Clare

I first met Ann when she delivered a coaching for Leader’s course with my employer at the time. The atmosphere that was created with her and her colleague Lynn was different from any other training I had attended. I felt I could relax and more importantly I felt safe. That day something changed in me. During an experiential exercise I released that I don’t relate to words I relate to colours, shapes, and energy. In that moment I realised that it was ok to be different, and I could be authentic. I had just been given permission to be me for the first time in my life. Our homework that evening was just to go home and do something different and see what happens. I went home full of life and fun and in that instance, I was met with fun and affection. 2 pieces of learning in one day, I can be me and I can impact those around me. Since that day I have learned so much about myself and learned to get out my own way. As I continually work with getting out my own way, I try to see the person that is in front of me at any given time. It is not words that I use but energy. I have learned to trust myself; I have learned to manage my boundaries. If I need to hold my ground with quiet authority, I can do that comfortably and stay in the relationship with those around me (rather than being blunt and offending others).

When I attend the Calm Mind Open Heart Ground Body sessions, I join with my head feeling like some crazy cartoon character with a cloud above their head and by the time it is finished I feel like I have become “unstuck” that everything just opens and a cloud has been lifted.

Although there are many more examples I can give where the coaching has changed me, the greatest impact has been with my relationship with father. My father is a relationship person, he loves to sit close to you and hold deep meaningful conversations. Through understanding myself on a deep level I was able to get out my own way, drop my boundaries’ and start to build a completely new relationship with him. This has brought such joy to us both especially since my mother died.

Since that training, I understand myself, others and my place in the world, on a physical spiritual and emotional level and continually strive for more insights to help me make sense of myself and the world around me.

Lesley

When I first met Ann, I was trying to figure out where I was going in my life, and trying to figure out the world around me. Especially in my new job. I didn’t understand the situation that I was in, with a new boss, new job and very different company culture.

I had no idea what people were doing, what their motivations were for the strange behaviour I perceived, and no matter what I tried, nothing was working.

It was the perfect storm of confusion for me, as along with all of that, I didn’t know how to express what I was feeling. I didn’t know that I would have to learn a new vocabulary to articulate my feelings. Up until that point, my career had followed a particular route, study hard, get the degree, do the management training course, get appointed to senior positions at a very early age and work in organisations that followed a particular format of success, and make money. That I had no time or energy to spend.

As I look back, I can now see that this situation for the first time allowed me to stop focusing on the external world’s view of success and learned to look inwards to what I wanted.

Through the coaching I started to learn how to articulate my feelings, understand not only my energy, but the energy other people bring and manage that energy in a productive way. These insights have been transformational as up until our coaching I just thought everyone picked up on the same things as me. And I now know, they don’t. I now trust myself more and trust in a sense of something within each of us that can´t easily be explained.

8 years ago, I changed my life. I was looking out the windows and it was grey cloudy Scottish winters day and I said to myself and the universe “I want more to life than this”. Simultaneously, and unknown to me, my now husband had a feeling that someone from another country was his soul mate and would one day come to find him.

With my new confidence and trust in myself I made the leap to live in Spain, where I met my husband and started a completely new life. Since then, I´ve moved to a beautiful island and now run a successful change management consultancy and training business. The skills, tools and insights that I have learned during the coaching are such an integral part of what I now do that I look back and can´t understand how I was able to function in the world without the knowledge, and self-awareness that I have now.

Meeting Ann and working with her over the years has been a blessing, and a health-saving factor in my life as well. I´m much clearer in what I want from life, and in taking care of myself and my boundaries and I would never have achieved that without Ann´s continuing support.

Mark

Before I started working with Ann the constructed version of myself was one of control, excessive high standards and someone who didn’t think of themselves, always looking to please others. I was extremely driven, and I expected everyone to be the same as me. When they weren’t, I was regularly disappointed, which was not helpful.

With the help of the coaching, I started to get in touch with the real Mark on a spiritual, emotional, and physical level. The coaching has given me a real opportunity to re-evaluate my life and behave differently as a result. Learning new ways to manage and engage my team, peers, and bosses. Creating strategies for how I respond to different situations has helped people see the real me. This has helped me redesign many relationships at a deeper, more authentic level. I now use my skills in a more productive way, to be successful, and to be taken seriously at a senior level, within an asset management business.

Ann is one of the most talented individuals I have met, she manages to make the coaching sessions relaxed, almost like speaking with a good friend. I wish I experienced coaching like this 20 years earlier. If you are in a senior role and looking for someone to help you, not only overcome challenges, but looking to transform yourself, Ann is someone you will want to get in touch with.