About... get to know me

I love my work!

As a coach, mentor and facilitator, I get to partner with amazing human beings to help them maximise their performance, potential and well-being. What could be better than uncovering someone's innate strengths, qualities and resilience and exploring just what's possible when this inner spark is ignited?   

This has been the backbone of my career to date.  Before I trained as a professional coach in 2005, I had for most of the 25+ years I had worked in the corporate world, held consultancy and management roles in Human Resources, that were all about maximising the potential of people and organisations.  Whether it was helping organisations create high performing, engaging cultures, or aligning teams and breaking down barriers to communication, or delivering leadership development and change management programmes, or conducting and feeding back on individual behavioural and performance assessments, I was always drawn to opportunities for championing individual growth and learning, and making life and work more interesting and fulfilling.

The training I have undertaken reflects this: my credentials for delivering life, executive, career, wellbeing and team coaching include:  

- Professional Certified Coach - PCC - with the ICF with 1,000+ coaching hours
- Certified Organisation, Relationship and Systems Coach (ORSCC - 2011)
- Certified Co-Active Coach (CPCC-2009)
- Certified Clarity Coach (2018)
- Certified Facilitator for iheart (Innate Health Education & Resilience Training - 2020)
- Fellow of both the UK's Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and Australian HR Institute
- Fireworks Certified Coach (2013)
- Business Model You Certified Facilitator (2015) 
- MSc in Adult Guidance - University of Strathclyde (2010)

Giving back has always been important to me too: i have held voluntary roles in the education sector (United World Colleges), professional bodies (CIPD, AHRI, ICF), and currently coach humanitarian leaders and emerging leaders in the non-for-profit sector (UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM) as well as final year students at the University of Queensland.  In service to my profession, I am serving as a member of the ICF Queensland Leadership Team driving engagement, community and professionalism and educating people about the value of coaching.  

Outside of coaching, I am a mum to one grown up daughter and step mum/aunt/grandmother to many more young ones, in my third 'life partner' relationship, and fulltime housesitting in Queensland, Australia. I play walking netball (much better for knees that have hit the deck a few times too many), love animals and nature, enjoy crafting, cooking, repurposing and gardening, and am learning to be a wellbeing and resilience teacher to 10 - 18 year olds. 

I love... finding pleasure and joy in the ordinary - simplicity and connection - family, friends, community, nature, home grown fruit and veg, pink champagne, changing seasons, birds, tropical colours, laughter, babies, learning, renovating, re-purposing, upcycling, crochet, championing others, seeing hidden possibilities, furry animals, birds, musicals, cooking, and all the people and small moments that make everyday life special...    

Lived Experiences
A number of personal life challenges have influenced me and my work and deepened my compassion and desire to help people navigate life’s peaks and valleys with greater ease and less suffering. These include:

- caring for ageing parents: navigating a dementia diagnosis and end-of-life wishes
- major life transitions: divorced twice, down-sizing, living minimally, moving countries, living as an expat
- stress, anxiety and burn-out: chronic anxiety, panic attacks, uncovering resilience
- work transitions: redundancy, mature returner, self-employment, consultancy
- expatriate living: long-distance relationships, cultural orientation, job seeking, reinventing careers, trailing spouse

I believe we all have mental wellness within us and helping people see this for themselves and live with more peace of mind is my greatest reward.