, for many people the quadrant/archetype is the most helpful starting place and the keywords are just like confetti on the cake. So you *know* which ones are for you, but you don’t feel pressured to start using them and figuring them out.
Availability
I know it’s weird to write a long post about how amazing my services are when there are no times available. Honestly, until mid-April my availability is a bit limited. After that, I will be back home in Stockholm and on a predictable schedule. But I am trying to bring you as many times as possible before then.
I am so grateful for your interest in my work and I would love to help you. If you’re worried about whether the GG is for you or not, you can always email me at hello@stylethoughtsbyrita.com.