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“When things happen too fast, nobody can be certain about anything at all, not even himself”. Milan Kundera, Slowness 1995

Do you ‘have it all’ and believe you ‘should be happy’ but still feel like something is missing from your life?

Are you a high-achiever? Living life in the fast lane? Perhaps you’re in the rat-race, but don’t feel much like a rat.

Would you like to live more authentically in life, business, at work or in your relationships?

Deep down, you know there’s more to life, but you still feel you haven’t found it yet?

Are You Putting On A Face?

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” Carl Jung

Many of us ‘fall into’ life or ‘end up’ somewhere we never planned to be, and we’re often so busy just getting on with life or ‘putting on a face’ in the world, blissfully unaware that our thinking and life choices today are heavily influenced by outdated childhood, family (and sometimes generational) patterns and perceptions about what we think we should be doing or how we ought to live.

Many of us don’t allow ourselves to think about what we really want our lives to look like.

No matter what your age, coaching with me can help you to ‘wake up’, so that you can identify and start to choose more consciously what you want for – and from your life each day – in your relationships, at home, at work, and in all areas of your life. What if you could really have that?

MY MASK AND ME

One client said to me,
“How come I went into banking, when I really wanted to be a dancer?”

Another revealed
“I wonder why I married so young and had children, as I never really wanted to be a parent and I always wanted to travel”

And
“I always knew I was gay – from the age of 7 – but I got married because being gay in our family was a definite no-no. I couldn’t face the disapproval of my family or disappoint my father.”

You may currently feel apathy, stuck, bored or just a lack of hope or optimism for your future. Or perhaps you have recently experienced big life changes – having a baby, losing a parent, being made redundant or other changes in your life which have left you questioning what you really want.   

Maybe you have experienced depression, anxiety or some other life challenges – and this has affected your confidence about the choices you think you have now.

YOU CAN HAVE MORE FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
Carl Jung

Challenges in life can be painful (but not always!) and yet with any pain, there is also an opportunity to create real and sustainable change. It’s often a sign that something needs shifting and we always have choices. What we can’t always do, is see them on our own.

In fact, it is often through feeling these deep and painful feelings – and facing life with curiosity as it is now, asking what it might be teaching us – that we can gain much as we take new steps towards positive, conscious choices for ourselves. Choices that matter to us, rather than continuing to make choices which may well have been serving other people’s needs or ideas of who or what we believe we should be.

About Me    Get In Touch

Working for Good

Working for Good

"Although circumstances may change in the blink of an eye, people change at a slower pace. Even motivated people who welcome change often encounter stumbling blocks that make transformation more complicated than they'd originally anticipated."
Amy Morin

I have a deep passion for and commitment to my own personal development, having invested in a range of training and personal development over the course of 20+ years, including NLP, Coaching and holistic health & wellbeing training. I am also a qualified and experienced Counsellor. I share this to assure you that you are in safe hands.

I also have a background in Human Resources Management and have worked in both corporate and public sector settings, gaining a Certificate in Personnel Practice in 1992, then a Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management at Kingston University, Surrey in 1995. 

One Friday lunchtime in 1998, I bought the book by Laurence G.Boldt, ‘How to Find the Work You Love’.

After reading it over a weekend, I sat down and typed my resignation letter to leave a corporate Human Resources job I had begun to feel like ‘a square peg in a round hole’ in. I finally decided to take the leap and study a Three Year Part-Time BACP Accredited Diploma in Counselling, which I had been interested in for some time.

I was unaware of it at the time, however, that book was my first virtual coach, asking me ‘to fast-forward to the end of my life and think about what I would most regret’ and ‘if I only had two weeks to live, what would I choose to do with my life’. Three weeks later, I had enrolled on a counselling diploma course, found another HR contract with a higher salary on four days per week, freeing me up to concentrate on my studies and see clients as the training progressed. When I decided to trust my heart, and follow my intuition about what felt right for me, everything came together to support me.

