No, not every coaching session you have with me will involve somatic work, but I will bring your attention to what your body is telling you as well as your mind. So that may be as simple as asking where you feel something in your body, or getting you to take some grounding breaths.

My approach varies depending on what you need, and I will always meet you where you are rather than trying to follow my own agenda.

For example, sessions may involve:

• talking about the roots of a problem and influences from your past
• envisioning where you'd like to get to
• in the moment experiencing of how something lands in your nervous system
• EFT tapping to help resolve a specific area where you feel stuck
• guided mindfulness practice

Or I may simply hold a compassionate and confidential space to listen to whatever you need to bring.

Trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as harmful or life threatening. While highly individual, generally the experience of trauma can cause lasting adverse effects, limiting the ability to function and achieve mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being.

A trauma-informed approach is based on sensitivity and respect for each person's unique history and experience of any trauma.

My first priority is creating conditions of psychological and physical safety for you to feel comfortable sharing your experience. This often involves using soothing and grounding techniques in the session. It also means we will often agree NOT to talk about or re-live events that may be triggering. I also work with you to establish resources and tools so you can access a continued feeling of safety outside of sessions. 

Not everyone who works with me brings a specific experience of trauma. But what they all bring is human nervous system.

And anyone with a nervous system can benefit from the trauma-informed approach that I bring with Therapeutic Coaching. Learning how to regulate our own emotions and feel calm and grounded enables us to perform more effectively in all areas of our busy lives.

One of the main benefits of my approach in supporting your nervous system's ability to process emotion is that you don't need to talk about anything if you don't want to.

We might gently explore something called the felt sense (i.e. what sensations you are feeling in the moment) rather than asking questions about what's troubling you or getting you to delve back into the past.

If you have a specific memory you'd like to work on, we will use very safe techniques to avoid triggering a trauma response. For example, you can use a safe code word about the memory so that I need not know what it is. Or you can imagine what it might be like to watch a movie of the events without having to directly access and talk about anything. 

Finally, right from the very first session, I will help you establish a toolkit of practices you can use to help calm and ground yourself if you do become flooded with emotion.

I've tried to highlight key differences and elements of my approach on this page, but a lot of what I do is based in core principles of Humanistic Psychotherapy.

This means that you can expect to find a the safe and confidential container for whatever you want to bring to sessions. 

The heart of what I offer is non-judgemental and compassionate listening. I won't tell you what to do, but I will help you to explore and come up with new ways of thinking about what is troubling you.

I believe that the roots of distress are to be found and resolved in both the mind and body. So as well as talking about things, we may explore more embodied ways of working. This could be as simple as bringing awareness to what's gong on in your body as you speak about something.

I also believe that it is important for all the work we do to be practical and forward-looking. We may investigate what has brought you to this place in your life, but mainly with a view to  helping you improve how things are in the present.

So much of what was missing for me in my own experience as a client in therapy was a sense of how to change. I just kept turning up each week and taking about things, but I often felt stuck.

As a result, I bring a coaching mindset to my therapeutic work. We will look at how you can move forward in your life, and you will leave our sessions with set of tools and perspectives you can take back into everyday situations without needing to be 'in therapy' forever.  

People see me about a wide range of issues that are not necessarily restricted to topics related to motherhood or parenting. For example, I have worked with clients on phobias, job loss, relationship breakdown and so on. 

However, I typically see clients who may be struggling with some of the following issues:

- pre/postnatal anxiety and depression
- loneliness
- identity issues
- intrusive thoughts
- managing anger
- difficulty bonding
- grief (including motherhood without a mother)
- childhood trauma and re-parenting
- birth trauma
- difficulty conceiving
- relationship changes
- parenting choices
- emotional regulation
- attachment styles
- return to work
- work-life balance
- perfectionism
- feelings of guilt / failure

Having spent the formative part of my working life in high pressure roles in a large multi-national organisations, I am also able to relate to the challenges that come with combining a career with caring responsibilities. My master's dissertation was about work-life balance for high performers returning to the workplace after having children. The coaching support I offer is based on a deep understanding of the challenges in integrating professional and personal identities.

I use terms such as mothering and motherhood because of their specific social and cultural meaning, rather than terms like parenting and parent. 

However, I recognise that some people in mothering or primary caregiver roles do not identify as 'mothers' but face similar issues that they would like to explore. I have also supported fathers in my practice, primarily in relation to supporting their partner in childbirth and early parenting.

My aim is to offer you a non-judgemental and supportive listening and support for whatever you wish to bring and however you identify.

Please do contact me directly if you have questions or concerns about the inclusivity of my practice. 

The number of sessions you need depends on what issues you want to bring and at what depth you'd like to explore things. I typically recommend at least 6 sessions to see some lasting and meaningful change.

However, for some specific issues, such as Birth Trauma, I use a powerful blend of birth de-briefing, Rewind Technique, EFT tapping and follow up, which can often resolve a trigger response within 3 sessions.

I always begin with a 90 minute Initial Clarity session. Further sessions a be booked from then on, at weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly intervals.

You can find out more about my pricing and packages here.

The next step is to meet me for a free Discovery Call to see if we are a good fit for woking together.