So, you might be wondering what this coaching malarkey is all about?

Well, there are many definitions of coaching, but in the case of health crisis coaching, it’s a tool which enables you to build up your confidence and self belief and this is particularly relevant when you have health issues because it’s so easy to feel unattractive when you have to cope with weight gain, medication, pain and fatigue on a moment to moment basis and of course, this has a knock on effect on relationships.

Coaching also helps you to achieve harmony and balance in your life so that you can better manage the bad pain days – I enable clients to put together some strategies to manage pain holistically, based on what feels right for them and I encourage clients to work positively with their health care professionals to find the optimum treatment plan.

Coaching can help you to achieve all that you are capable of in the workplace in spite of your health issues and it can give you the confidence to ask for your needs to be met. Whether that is to ask for special cushioning or seating at work, to apply for a Blue Badge, or even to help you come to terms with using an aid for walking.

Coaching can also help you face up to the fact that some days you will not be able to manage what you feel you ‘should’ be doing, and I help clients get around the problem of explaining to work colleagues, family and friends that you may occasionally have to let them down.

My aim is to help clients plan for a different kind of ‘normal living’ which takes into account their health issues, so that they are able to live a life which has real meaning and joy; at work, at play and at home. What every person does possess (with or without chronic health issues) is the capability to enjoy life fully.

The black hole

Is coaching always appropriate? It's an interesting question isn't it. And when I'm working with someone who is living through a devastating life event, there can sometimes be a very fine line between the desire to be coached and the need for another service such as psychotherapy or counselling.

A life crisis can turn the world as you know it upside down and it's easy to feel that you have lost your will to fight back. It's easy to block out what is happening in reality and hope it goes away.

The best way to describe this is the black hole of despair. When a client is in free fall, it takes a shift in thinking to realise that it is possible to stop the fall to the bottom. It takes a shift in thinking to make the decision to take back control.

I help clients make that shift in thinking, I can be a small glimmer of hope; hope that there is a way forward, and together we plan for a future life that you really want to live.