Hi, I’m Dolores Rio.
Creating positive change in the world happens through people.
When you show up at our best - aligned with who you are, leveraging what you do best, alive in your work - you feel better, you serve better, you lead better. You contribute more fully to the causes and communities you care about and need you most.
Alignment is the key to impact and well-being.
However, careers aren’t static. As you change and the world around you changes, what once fit may no longer fit. You find yourself at a crossroads and need to redesign your career so it continues to reflect who you are and how you want to contribute. Sometimes it's a small realignment. Other times, it's a more significant pivot.
I believe that building a career that allows you to show up that way isn't just a personal decision. It's a responsibility. To yourself. To the people you serve. To the world that you're trying to improve.
I also believe that a meaningful career is available to anyone willing to do the inner work of understanding and trusting themselves, and to act on what they discover and know to be true.
That's why I do this work.
My Story
The moment I finally paused
For sixteen years, I carried a quiet whisper.
I was in the field, supporting emergency response work, work I believed in deeply. I was serving communities, leading programs, and contributing to causes that mattered. Yet somewhere underneath, I sensed there was something else for me. I didn't know what. I didn't look too closely. I kept moving forward.
All I knew was my deep belief that I am here to be of service to the world. Many times, I prayed to understand what that meant.
In 2011, I explored facilitation and event organization for a few months, something I had always loved doing in my work. I felt unsure. I felt alone in the question of where I fit. So I went back to what I knew. I took the next opportunity and moved into a global position in New York.
Then my son was born. I looked at him and asked myself: what is the greatest lesson I want for him? The answer came immediately. You can do whatever your heart wants, if you choose to. The world needs to hear your song.
And I heard it echo straight back to me and ask: " Are you living by that lesson yourself?
This time, I really paused and listened. And, I took action.
Finding My Way
I started a business and ran it alongside my work for two years. I loved many parts of it, but I also discovered it wasn't the right fit. What it gave me, however, was something even more valuable: clarity and self-trust. I began to understand more deeply what was for me and what was not, and I discovered that I was capable of doing hard things.
So I gave myself four years to figure it out properly. The call of coaching kept getting louder. This time, I tested it seriously. The deeper I went, the more I realized it was a fit for me, and that I needed to figure out how to bring it into the real world and where it could be of greatest service.
Eventually, I made a plan. I set a date. And in 2022, I leaped.
It was exciting and scary all at once. Yes I had a plan but making it real? That was still frightening.
What I discovered is that the answers had always been there. I simply needed to learn how to listen, choose what felt most coherent in that moment, trust it, and then make it real.
That is exactly what I help others do now. Because clarity rarely comes from thinking harder. It comes from understanding yourself more deeply, learning to trust what you know, and having the courage to act on it.
I offer the support I wish I had sought earlier, because this journey is so much shorter and easier when you don't walk it alone.
Soul to Strategy Coaching
Coaching Philosophy
I believe you already have the answers.
Not because career change or redesign is easy, it isn’t. But because you are whole, resourceful, and far wiser than you may realize. The answers are there, underneath the fog, the doubt, and the noise of a world that keeps shifting.
My role is not to tell you what to do. It is to create the conditions where, as your coach and thought partner, you can hear what you already know, make sense of what matters most, and trust it enough to act.
That requires real coaching.
The kind that helps you think beyond your current assumptions and see blind spots you can't see from where you're standing. The kind that helps you reconnect with your intuition, emotions, and inner wisdom - the inner signals that logic alone can't always access. The kind that offers enough structure to feel safe and enough space to feel free.
This is what I call soul to strategy. We go deep before we go tall. We slow down before we accelerate.
Approach
Every coaching journey with me has two dimensions:
Structure — a clear, phased process that moves you from uncertainty to clarity, from clarity to strategy, and from strategy to actions. You always know where you are and where you're going.
Flow — within that structure is a space entirely tailored to you. Your pace. Your questions. Your insights. Nothing prescribed. Nothing generic.
And running beneath all of it: The most sustainable career decisions are not built from external expectations. They are built from a deep understanding of who you are, what matters to you, and how you want to contribute. When you lead yourself from the inside out, everything changes.
Unique Blend
There are many talented coaches. What makes my work different is not any one credential, certification, or experience. It is the combination of the professional competencies, lived experiences, perspectives, and approaches that I bring to our work together.
Professional Coaching, Not Advice
As an ICF PCC-certified coach, I adhere to the International Coaching Federation's values, competencies, and ethics. That means I am trained and held accountable to international coaching standards and practices, not advice-giving dressed up as coaching. My job is not to hand you answers. It is to help you find yours.
A Deep Understanding of Your World
With twenty-three years in humanitarian and development work (from the field to country, regional, and global leadership roles), I understand the sector, the culture, the pressures, and the identity that often come with this work.
I don't need to be explained to. I already know your terrain.
That means we can spend less time translating your reality and more time helping you navigate it.
Lived Experience of Reinvention
I have gone through my own career redesign and continue to redesign as I grow. I've experienced uncertainty, false starts, experiments that didn't work, and the frightening moment of finally taking the leap.
I know what it costs. I know what it takes. And I know what becomes possible on the other side.
A Whole-Person Approach
Career decisions are rarely just career decisions.
The women I work with aren't just navigating a career question — they're often carrying exhaustion, self-doubt, and the weight of years spent putting their work before themselves.
Alongside coaching, I bring training in holistic wellness and mindfulness practices. The inner work we do together isn't just strategic and goal-oriented. It addresses the whole person — energy, nervous system, and well-being. Because sustainable change doesn't come from the intellect alone. It comes from the whole person.
Community Along the Way
Finally, I believe in rising together.
Alongside our private work, you become part of a community of purpose-driven women navigating the same season. Because the women who move furthest are rarely the ones who figure everything out by themselves. They are the ones who find support, connection, and encouragement along the way.
Together, this unique blend allows me to support both the inner and outer dimensions of change, helping you gain clarity, build confidence, and move forward with intention.
If something resonates, I’d love to hear from you.
A Clarity Call is where we can begin. A spacious conversation to assess where you are, what you're navigating, what you desire, and how I can best support you.