I lived in Lancashire till I was 18 and then moved to Yorkshire which has been my base ever since. As a young adult I lived in France, Bolivia and Turkey and I still love travel and foreign languages. My early working life was in the call centre environments of BT and British Gas. I then worked for a small international charity and a local charity umbrella organisation. I ran my own ethical retail business for five years. After that I worked for a national charity supporting social entrepreneurs (https://www.unltd.org.uk/) and helped to set up a social enterprise arts venue, Left Bank Leeds, where I was director for several years. At the same time I began writing fiction, but have yet to be published.
After Left Bank Leeds I took some time out, during which time I was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through the whole array of treatment and life change that went along with that. It was during that time I began to explore the possibility of becoming a coach. I’d always done bits of informal coaching as a friend, mentor and manager, but knew there was much more to it (certainly proven as I trained and became accredited). Of course training as a coach never stops, there is always more to learn about how people behave and what helps them to change.
I coach because I want to enable people to (re)discover their passions and strengths and to make changes in their lives that help them to grow. Hence the tagline Explore. Transform. Flourish.
My approach as a coach is to give you plenty of space to talk and explore your own ideas, so that you can identify what’s important to you. I will listen carefully and where appropriate reflect back what you’re saying or ask a question to open up your thoughts and feelings more fully.
Often ideas unfold gradually. It can take time to understand what’s going on for yourself. Talking with me is a catalyst, but deep reflection will take place in the days/weeks between conversations.
I will help you identify your objectives and consider what might get in the way of you achieving your goals. I may ask you challenging questions to stir up new thoughts and ideas. I may encourage you to set challenges for yourself. But you’re in the driving seat. You are the one who has to discover what’s important and identify your own solutions. Apart from questions, I may suggest practical exercises or activities to help you clarify things for yourself, either in sessions or as (optional) homework. I can’t make you do anything and I won’t tell you what to do. If I have an opinion, or information I think might be helpful, I will ask if you want to hear it, but it’s up to you what you do with it.
I am friendly and sensitive to emotions, but my approach is generally quite direct, rather than cautious or subtle. I like to balance serious discussion with humour and some of the exercises I may suggest are fun and playful.
I am really keen on using ‘blue green space’ in coaching, which involves coaching outdoors, because of the many benefits of spending time in the natural world. More of that in a later post.