This week's Coach in the Spotlight is Nikki Radvanyi! Nikki was a Virtual Executive Assistant before training and qualifying as a life coach with The Coaching Academy. Her coaching business specialises in the areas of trauma recovery and behavioural change, in today's blog she shares her inspirational and encouraging coaching journey.
I have always been interested in psychology and behaviour. I minored in Psychology at university and did a Gestalt Psychotherapy diploma 15 years ago, but therapy was not the right direction for me. After the pandemic, I was considering a career change and knew I wanted to do something in the field of behaviour change and addictions recovery and some creative work with a therapist led me to coaching.
Hugely! As a childhood trauma survivor and recovering binge eater and co-dependent, I had developed some unhelpful habits and limiting beliefs, which were really holding me back. Coaching, in particular behaviour change coaching/addictive behaviours coaching, really helped me to see the truth and to focus on what I WAS doing and not on what I wasn’t. The Reality part of GROW is exceptionally powerful for me and other recovering addicts because our perceptions are tarnished by our past and can blur the reality. Also, addiction had stopped me from realising I had choices. I had become stuck in black and white thinking, control, catastrophising, and over-thinking and of course numbing out with sugar. As soon as I started to explore my choices in Options, without limitations especially from my Inner Critic, my world opened up.
It came at a really good time for me. I had been running a successful business as a Virtual Executive Assistant for 8 years before the pandemic and then lockdown meant that my role was redundant. I had wanted to move away from this sector because it just wasn’t me. I was able to focus almost completely on the diploma, which was wonderful and for the first time in my educational history, I allowed myself to enjoy the journey rather than just focusing on the end goal.
There were so many, but I guess seeing how self-doubt can change into self-belief quite quickly. This helped me personally to become so much more motivated and then this experience has allowed me to pass this learning on to my clients.
Unsurprisingly, as a result of my background, I knew I wanted to work in addictions recovery & behaviour change somehow. A month after I signed up to the Life Coaching Diploma, an email appeared in my inbox for the Addictive Behaviours Coaching taster. It was perfect for me. As a result of the course, I am now an Accredited Behaviour Change Coach and I am also in the process of gaining certification as a Trauma Recovery Coach. For me, the two are inextricably linked. Gabor Mate is of the belief that addiction comes from trauma. I am of the same belief. I work with women who want to stop the self-sabotaging behaviours of perfectionism, procrastination, addiction, self-doubt, busyness, over-thinking, avoidance, people-pleasing and many more. These are the behaviours that keep most of us up at night.
Neuroplasticity and habit change. Being introduced to these areas during the Addictive Behaviours Coaching course was transformative for me. It really helps to see how the brain changes as a result of trauma and then as a result of addiction. However, as coaches we can help our client to rewire their neural pathways and to create new habits. It’s so reassuring. As someone who was shamed a lot growing up, it is liberating to know it is not my fault and what I have believed about myself for decades can be changed via coaching and new habits.
I would say sign up to the free 'Introduction to Life Coaching' Webinar, it is the best personal development alongside 12 Step recovery I have ever done. It is a fantastic self-investment.
Books like Atomic Habits ~ James Clear, Mini Habits ~ Stephen Guise and Mindful Coaching ~ Liz Hall are the only books I read on the diploma but which I have revisited time and again. Keep revisiting all the resources on the OLP. They are so helpful and answered a lot of my questions and really helped me to feel empowered. Record all your coaching sessions and watch yourself back. It is so empowering. I got to see the truth about me as a coach and to dispel the lies I told myself. Use the Facebook group. I was never very good at asking for help prior to the diploma. Asking questions of peers has helped so much.
I hope this article is useful to my fellow coaches and those considering becoming a life coach and I wish you so much luck on your journey. Enjoy it and embrace it… it really is a joyous journey!
If you are feeling inspired and would you like to find out more about the impact that life coaching could make on your life and those around you, then do join us on our Introduction to Life Coaching webinar - choose from available dates here.
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