You Understand the Pattern.
Now Let's Change What Happens When It Appears.
Private coaching for accomplished people who find themselves repeating behaviors they understand—but haven't yet been able to change.
WHO THIS IS FOR?
You Don't Have to Be in Crisis
You may be successful professionally but struggling personally.
Facing retirement or reinvention.
Repeating a relationship pattern.
Unable to stop achieving long enough to enjoy what you've achieved.
Taking responsibility for everybody.
Avoiding something you know needs confronting.
Finding yourself reacting disproportionately to criticism, rejection or uncertainty.
Or simply realizing:
"I understand myself remarkably well. So why do I keep doing this?"
That's where our work begins.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
This is where we explain the personas more personally.
Perhaps your Protector appears when somebody you love is struggling.
Your Achiever appears when you feel uncertain about your value.
Your Pleaser appears when someone is disappointed with you.
Your Warrior appears when vulnerability feels dangerous.
Your Avoider appears when discomfort becomes threatening.
The question isn't whether these actors are good or bad.
The question is:
Why did this actor appear now?
THE COACHING PROCESS
This becomes the heart of the page.
1. RECOGNIZE
We identify your recurring behavioral patterns and the situations that activate them.
2. UNDERSTAND
We explore the predictions underneath them.
What does this part of you believe will happen if it doesn't act?
3. INTERRUPT
We learn to recognize the critical moment when an automatic response begins.
4. DIRECT
You practice choosing a response appropriate to the situation you're actually in rather than automatically repeating an old strategy.
WHAT WE MAY WORK ON
Relationships and recurring conflict.
Career transitions.
Retirement and identity.
Achievement and self-worth.
Boundaries.
Decision-making.
Confidence.
Communication.
Avoidance and procrastination.
Leadership.
Habits.
Purpose.
Personal reinvention.
Life after success.
WHAT I WON'T DO
I won't tell you how to live your life.
I won't give you motivational slogans.
I won't try to turn you into someone else.
I won't pathologize every difficult emotion.
And I won't pretend that four decades studying behavior means I understand your life better than you do.
Then:
My job is to help you see the patterns you can't easily see from inside them—and help you discover what becomes possible when you can choose differently.
WHAT WE PRESERVE
We Don't Fire the Cast
This is where we use one of PPT's greatest strengths.
The Achiever keeps ambition.
The Warrior keeps courage.
The Protector keeps loyalty.
The Pleaser keeps sensitivity.
The Observer keeps insight.
The Avoider keeps discernment.
We preserve the gift while reducing the cost.
Private coaching is personal development, not psychotherapy or mental-health treatment.
The work can explore past experiences when they illuminate present behavior, but its focus is present patterns, choices, goals, relationships, transitions and future action.
Let's Find Out Whether We're a Good Fit
What keeps happening in your life that you understand—but haven't yet been able to change?
What would you most like to be different six months from now?
Why does changing this matter now?
Have you previously tried to change this pattern? What happened?
What would make working together worthwhile for you?
Your past may have written the script.
You still get to direct the next scene.
About Howard J. Rankin, Ph.D.
Howard J. Rankin, Ph.D., is a psychologist, author, and media expert whose work focuses on how people think, decide, and regulate themselves under pressure.
Across several decades, he has worked clinically and privately with executives, physicians, creatives, and public figures navigating complexity, burnout, and major life transitions. His career has included clinical practice, neuroscience-informed work, authorship, and national media appearances.
Despite public visibility, his primary focus has always been private, depth-oriented work with individuals at meaningful inflection points—moments when intelligence and success are no longer sufficient to restore clarity.