From the outside, coaching can look like a black box. Something happens in there, and people come out saying it helped, but what is the something? If you’ve never worked with a coach, it’s a fair question worth answering before you commit your time and money to it.
So here is what actually happens: how I work now, from the first conversation to the last session. Not coaching in general (there’s a broad spectrum of coaches and methods), but the specific thing you’d be signing up for with me.
One idea underneath all of it
Coaching is relational, it happens between people. It’s a collaboration, and it works when both sides know their part.
My part is to bring structure, depth, challenge and careful listening: to ask the questions that help you get underneath what’s going on, to organise the noise, and to keep us moving between reflection and practical next steps. Coaching is generally non-advisory, so I won’t hand you answers or advice. Usually, answers evolve during the process and these are the ones that are meaningful and sustainable, ones that are grounded in your thinking and exploration and that hold up against your own values and your own life.
Your part is honesty, openness, and agency: a willingness to look at what’s actually going on, including the less comfortable parts, and to take responsibility for how you show up to our sessions, and what you do between and after our conversations.
It starts with a free conversation
Around 30 minutes, online, no cost and no obligation. You talk through what’s going on for you; I ask some questions; we both get a sense of whether working together feels right. Most people leave that call with more clarity than they arrived with, whatever they decide about coaching.
Somewhere in that conversation I might ask you an open and expansive question like: if you had a magic wand and you could change things, what would be different tomorrow? What people answer (and how) usually tells us both more than any form would.
It’s also your chance to interview me. Ask about my background, how I work, costs, who I’ve worked with in situations like yours. I’d actively encourage you to ask any coach about their supervision arrangements too: coaching is an unregulated profession, and regular professional supervision is one of the markers of someone taking the work seriously.
If you’re choosing between coaches, it’s completely reasonable to have first conversations with two or three before you commit; you learn a lot by seeing how you feel when you speak with each one. It’s also completely reasonable to speak to one, feel an absolute sense of fit, and commit straight away.
Then there are two ways to begin
The Clarity Creator is a single, focused 90-minute session. It exists because sometimes you’re not ready for a bigger commitment or perhaps the need is more for one properly structured piece of thinking. You bring the thing that’s circling (a decision, a stuckness, a something that no longer fits), we talk it through, explore your thinking more deeply, and move towards more insight, perspective and clarity. If you go on to the full programme, the session’s full value comes off the price.
Thoughtful Transitions is the core programme: nine one-hour sessions over about six months, all online, usually two to three weeks apart and flexed around real life. The shape of it follows how real transitions actually unfold. Early sessions are about making sense of where you are: slowing down, unpacking confused thoughts, organising the mess. Then we look beneath the surface, at the values, patterns, assumptions and fears shaping the situation, and at what may be keeping you where you are. From there, direction: what matters now, what kind of change would be aligned, what possibilities deserve exploring. And finally, movement: decisions, conversations, experiments and practical steps, taken with more conviction because of the ground under them.
That’s the arc. In practice it’s not a rigid syllabus: navigating transitions is inherently human and unstructured, so the sessions follow what you need and where you are, and the phases overlap in both directions.
What a session itself is like
You do most of the talking, especially early on. I listen carefully, ask questions, and move fluidly between support and challenge as needed. I’ll sometimes bring in a practical tool where it helps (a values exercise, a strengths exploration, a fear inventory).
Sessions end with reflections and, usually, something to do or notice before the next one: actions you’ve chosen, because the movement between sessions is where a lot of the change actually happens. After each session I’ll forward you the summary, including the actions you settled on, so nothing gets lost between conversations.
Progress isn’t linear, and the a-ha moments don’t run to schedule. Some people get theirs early on, sometimes in between sessions, sometimes months afterwards. The value builds through the process of exploration, in a space that’s held for you and nobody else.
What coaching isn’t
Coaching isn’t advice or mentoring: I won’t tell you what I would do. It isn’t therapy: we may talk about past experiences or difficult feelings because they are sometimes very relevant to the patterns that may be with you now — but we will use this information to inform the present and the future without staying in the past. If what you’re carrying needs therapeutic support, I’ll say so and we’ll talk about the right kind of help alongside or instead. And coaching isn’t a quick fix: a transition that’s been building for two years doesn’t resolve in a fortnight. The transition space is full of data, and I will stay in it with you whilst you explore it further.
Everything you say is confidential, and I work within the ICF code of ethics and in regular professional supervision.
Who this is for (and not for)
The people who get the most from working with me are thoughtful, capable professionals who’ve achieved a great deal already and want what comes next to be just as considered. They’re willing to reflect honestly and look beneath the surface.
It’s not the right fit if you’re looking for job-search tactics, CV help or interview coaching, if you’re not ready to examine your own patterns and assumptions, or if you want someone to make the decision for you.
Where to begin
The practical first step is a free 30-minute conversation, where we talk about your situation and the reality of what’s going on for you. And if you already know you want to start with something concrete, the Clarity Creator is bookable directly.
