Sarah’s coaching journey

Coaching

I’d always heard about coaching but never really thought it was something for me, it tends to be quite pricey and can be hard to fully understand what will be involved.  However, at the back of my mind I have always had a feeling that I have more to offer in my work life than my admin skills and knew that I would probably need a bit of help to figure this out.   This feeling was getting stronger as I approached 40 and my first experience of coaching was about a year and a half ago on the lead up to my birthday. Despite not really knowing what to expect, I had a chat with Alice from Mama Coaching and I knew instantly that she was the person I would trust to do my coaching with.  She was warm, confident and knowledgeable in a very unassuming way.  I think I probably cried a little just in that 5 minute conversation!  

The coaching I did was online as it was during lockdown - something I was a bit sceptical about.  Working at a school and generally in my life, not much is online and I like it that way; to be able to see and feel people's energy when they are in front of me is preferred.  Alice understood this but reassured me that people still got a lot out of it being online and that there was something nice about being comfortable in your own home when taking part in the sessions, she wasn’t wrong.  It was a small group of 4 of us in total plus Alice and Nicola holding the space for us, we met weekly over five weeks and had homework to complete in between.  I was again, initially sceptical, this time about how I would relate to the other women in the group with me being the only non white woman and two of them not from Bristol.  It took about 10 minutes to realise that despite our different life experiences everyone had their own worries, struggles and vulnerabilities.

It is safe to say that I got a lot out of the whole experience with it leading to the start of Beyond the Mix and my son being homeschooled for a year (story for another day!).  The thing that struck me the most about coaching is that none of it was complicated and a lot of the time the answers are already there. So much of it is about giving yourself the time and space to really think about your values, strengths, beliefs and the things that are important to you in a safe and supportive environment, with someone asking the right questions.  I absolutely loved the coaching I did and would recommend it to anyone. It made me really think about being braver, taking risks and really helped me to identify my strengths in a way I hadn’t ever thought about before.

When I did the @mamacoachinguk sessions I thought to myself at the end of it how amazing it would be to do something like this with other mixed heritage women, where there are things that you don’t need to explain to the group, that others in the group just get, where even deeper and richer conversations can happen.  I am so pleased that we can offer another block of sessions with Sadia of Slay Your Dragons.  I had the privilege of taking part in these sessions over the last 6 months and I am honestly so excited that we can again offer these sessions to our community.  Sadia is the perfect person to host our sessions, she is experienced, warm, listens to and understands everything you are trying to say and knows exactly how to get you thinking creatively.  The small group is also a really lovely way to get to know and support other women in our community.

What do you think? Are you ready to take the leap and make that time for yourself?

Sarah xxx