A BIT ABOUT ME

What's your background?

I had a background in publishing and design, before settling into a career of community development where I spent many years travelling across the UK and Europe teaching people how to tell stories about their own lives using social media. The ‘how’ had two parts to it; the technical ‘how’ of blogging, podcasting and film-making, but also the personal ‘how’, working with people’s confidence and self-belief to identify and value stories about themselves. It was this work that led me to coaching as I loved the personal development aspect of the role and wanted to go further and deeper with people than group work could facilitate. 

After my coaching training, I was lucky to find an opportunity to work with a local charity that offered coaching to people in prison and I spent five years coaching in both male and female prisons. The work was pure privilege. When people have lost everything, and feel that so much is at stake, the moment they decide they trust you is when extraordinary change can happen. There were so many powerful moments, and I remain touched and honoured to have been trusted to bear witness to such transformation. Read more about my experience here.

What would you like people to know about your coaching?

I trained first in Cognitive Behavioural Coaching, then in Transformational Coaching, added a dash of Time to Think, achieved a Diploma in Relational Team Coaching and most recently completed a Deep Dive in Gestalt Coaching. 

But the interesting thing about my style is that, after delivering over 1000 coaching hours, I find that the training sits increasingly in the background. What matters most is being able to be truly present, human to human, able to receive someone’s story. I find the process and the results are so much more fulfilling this way. I hold the space, wait, and then invite the client to play with what emerges. 

What would you like people to know about you?

I have always been passionate about making the world a better place, variously volunteering for Crisis, Oxfam, George House Trust and Amnesty International. I am incredibly proud to be on the Board of Trustees for Manchester Mind to support a fantastic organisation in providing excellent mental health provision for the city. 

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I am someone who has struggled with mental health throughout my life. I have worked with some incredible practitioners who have transformed my ability to live well. I have also worked with some terrible practitioners who took advantage of my vulnerability. I therefore take my work and the professional boundaries of our relationship extremely seriously because, for me, it's personal. I've been there.