Business coaching for story work practitioners.
NFTC CERTIFIED Practitioner
SOMATIC PRACTITIONER
Allender Center NFTC Advisor and Topic Instructor
I help you build a business that stewards your training.
I'm Lora Kelley — a Master Certified Business Coach and Narrative Focused Trauma Care (NFTC) Practitioner. I work with NFTC practitioners, Freedom Academy coaches, those formed in Confessional Community, and therapists doing story-informed work.
You've done the beautiful work of investing in yourself and your training. Your business shouldn't be the part you figure out alone.
Read MoreThe Storied Living Business Mastermind
A business mastermind to fully equip you to grow your work and support your clients.
Join the WaitlistFOUR PARTS, ONE mastermind.
Six months of structured support, built around the four things every story-work practice needs to stand on its own.
SLB Live
Four days together in Nashville. Live teaching, live coaching, and the room of practitioners you've been missing.
Read MoreThe Vault
Twenty-six recorded training and coaching sessions from every cohort that came before. Open all year, return as often as you need.
Read MoreThe SLB Course Catalog
On-demand courses and workbooks built from the SLB curriculum — for the parts of the work you'll return to again and again.
Read More6 Months of Support
Weekly live coaching from January through July. Steady accountability and a real-time room when the work gets hard.
Read MoreThe SLB Live.
Four days in Nashville to begin your year together.
The cohort opens with a four-day intensive — full days of teaching, live coaching on every topic, and the time to be in the room with one another. You arrive on Tuesday evening for a cocktail meet-and-greet, work together Wednesday through Friday, and close with a private dinner before flying or driving home Saturday.
what you'll be
learning LIVE & TOGETHER.
Three full teaching days in Nashville. Live coaching on every topic.
- The SLB Way — You, Your Offer, Your Clients
- How to Be Coachable + Coaching Tools for the Year
- Attachment, Your Story, and Your Work
- The Spiritual Abuse of Work and Money
- Your 1-Year Plan
- Marketing
- Selling as Service
- Copywriting
- Entrepreneurial Bookkeeping
- Money: Personal and Business Finance
- Time Management
- Social Media
- Finding and Keeping Clients
- Endings and Renewal
The Vault.
Every past training and coaching call, available to you for the duration of the mastermind.
Twenty-six recorded sessions from previous SLB rounds — the wisdom of every cohort that came before. Open the door, take what you need, return again and again.
a library of
twenty-six SESSIONS.
Every part of building a practitioner business, covered.
- Intention & Identity
- Organic Marketing
- Sales Identity
- Intro to Email Copy
- Money Math
- The One-Year Plan
- Managing Yourself Through Time
- Scheduling
- Finding Clients
- CEO Identity & Coaching
- Live Coaching & Business Accounting
- Content Creation
- Consultations
- One-on-One Coaching (3-part series)
- Endings
- And more...
The Mastermind Courses.
On-demand training and workbooks to deepen the live work between sessions.
Polished, self-paced courses and workbooks built from the SLB curriculum — designed for the parts of the work students return to again and again. Available throughout your time in the mastermind.
- The Consultation Course — host a consult that converts the right clients
- The Scheduling Course — design and manage your calendar as a practitioner
- The First 12 Sessions Course — support your clients through their first twelve sessions
- 1-Year Business Plan Workbook
- Pricing & Packages Workbook
- Client Onboarding Workbook
Six Months of Group Coaching.
Weekly live calls. Steady accountability. The room you keep returning to.
From January through July, we gather weekly for live coaching. You bring the questions you can't answer alone — pricing, hard client conversations, the next launch, the next yes, the next no — and we work it out together.
Story-informed coaches and practitioners.
NFTC Practitioners
Certified in Narrative Focused Trauma Care and ready to build a sustainable practice around the work.
Freedom Academy Coaches
Trained in the Freedom Academy method and looking to scale your offer with integrity.
Confessional Community
Formed in Confessional Community and ready to professionalize your story-work practice.
NFTC Therapists
Licensed therapists integrating Narrative Focused Trauma Care into your clinical practice.
Voices from the room.
From past Storied Living Business Mastermind students and 1:1 coaching clients, in their own words.
Lora is one of the best coaches that I've worked with.
