Life in its essence is change. I find comfort in the knowledge that nothing ever stays the same.
I love working alongside people who are really engaged in the process of self-exploration. The more I coach and learn, the more I believe the key to changing how we experience life is to accept ourself, which comes from awareness. Self-awareness is the process of seeing and so the capacity to change. Self-acceptance creates the deepest change in how we feel, rather than trying to make things change.
We don’t need to change who we are, we need to be more true to who we are.
Background:
Professionally, following a degree in Interdisciplinary Human Studies, I started my working life with the homeless and in housing advice. I felt the need to be creative and studied Interior Architecture which absorbed me, and lectured in landscape studies. I was fascinated by learning and creativity so went into arts education research and development within academia. I then returned to the voluntary sector as a project co-ordinator in arts and wellbeing. Since then, coaching has taken me back to Human studies. In this tidy little story there are plenty of gaps, false starts, departures, terminations, short lived passions, dead ends and frustrations. So many clients judge the ‘CV Story’ of their working life negatively, against some idea of what it should look like. There is naturally stuckness, search, misdirection and discontentment as we learn and change.
Personally, the catalyst to training as a coach was my experience of several life events in a fairly condense period of time; redundancy, bereavement and then a problem with my back. These experiences led me towards deeper personal change. I let go of the career goal and the 40K by the time I’m 40 concept and spent time living day by day, allowing myself to be, exploring different things and re-evaluating my values. Whilst ‘sitting in’ so much uncertainty, I realised how important our capacity to adjust and embrace change is. In 2014, I trained as a Transformational Life Coach and found a vocation and set up my practice. What I’m passionate about, who I am and how I work became congruent.
Training & Approach:
My therapeutic and creative approach to coaching draws from a range of theoretical models and training particularly Internal Family Systems therapy (parts), Polyvagal Theory (nervous system, safety and fear), Hakomi (mindfulness & the body), Systemic (mapping) and Somatic (mind/body) coaching approaches. I trained with Animas (Diploma in Personal Transformation Coaching, Distinction). Professional development is continuous through further courses and supervision. I am also a Coaching Supervisor (Diploma in Coaching Supervision, EMMC). I established the Frome Practitioner Group for Mind and Body practitioners in 2015.
I have learnt through my own explorations of personal change in coaching, therapy and acknowledging childhood wounds, patterns and beliefs, to be less defensive, less reactive, to know and express what I feel, be less self-critical, manage criticism better, listen more, apologise when I need to, accept that I’m not always right and be less controlling. I am beginning to learn how to live being myself; a little bit freer every year. And that requires courage. Increasingly, I believe recognising our states, understanding our needs for safety and cultivating self-compassion and learning centredness can create the balance we need in order to be more our self.
I love being in nature and living in a quiet village with my cats. I am creative and my main passion is creating spaces for living in peacefully. I dance, learn metal sculpture, practice Qi Gong and love writing. I am constantly exploring the balance between being and doing, accepting and pushing myself in life. As a coach and a person I’m deeply reflective, insightful, warm, calm, direct and challenging. I value integrity, authenticity, kindness and connectedness.
My purpose is to help people to see things differently and find more space. To feel lighter, freer and to be more self-accepting. We cannot love life without loving ourselves and living is fundamentally about love. Thinking gets in the way.