"While therapy often addresses the past and helps clients understand why they are the way they are, personal coaching focuses on helping people go from where they are to where they want to go, says Ms. Simon, a member of the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce who works out of her home in East Palo Alto.

She has received considerable attention for her home businesses, which also include freelance writing and editing, and direct sales. She was one of several business people featured in a 1996 article in U.S. News & World Report on people who chose to create nontraditional work lives for themselves. Last year, the article was excerpted in the 75th anniversary issue of Reader's Digest, and Ms. Simon appeared on the cover of that special issue, along with such celebrities as Bill Gates and Tom Clancy.

Last year she was chosen by Pacific Bell as one of six outstanding work-at-home professionals in Northern California, and is currently a member of Pac Bell's work-at-home advisory board.

She's also a member of Women in Networking, and a board member of the Support Center for Nonprofit Management.

As a personal coach, she says, she works with people on any aspect of their lives. Among her clients: a young entrepreneur buying a company; a professor at a major university procrastinating over a. writing project; and a woman going through difficult professional and personal struggles to clarify what she really wanted from both arenas.

Coaches collaborate with clients to help them identify, prioritize, and achieve goals, says Ms. Simon, who became interested in coaching at the encouragement of her husband Scott. She got formal training at the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael.

A former reference librarian, Ms. Simon sees her job as an information gatherer, sounding board, advocate, and motivator. "I don't provide answers to clients," she says. "Rather, I ask questions, listen carefully to the answers, and help clients reach a decision about what they want to do and how they want to do it."

A key is ongoing contact with clients to support them as they go down their new path, she says.

"One of my main functions is to hold clients accountable for the actions they commit to, but to do soin a non-judgmental and constructive way," she says.

Accountability seems to work for most clients, Ms. Simon says. "When someone tells a coach he will apply for 10 jobs by the next session, that person knows the coach will be asking about it the next time they meet. This is great incentive for many people."

Generally, Ms. Simon and her clients meet weekly by telephone for half-hour sessions; she also does sessions in person and by email.

A librarian for 12 years, she later became a technical writer and editor, and has been working on her own since 1995.

Ms. Simon has a web site at http://arguscoaching.com, and can be reached by phone at 650551.0454. For more information about coaching, she recommends the Coaches Training Institute web site: (http://www.thecoaches.com).