She has the rare combination of a highly attuned presence, an exceptional ability to see the dynamics of a story, a deep commitment to listening to the body, and excessive kindness.
Her pacing is just what I have needed during times of dysregulation and disruption.
She excels at "being with" and witnessing your heartache and your heroics.
Diving into this work is always a risk, and I highly recommend taking that risk with Lora.
Adam Young, LCSW, MDiv
Host, The Place We Find Ourselves
Author, Make Sense of Your Story
Fort Collins, CO
Lora's business mastermind has been well worth the investment! Lora has helped me grapple with my thoughts, define my business identity, develop practices to support my business operations, streamline my process with clients, and launch a newsletter. As a result, I've grown my business and my confidence.
I had already begun my coaching business a year before I began working with Lora but struggled with how to market and had very little knowledge of how to run a business. With her teaching, support, and care I now feel more confident, knowledgeable, and motivated to tell others about what I offer.
Working with Lora was a gift, especially as I was launching my Story Work and Coaching business! Having a strong support system when stepping out in faith, and into new endeavors, is especially critical in the moments that feel lonely and overwhelming. Lora was a clear voice of challenge, curiosity and encouragement for me during that season. She helped me to focus, lean in, and move forward into my calling!
Esperansita Bejnarowicz
NFTC Certified · Allender Center Facilitator & Instructor
Orion Township, MI
When I joined I was in a place of discernment and direction for the story coaching business I started 8 years ago. Working with Lora shifted my mindset and provided renewed vision and motivation. I recommend Lora's mastermind to both new and experienced practitioners who are looking to begin, clarify, or grow their work.
Working with Lora during the early stages of building my coaching practice was both grounding and energizing. She has a rare gift for helping you navigate the intersection of your personal story and your business vision, which brought clarity and confidence to my work. Lora gently helped me recognize places where my own story was inhibiting me, and she supported me in moving through those internal barriers. Her blend of deep listening and practical strategy created real momentum.
Ryan Baker, MDiv
Co-Founder, Story Matters Coaching
NFTC Certified Facilitator · Pastoral Counselor
Stillwater, OK
Joining Lora's Business Mastermind was one of the best decisions I made for both my story coaching business and personal growth. Starting at square one, I felt deeply supported while gaining the confidence to take risks, face challenges, and grow with far less fear of failure. Lora combines incredible business insight with genuine care for the whole person, making this mastermind truly transformative.
I came into the mastermind with a desire to do StoryWork coaching but with no idea how to create a thriving business. I left with confidence in the business I had built, in myself as the CEO and in an offer that I believe in. Lora set me up for success.
My biggest barrier wasn't my business; it was my belief in my offer. The mastermind with Lora changed that. Through the community and Lora's Storied Living Business Mastermind process, I found clarity around my offer and the confidence to actually put it in front of people. Highly recommend.
Graduate school did not prepare me to run a private practice. The SLB Mastermind has helped me not only learn about running a business, but to lean into the areas I feel stuck. As someone who values my own work and story, I deeply appreciate this integrative approach!
When I made the decision to start the mastermind, it was a long time before I even knew what my business would be. I didn't feel ready but also knew I didn't want to miss out on a minute of being able to approach this work from the perspective of how my story impacts every single decision. I'm so grateful for the opportunity Lora guided us through to practice changing my mind, learning to sit with hard things, and how to really move through and coach myself in places where I felt stuck. This is worth every bit of investment.
"I think fear was preventing me from making my business official, so I formed an LLC this week."
— Mastermind Student
"I felt like I was leaning over and Lora helped me get my feet back on the ground. She sturdied me."
— Mastermind Student
"The teaching content was incredible, but the coaching was so personal and helpful in a different way. I thought I was the only one who felt many of the things she shared."
— Mastermind Student
"Lora's coaching and honesty helped me prepare myself even for failure. I appreciate that things aren't sugarcoated."
— Mastermind Student
"The normalization of feeling like a beginner and a learner has lessened so much internal pressure and shame."
— Mastermind Student
"Lora's gentle and constant reminders that this business growth edge is in such large measure a personal growth edge have changed how I lead myself."
