I trained with The Coaching Academy in 2008 when life coaching was little known and people assumed it was something to do with sports coaching. I’d been to a weekend workshop on sticking to your new year’s resolutions and hung back after the workshop to find out more about what Life Coaching entailed. I knew that it was a really powerful tool and I left that workshop determined to find out more about coaching.
I wanted to be the catalyst to enable others to have the feeling that I’d just experienced of being truly powerful and in control of my own destiny, by setting and achieving goals rather than just living day to day and I soon booked myself onto The Coaching Academy’s 2-Day foundation
course in Manchester. After that weekend I was hooked and signed up for the Life Coaching Diploma, followed by The Corporate and Executive Diploma.
I set up my first coaching business in early 2008 and ran it alongside my full time marketing career. Things were slow in the beginning as I wasn't able to dedicate much time to developing the business fully as my other role was all encompassing and I loved that too. I did see some clients in the evenings and weekends I saw it as a hobby and thoroughly enjoyed it, but also had the financial security of my ‘real job’.
Clients seemed to gravitate to me for coaching around confidence skills and presentations.
I’d been an active member of Toastmasters International as another hobby, so was quite happy to take on these topics as I was constantly reading coaching texts, as well as anything I could lay my hands on about self-belief, positive mind-set and confidence.
In time, I also became interested in the power of hypnotherapy and trained in this too, I was then able to offer a powerful combination of life coaching and hypnosis to my clients at kaleidoscopecoaching.co.uk. Again, it was run as a hobby, alongside my marketing career. I loved it but wasn’t prepared to let my other career go and focus solely on this. I felt lucky to have so many options and I knew that I too was benefitting from being coached too and expanding my own horizons, business skills, self-belief and confidence.
In time, I adopted my son as a single parent, it was initially challenging as he’d had a difficult start in life and the support I’d hoped for wasn’t really there or advice came from people that weren’t really able to relate to my situation in the way I felt I needed it. What I wanted at that time was someone I could really discuss my thoughts, feeling and emotions with, and someone who could relate to the impact of bringing a traumatised child from the care system into both my home and heart. What I really needed was an adoption coach ….. so that is what I became. I set up www.adoptiveparentsupport.co.uk in 2014 in central Scotland and I’ve been running this for two years.
In addition, I made a business proposition to my adoption agency, Scottish Adoption who loved the concept and now refer clients to me each week. I’m now expanding to work alongside other agencies throughout the UK. I specialise in helping new adopters and foster carers in the First 90 days of Placement. It's been a fantastic journey, as I know exactly what my coachees are going through, how challenging it can be and I know that I can add great value to their experience when I
support them.
Adoption and fostering can be difficult for many in the beginning, but is also one of the most rewarding roles I’ve ever had, being an adoptive Mum. My role is to offer support, coaching and understanding to those who are finding it difficult to adjust to sudden parenthood of ‘lively’ children and to help them in areas of parental confidence, self-belief and self-care. If I can help placements from breaking down and assist new parents to be in the best possible mind-set to be able to positively parent their children, I see that as a massive role in helping families to thrive. It’s also hugely rewarding to see the progress within the families and know that I have helped adopters and foster carers get through the first, most difficult few months. It's taken a while to find my niche, and it's not what I imagined when I started in 2007, but I very much feel like I have found my life purpose through coaching or perhaps it has found me. Life coaching has certainly added a new and powerful dynamic to my life and I love what I do.
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
We are accredited by the International Coach Federation and the Association for Coaching, and we're rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot.
