Emma’s story
Emma and her husband had been separated for 18 months when she first contacted me. Emma says:
“I was having to make some big life choices alone for the first time in my life. My husband and I had separated 18 months prior, after 23 years of building a life and a family together. I was processing that grief but also having to build a new start with two teenagers. I had come to the end of several series of counselling and was exploring life coaching as a next step forward.
I approached Claire with a desire to grow my confidence in decision making. I was struggling to feel sure of anything and during this time of huge change every choice felt daunting and overwhelming. My fear of making mistakes was becoming debilitating.
I was anxious and overwhelmed at times, fearful and insecure but yet equally excited and motivated to embrace the new opportunities and step into a new level of freedom.
Claire’s coaching helped me on many levels. On a practical level her coaching gave me the confidence to approach a new place to live, parenting teenagers alone and significant changes in my role at work with positivity and more self-assurance. But more than that, when self-doubt and panic set in she gave me the tools to work through that and she helped me discover old patterns of thought that were unhelpful. I discovered new ways to approach the challenges I faced.
My favourite moment was an exercise involving the consideration of discussions with past, present and future me. Future Me gave Present Me a shrinking potion to remind me that my problems look big and overwhelming now but when I eventually look back on them they will seem much smaller. That image continues to help me keep my current challenges in perspective and then they become much more manageable!
Since the life coaching my self-belief has continued to improve and I have become kinder on myself with more realistic expectations of myself and others.
Claire had a very gentle approach and in every session I was given the time and space to reflect and explore ideas for myself. Claire gave helpful input and direction to each of the sessions.
Although life coaching was expensive, I saw it as an investment in moving me forward to a better place. Every week I got a 'take away' that was purposeful and helpful to implement. Claire's beautiful personalised posters are still up in my bedroom :)”