My path to offering coaches supervision within their practice possibly began when I was a Scriptwriting lecturer at a university. As a practitioner lecturer, I absolutely loved supporting students to develop their writing practice by asking questions, listening to their intentions for their creative work, and supporting their growth as writers in compassionate ways.

After more than a decade of university work, my career pivoted in an unexpected direction and I was desperately unhappy. Working 14 hour days, bullied and burned out, I took the courageous step of resigning. I returned to university life but as a student - and retrained in positive psychology and coaching psychology.

I’d had a coach six years earlier, to help me adjust to life as a single parent of two amazing children following their father’s untimely and devastating death from cancer. I’d had grief counselling but it hadn’t really helped, or indeed changed anything. The coaching, however, did help as it gave me focussed time to think about what I needed and how to navigate this new life; space to reflect on how to manage the inevitable changes whilst juggling a full time career, two teenagers and a chaotic household dominated by a needy cat.

I trained as a Samaritan and found that helped me in ways I didn’t expect. Helping someone in their darkest hours gave me a purpose, and meaning, in mine. I developed expert listening skills, the discipline not to offer advice or judgement, and how to hold space in a calm and warm way.

As I progressed through my MSc, I realised that I’d been instinctively cultivating positive psychology practices – although I learned about interventions and models, and how neuroscience and cognitive science support the journey to flourishing. I learned how to coach individuals and groups, teams and organisations.

I aligned with some modalities more than others and discovered that the existential teenager reading A Clockwork Orange and listening to The Cure was still in me as I embraced Existential Coaching. I felt I’d discovered self-understanding, and authenticity in an uncertain world, through finding meaning in my life. I also loved the Developmental Transactional Analysis (DTA), person-centred (Carl Rogers), Cognitive Behavioural Coaching, and, of course, Positive Psychology modalities.

After gaining enough experience, coaching hours and of course, being supervised myself, I decided to deepen my knowledge and skillset further by training as a Coach Supervisor with the International Centre for Coaching Supervision. Learning with and working alongside a small yet dynamic, intelligent and supportive cohort of coaches from all over the world was such a rich and valuable experience that I can say I enjoyed it more than my Masters!

Nowadays, I live with my kind, funny and patient partner in a very old beer-house in a small market town, with the (older but still needy) cat, Jerome. The teenagers are now thriving adults and I couldn’t be prouder of how they’ve turned out. I feel that the decade of tumultuous change, when life was extraordinarily hard, has settled into a calm, restorative, creative and happy pace where I wonder at the world, make meaning and support others to find the same. I’m looking forward to meeting you, supporting you, and helping you to be the best coach you can be for your clients.

With kind thoughts, always,
Helen

Jerome