— Mastermind Student
"It was very helpful walking through finances, QuickBooks, money flow, money management. It was practical and helped me take next steps in managing my finances."
— Mastermind Student
"I really see ways we could support each other and fall forward together. That's a beautiful thing."
— Mastermind Student
"This space has been incredibly supportive over these past months. It's been a worthy investment."
— Mastermind Student
"Lora's template for doing a consultation, the encouragement to plan a sixty-minute consult call, the types of questions to offer on a form ahead of time. I feel supported."
— Mastermind Student
"Overwhelm does not mean I am unwise. Thank you for that."
— Mastermind Student
"I value the time and energy Lora has put into creating this. I admire and appreciate her as a coach, mentor, and friend."
— Mastermind Student
Be the first to know.
Members of the waitlist receive first access, full details, and a private invitation before applications open publicly in July 2026.
Trained in story work. Built to build businesses.
The Origin
Storied Living was created on a TV tray. During COVID, after her husband Eric's work as an event photographer stalled indefinitely, Lora and her family sold their house and moved in with her mother. What began in that upstairs bedroom — while they navigated the complex and ambiguous loss of those years — has become a multi-six-figure coaching practice serving hundreds of clients across the globe.
Her Mission
Lora takes seriously Dan Allender's charge: "You can't take anyone further than you've been willing to go yourself." She built her business so she could teach others to do the same. Her belief is simple — the more business-capable story-work coaches are, the more human lives are served and healed. The business is what helps the coach help the people who need support and care.
Her Work
Since 2020, Lora has coached hundreds of clients and grown the practice from zero to a multi-six-figure business. She has spent years facilitating NFTC Levels 1 and 2 and taught "Courage to Coach," "How to Build a Story Work Business," "Flourishing," and "Shame" for The Allender Center community.
Beyond The Allender Center, she has lectured at Shenandoah University on "Storytelling Between the Lines: Listening for the Story We Don't Know We're Telling," taught on leadership at the National Student Leadership Convention in Washington, D.C., and co-developed a workshop on photography and business with her husband Eric Kelley. Alongside the mastermind, she takes on a small number of high-level executive business coaching clients each year.
Her Practice of Giving Back
Her business supports the work that shaped her. She has funded scholarships for practitioners pursuing training programs, hosts one to two pro bono trauma clients each year, has more than covered the cost of all of her own training and continuing education, and donates hours each year teaching and mentoring young leaders.
Education + Work
- 2026Advisor for NFTC Level 1, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2026Subject Instructor on "Flourishing" for NFTC Level III and "Shame" for NFTC Level II, The Allender Center
- 2026–28PPN, Pre-perinatal Psychology 2-Year Study Group, with Janet Evergreen at Riverbend Integrative Trauma Center
- 2025Spoke at Shenandoah University's Center for Story Telling, "Story-telling Between the Lines"
- 2025Facilitator for NFTC Level 2, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2025Taught "Courage to Coach" for The Allender Center NFTC, all levels
- 2025Taught "Flourishing" for The Allender Center NFTC III
- 2024Facilitator for NFTC Level 2, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2024Taught "How to Build a Story Work Business" for The Allender Center, all levels
- 2024One Semester Assisting PPN Study Group
- 2023Facilitator for NFTC Level 1, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2023Exploring the Vagus System Part Three, Janet Evergreen, Riverbend Integrative Trauma Center
- 2023Exploring the Vagus System Part Two, Janet Evergreen, Riverbend Integrative Trauma Center
- 2022Exploring the Vagus System Part One, Janet Evergreen, Riverbend Integrative Trauma Center
- 2022Master Coach Certification, The Life Coach School
- 2022Facilitator for The Story Workshop, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2021Coach Certification, The Life Coach School
- 2020–22Two-Year Apprenticeship, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2019–22Facilitated Trauma-Informed Support and Education for The Fellows Program with Abundant Life Ministries
- 2018–19The Externship Program, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2017Level 2 NFTC Training, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2015–16Level 1 NFTC Training, The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Psychology and Theology
- 2008–15Co-Created, Ran, Owned and Sold Para Coffee (Grit Coffee), Charlottesville, VA
- 2003–21Owner/Operator, Lora Kelley Creative Direction, Styling & HMUA