Coaching

My coaching helps high-performing individuals and teams find courage in the complicated. 

I believe that facing today’s increasingly complex challenges requires a top-up of our resilience reserves; nourishment for our courage. This empowers us to find strength within ourselves and with community to approach every challenge with fortitude and joy. 

My prior experience as a technology industry strategist working with senior leaders and leadership teams at some of the world’s most recognisable businesses, governments of several nations, and intergovernmental organisations means that I understand the pressures high-performing leaders and teams are facing today. 

Clients pick me for my open, gentle, non-judgemental yet focused style. My coaching is client-centric and adaptable: we work with your strengths and values to find the path that will work for you. As a cancer survivor, I know deep in my bones how a catastrophe can transform into an opportunity to explore personal growth, uncovering hidden reserves of resilience and inner strength. I use my Mental Health First Aid training to help me stay grounded in the ICF’s ethics requirements for supporting people in crisis and referring on to other forms of support when necessary, through resources accessible to members of the Mental Health First Aid Network. I’m not afraid to listen to the stuff that really matters which brings up big or tough emotions.

With my anthropology background, my coaching approach is grounded in curiosity and empathy. Anthropologists learn to step outside our version of ‘normal,’ suspend judgement, and consider things from many different perspectives. This is an especially important skill as we grapple with an era that some researchers are calling a “global polycrisis”: you are not alone in feeling that it’s almost impossible to set goals or carry out plans when <gestures at everything.> The world is pretty complicated right now. While I can’t promise to help you fix every vast, systemic global calamity that humanity faces, you CAN change how you respond to the unique challenges that you face every day.

I’m based in the vibrant neighbourhood of Leith in Edinburgh, whose crest featuring a ship of hope over the motto ‘Persevere’ has been a source of solace and solidarity for people living here since the 12th century. As well as my own coaching practice I am an associate coach for Working With Cancer, a social enterprise that helps people remain in and return to work following a cancer diagnosis.

Contact me for my availability.

Coaching is an open and forward-looking series of conversations around a specific topic or challenge that you have identified. As a coach, it is my responsibility to help you view this challenge in a new way and to support you in identifying pathways to move forward in a positive direction. Coaches won’t offer advice or suggestions in the way that a mentor, consultant or teacher would, and we’re not counsellors or therapists: our role is to offer you the space and time to support your awareness in identifying different approaches for accomplishing your goal. I’ve been an International Coach Federation member since 2017 and I’m an Associate Certified Coach, meaning I’ve been assessed by experts in the field.

What can I expect?

• Develop courage to navigate complexity and uncertainty – Learn to respond more effectively to daily challenges in an increasingly complex and fragmented world, gaining tools to move forward and thrive even when everything feels overwhelming.
• Clarify what success actually means to you – Get lightbulb-clarity on your goals, what achieving them will mean, what’s truly at stake, and how you’ll celebrate when you get there.
• Uncover your hidden resilience and inner strength – Build awareness of strengths and resources you already possess but may not be leveraging fully.
• Challenge unhelpful thought patterns playfully – Use curiosity, playfulness and non-judgemental atmosphere to help you identify and work through unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors that may be blocking your success.
• Receive supportive accountability – Benefit from a qualified, accredited accountability partner who helps you work through obstacles when things don’t go to plan and celebrates your wins when they do.
• Get flexible coaching structures that fit your needs – You choose between 6 60-minute, 5 70-minute, or 4 90-minute sessions depending on whether you need steady progress, deeper exploration, or intensive deep dives.

I’m also currently offering these pro-bono or reduced-cost ways to get coaching with me (stay tuned as I regularly update these offers):

• Join us for a monthly slice of Courage Pie! Life is a little complicated right now. Every month, I host a free on-the-move meetup to savour a slice of courage. In these turbulent times, I believe we can all use a little top-up of our resilience reserves; a bit of nourishment for our courage. With low-key guided activities, a gentle walk/wheel in accessible locations for people with mobility disabilities, and a supportive community, Courage Pie is your space to develop those inner resources. Sign up here! Can’t make the in-person events? Sign up for my newsletter to get access to monthly self-guided reflection prompts – grab a courageous pal and do a walk of your own!

• Pro-bono coaching hours through Coaching for Creatives to support anyone working in the creative industries. Creatives are facing a particularly difficult wellbeing crisis in the UK, and Coaching for Creatives offers various programmes of support. Learn more about the Coaching for Creatives coaching bank.
• 6 30-minute sessions for £300. These brief sessions are brilliant for offering a concentrated, focused space to clarify thinking. If a 60-90 minute session is a slow and steady hike through an expansive landscape of the mind, a 30-minute session is a brisk, refreshing walk. They both help you understand your inner landscape to gain clarity and forward momentum, but in a very different way. I have limited availability for these shorter sessions!