Hey guys,

Throughout my school years and on leaving school I knew I wanted to work in the caring profession but wasn’t sure exactly where so I took what seemed the most obvious route and went to University to study Nursing. On graduating, I specialised in paediatric oncology but I soon realised that my niche was not to administer medication but to provide emotional and psychological support to the children and their families.

With this is mind I decided to pursue my studies with the idea of working towards my pHD in child psychology. My intention then was always to continue my studies until I could consider myself a sufficiently ‘qualified professional’ to support others. However, due to financial and time constraints I had to put my plans on hold and very soon got swept into the rat race of working extremely long hours and having no time for study. Once on this treadmill it became increasingly difficult to get off with bills to pay and with no time to reflect on where I was or how I had got there. I wrongly believed that this was reality; I had to accept that the adult world had kicked in and had to put my childhood dreams on hold.

I continued on this road quite happily, finding purpose in my day-to-day tasks and the endless to do list ahead of me. It was not until I was made redundant and the domino effect of the credit crunch made it difficult to get back on the treadmill I had subconsciously come to see as my comfort zone, that I was forced to reflect. While this initially pulled the carpet from underneath me I chose not to let negativity breed negativity - after all everything happens for a reason – maybe it simply wasn’t meant to be and there was another purpose out there for me. So instead, I chose to view it as an opportunity to re-assess where I was and who I wanted to be in the future. Later I realized that the credit crunch was in fact a blessing in disguise.

With time away from what had become my all-consuming environment it was clear to me that I was out of balance. While for the past 12 years I had enjoyed the fast-paced world of executive management I realised that it was not allowing me to live a life of passion.

Over the years, like most of us, I had experienced tough times of one sort or another but such down times led me to be introduced to the concept of life coaching. Through my studies, I had always believed in the benefits of counselling as well as cognitive and behavioural psychology. While I think everything has its merits, it was in fact a life coach who introduced me to a way forward. As a born analyser and an academic psychologist I had become an expert in delving into my past to find answers for the future and to create rules by which to live and to guide me going forward . While this can be fascinating I soon realised that it was not enabling me to get myself out of a negative downward spiral. In fact the continuous over analysis of negative situations inevitably consumes you and before time the positive just feels too remote to be possible and the past becomes our future.

What I found very helpful is that my life coach wasn’t interested so much in the why’s and wherefores but more in offering me support to go forward. I felt that this approach really helped me and seemed to me more efficient than classic psychological approach. The most inspiring thing is that my life coach was not a qualified psychologist and had no accreditations in life coaching, he was an engineer who had himself met with a tough time which resulted in both a physical and mental breakdown.
I am so grateful for everything I have been through, it somehow introduced me to life coaching and I have now arrived in a position where I can give back to others. I was fortunate enough to find my way back to my destiny so now I use my skills through life coaching to help others to experience this overwhelming feeling of freedom, confidence and self worth brought forth by a conscious detachment from a somewhat all consuming world of expectations.