What is Coaching?
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) describes coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential."  At its heart, it's a focused series of conversations that help you to move towards your desired goals. My role as your coach isn't to tell you what to do. Instead, I'll help you to develop greater self-awareness of attitudes, behaviours, values and beliefs that are supporting your progress, and those that are not serving you well.  I'll use my expertise to offer insights and information, but our focus will always remain on the relevance of those to your personal situation.  I'll invite you to reflect on key insights and to identify actions that will move you closer to your desired outcomes and we'll explore accountability and motivation together.

In essence, coaching provides an opportunity to stand back and take a look at what is and isn't working well for you. You'll gain new perspectives and understandings within the confidential, non-judgemental space of your coaching sessions that will enable you to make the changes you're hoping for. My clients frequently comment how transformative they find the insights gained during sessions and how powerful having coaching with me has been for them, compared with trying to figure things out themselves.

What's the Difference Between Coaching and Therapy?
Coaching and therapy have a different purpose and focus. With coaching, our primary focus is on the "now and what next." It has a sense of forward momentum about it and supports you in closing the gap between where you are currently and where you'd like to be.  Coaching can therefore be described as developmental, helping you to move forward by creating new habits and mindsets.  In contrast, the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists describe therapy as tending to have a reparative focus, helping you to understand your past, heal from traumatic events and work through painful emotions.  Although in coaching we may take a look at the past to see how it's impacting you in the here and now, it's not our primary focus.  We dip into it in order to gain insights, but our emphasis remains on creating what's necessary for you to move forwards towards your desired goals.

What is Trauma-Informed Practice?
Trauma-informed practice within coaching is the recognition that past experiences of trauma can negatively impact a client's ability to feel safe, connected and calm, both within sessions and in their everyday life. It is the recognition that even when someone is not experiencing recognisable trauma symptoms such as PTSD, "echoes" of past wounds can show up within their relationships, their emotions and their thoughts in certain situations. A trauma-informed coach recognises the signs, symptoms and impacts of trauma and is able to work safely with people without re-traumatising them or opening up wounds that need a more therapeutic approach than coaching provides.
As a trauma-informed coach, I work closely with clients to ensure that coaching is suitable for them, rather than therapy or counselling.  If someone is actively experiencing PTSD symptoms or is being significantly impacted on a regular basis by events from their past, my advice would always be to seek support from a therapist or counsellor qualified in trauma. However, where this is not the case, my training and professional experience give me expertise in noticing when echoes from the past are showing up for my clients, and supporting them to develop new mindsets, habits and an embodied sense of safety in the here and now.
For more information about trauma-informed practice in the UK, see this governmental guidance.

What is Relational Health?
Relational health involves having a positive sense of ourself and being able to form meaningful connections with others that provide mutual support and a sense of belonging.  When we are relationally healthy we understand the impact of our words and actions on others and the impact of others' words and actions on us. We are able to take an appropriate level of responsibility for our part in a relationship (not too much, not too little), stay true to ourself without trying to manage, control, appease or fix the other person and to relate to others in the here and now without transferring relational dynamics and patterns from our previous experiences onto them.  None of us has our relational health completely sorted.  We all have blind spots and baggage that we bring to relationships with partners, children, extended family, friends and colleagues. Being coached by someone specialising in relational health can help you to better understand the dynamics playing out in your relationships, helping you to improve your communication and confidence and to show up more authentically and securely, creating additional benefits for your overall sense of wellbeing and fulfilment.

What is Living Loss?
Living loss (sometimes called non-finite loss) refers to the losses we experience in life that do not involve actual bereavement.  These losses frequently occur at times of significant change or as a result of challenging or painful events. Living losses can involve us seeing ourselves and others differently, being forced to adjust our hopes or expectations for the future and experiencing disappointment, regret or grief.  Examples of living loss include relationship breakdowns (romantic, family, friendship or professional), moving to a new area or country, receiving a life-changing medical diagnosis (yourself or a loved one), significant career changes, redundancy, unemployment, retirement and giving up on a long-held dream or hope.  They can alter our entire sense of who we are or where we're heading in life and contribute to feelings of fear, uncertainty, vulnerability or powerlessness.  Living loss is not always recognised or acknowledged and when unresolved, can start to impact our mental and emotional health as well as our relationships. As a coach and trainer with many years' experience of working with living losses, I am able to provide specialist support to navigate these losses and to help my clients find a new sense of hope, purpose and security. 

Why is Your Logo a Swallow?
Swallows have always amazed me.  Each year, I'm mesmerised by how beautiful they are and their swiftness darting through the summer skies. When I realised I was stuck in old patterns of thinking, feeling and relating though they took on an even greater significance. I felt so powerless at the time. The possibility of ever feeling like myself again or being free from the jumble of emotions, mindsets and habits that were contributing to my stress and exhaustion felt a million miles away from where I was. But then the summer came. And so did the swallows. They were a reminder that even something so small and seemingly frail can fly thousands of miles. They don't look capable of something so extraordinary, and yet every year they make the journey from their winter home in Africa to spend the summer months in the UK before returning south again. Swallows became a symbol of hope for me. They were my reminder to keep going even when it felt hard. And so when I became a coach, I knew I wanted a swallow as my logo. It represents my own story, but is also a sign of what I want for my clients. Because even when the odds look stacked against them, swallows are capable of extraordinary things, and they always find their way home.