"What you really want for yourself is always trying to break through, just as a cooling breeze flows through an open window on a hot day. Your part is to open the windows of your mind."
Vernon Howard

My most recent investments and qualifications include the ICF Accredited Diploma in Transformational Coaching and an Accredited Certificate in Corporate Coaching, both gained with www.animascoaching.com

Other personal development training and Continuing Professional Development over many years, includes a range of holistic wellbeing practices such as, Reiki Energy Healing (Levels I,II,III) Family Constellation Workshops, an Introduction to Play Therapy and a Certificate in Hypnosis and TimeLine Therapy™.

So why the snail?

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. " Confucius

It was during one of my own coaching sessions that the image of a snail dropped in, as I was busy criticising myself for not doing things quickly enough. Yet, through careful prompting by my coach, I discovered that the pace I was forcing myself to move at, wasn’t ‘me’. It was an old pattern set up many years prior – and not by me!

I realised that I liked the pace I moved at. And guess what? Things still got done. I was still achieving the things I wanted to achieve. And I could finally see that I wasn’t being lazy, which was also a hidden fear of mine (along with ‘what will people think?’ ‘what should I be doing right now?’ and all that other people-pleasing behaviour!)

SO WHERE IN YOUR LIFE ARE YOU TRYING TO FIT IN RATHER THAN ALLOWING YOUR OWN, UNIQUE IDENTITY TO UNFOLD?

The snail goes at his own pace. Did you know, he has two types of slime? One to propel him forwards and another to protect him along his journey. He also carries his home on his back, which he retreats into for safety when he senses danger. Ancient civilisations revered the snail, believing this slow creature was sacred, with his beautiful shell representative of the entire universe. Most snails are also both male and female. I didn't know that snails were so fascinating!

Working with me means that you will go at your own pace. The coaching space allows you naturally to slow down, reflect and start to think about yourself, your life and your relationships differently, so that you can easily and intuitively take action towards creating your authentic life and positive change that is meaningful to you.

Coaching for Individuals

PERSONAL & WELLBEING COACHING

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

'YOUR AUTHENTIC LIFE' COACHING CAN GIVE YOU:

An opportunity to slow down and take focused, reflective time for yourself and take an honest look at your life

Become aware  of your automatic thinking, about what matters to you and how you truly feel – basically, find your authentic self (hopes, dreams, fears, current barriers, needs and desires for a better life)

Clarity about where you are now, how and why you may have got there and where you want to be, going forwards

Private time and space to talk, be heard and understood as you make plans for stepping into your authentic life

The confidence to take small steps or great leaps to bring your authentic self to life

The ability to recognise and dialogue with your unhelpful patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, so that change can take place

Support as you take the time you need to move through fears towards creating a future you’ll love

Opportunities to process the (sometimes challenging) feelings which can arise as a result of taking full responsibility for your life (grief, loss, fear, excitement, guilt….and even positive feelings can ‘disturb’ us!)

A chance to learn how to navigate the dynamics, feelings, reactions and expectations of others – along with your own relationship with change as the old ‘people-pleasing’ behaviours drop away

Book your free, confidential consultation now. Your authentic life matters!

Coaching for Organisations

"Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating." Simon Sinek

One-to-One EXECUTIVE COACHING & team coaching FOR AUTHENTIC COMMUNICATION and culture change  

How are you and your team showing up at work? Would you like to lead more assertively or behave more confidently, whilst bringing more of your ‘real’ self to work, assured that you are continuing to maintain professional relationships?

Coaching for more authentic engagement and relationships at work can be powerful and empowering for everyone.

BENEFITS OF WORKING MORE AUTHENTICALLY

Improvements to overall feelings of wellbeing – for yourself and others

An increase in trust with colleagues, boosting morale and overall performance & productivity levels

Greater psychological safety – when employees feel safe, they share ideas, speak their truth and greater collaboration can take place

More confidence, capability and support throughout the organisation can result in lower stress levels and a more ‘caring’ environment for everyone

Spontaneous creativity and fun, opening up diverse approaches to problem-solving

Openness, honesty and feedback become ‘the norm’, thus changing the culture over time

Staff retention levels can improve, sickness absence levels decrease, and a more ‘adult’ working environment ensues