Sonja Ware (she/her/ella)
Coordinator for Mission Development and Congregational Vitality Coaching in the ELCA
Associate Certified Coach, ICF
Email: sonjawarecoaching@gmail.com
Website: www.sonjawarecoaching.com
Accompanying you through the highs and lows of life in empowering ways
Sonja is a Pastor on the roster of the ELCA and Co-Pastor at Renewed Spirit Church in Reading, PA, a ministry of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod. This congregation has grown out of a four church merger, which Sonja facilitated from beginning to end.
Sonja has been a Coach since 2016 and has experience in coaching individuals as well as groups, focusing on leadership coaching and organizational consulting for nonprofit and volunteer organizations, life coaching, and end of life coaching, including grief coaching. In her coaching, she offers a particular sensitivity to cultural or religious diversity. She is a Coach Trainer and Evaluator for the ELCA.
Sonja has received Coaching Training with CoachNet (ACC level) and Coaching at the End of Life (PCC level). She is an Academic Analytic Member and Faculty Member of the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia (PCOP) after extensive training in Psychodynamic Theory at PCOP.
In her coaching, Sonja listens with a psychodynamically trained ear, sensitive to unconscious processes as well as inter-relational dynamics.
In 2019, Sonja completed a Balint Group Leadership Training Intensive with the American Balint Society and currently co-leads Balint Groups in various contexts. She also participates actively in the only known Balint Group for Clergy in the US.
A native of Germany, Sonja immigrated to the US in 2005. She is fluent both in German and in English and has coaching experience in both languages and countries. She has basic conversational skills in Spanish.
Sonja lives near Reading, PA with her spouse Michael, also an ELCA pastor, and their teenage daughter. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking with her two dogs, reading, playing minigolf for fun (her husband always wins), and learning Spanish.
