The work is only as good as thetrust it's built on.
A little about who I am, how I think, and why I do this work.
My background isn't typical for an executive coach.
I'm a licensed professional counselor with more than a decade of clinical training and experience.
Before I worked with executives, I worked with people in genuine crisis — couples on the edge, families under strain, and individuals carrying years of unresolved pain.
That training changed how I see leadership.
Most coaching helps people change behavior. That can be useful. But it often stops short of the deeper patterns that drive how leaders actually function under pressure.
Clinical work taught me that durable change usually requires going deeper — into the emotional and relational systems shaping the behavior in the first place.
That's what I bring to executive coaching. And it's a big part of why this work feels different.
What I'm trained to do.
I hold a Master's degree in counseling and am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Virginia. I'm also the Founder and CEO of The McClerren Group, a therapy and leadership development practice serving the Washington, DC metro area.
Degrees
M.A., Counseling
B.S.M., Finance — Tulane University
Licenses
LPC, VirginiaLPC,
Washington, D.C.
Role
Founder & CEO
The McClerren Group
My work is especially informed by two frameworks. Together, they let me work at the level where change becomes more than insight.
i.
Bowenian Systems Theory
A model for understanding how anxiety and reactivity move through relationships and systems. In leadership contexts, it helps explain why certain patterns persist, how stress gets amplified, and what more differentiated leadership looks like in practice.
ii.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
A clinically validated approach for understanding the internal dynamics that shape behavior. For high-performing leaders, it helps explain a common experience: knowing what wise leadership looks like — and still struggling to do it consistently under pressure.
Together, these frameworks help me work at the level where change becomes more than insight.
I do this because the people carrying the most often have the least real support.
Leadership can be deeply isolating.
The higher the stakes, the harder it is to find people who can hear the full truth, hold confidence, and engage the situation without agendas, politics, or oversimplification.
That's the gap I try to fill.
i.
Healthier leaders build healthier organizations.
ii.
Internal clarity improves external leadership.
iii.
Healthier organizations create better conditions for people to work, grow, and flourish.
That matters to me. Because when leadership gets healthier, the effects extend far beyond the executive. They shape teams, cultures, families, and communities.
My job is to help you access that capacity — and lead from it.
What clients
experience in this work.
This work is active, direct, and deeply relational.
I'm not here to simply reflect back what you already know or provide motivational accountability. I ask hard questions, offer honest perspective, and challenge assumptions that may be costing you more than you realize.
That challenge is never performative. It's in service of the work — and in service of the relationship.
Element One
Rigorous intellectual engagement
Element Two
Psychological safety
Element Three
Honest challenge without judgment
Clients often tell me the experience is a combination they didn't expect to find in the same room.
The aim is not just insight. It's to help you think more clearly, lead more faithfully to your values, and make real progress in places where you've felt stuck.
Accompanied, seen, and genuinely helped.
I work with a limited number of clients at any given time so I can give each engagement the time, attention, and preparation this work requires.
Northern Virginia · 2026
A little more
about me.
I live in Northern Virginia with my wife, Sarah, and our two daughters. We've built something together that we care deeply about — and the work of marriage, parenting, and building a life together continues to shape how I think, work, and grow.
I'm an avid reader and a serious student of leadership, psychology, and human development. I take seriously the idea that the person doing this kind of work has to be doing their own work, too.
When I need to clear my head, I'm usually in my basement swinging kettlebells or going for a run on the W&OD trail.
I don't ask clients to go places I'm not willing to go myself.
If this sounds like what you've been looking for, let's talk.
The first step is a short application. I'll review it personally and reach out within two business days if there's a potential fit.