Why Did I Become An Anxiety Management Coach?
As a successful manager and leader in the corporate world, I have spent 30 years recognising and drawing out the strengths in other people.
I love coaching individuals and teams to be the best they can be. Part of my role also included helping my teams identify and understand their opportunities for growth, so together, we could agree alternative ways to develop and provide solutions and strategies.
It didn't matter which country or continent I was living and working in, it was evident, that the most common problem holding people back was fear:
- Fear of failure and being judged by others, not feeling good enough (Generalised Anxiety Disorder)
- Fear of social situations such as client meetings and training (Social Anxiety Disorder)
- Fear of others finding out they don’t actually know how to do their job, even when they were excellent at it (Imposter Syndrome)
- Fear of speaking in front of others and voicing their opinion
- Feeling stuck and overwhelmed, not sure how to move forward (procrastination)
- Feeling like they needed to be perfect to gain the respect of others (perfectionism)
….. the list went on and on but the underlying fear was expressing itself with all the symptoms of Anxiety.
I had personally struggled with Anxiety for 20+ years, so had plenty of personal experience to draw on too.
I decided to leave the corporate world of Finance in 2016. I had known all along that my favourite part of my career was, without doubt, developing others, but I didn’t know how I would turn my skill into my new career.
I did know that my purpose was bigger than what I was doing, and I wanted the freedom and flexibility to spend more time with my daughter.
She was starting senior school, and I knew this was an extremely anxious time for my younger self. In hindsight, I now understand that I was overlaying my own fear on her.
Thankfully, I did a lot of work on myself, and was able to take a step back and allow her to thrive.
Retraining
I had studied Psychology with the Open University back in 2006 as it was a subject that really interested me. So, I decided to train as a Life Coach and put into practice what I had learnt across my studies and life experiences.
I still had a lot to learn so I trained in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), Neuroscience, Mindfulness and Meditation, Emotional Change Therapy (ECT) and Hypnotherapy, Heart Led Therapy (HLT), Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and I became a Mental Health First Aider. I now love learning and continue to take and teach courses regularly.
In addition to these studies, I read everything I could about anxiety, and continued to volunteer for several charities to increase my exposure and experience of helping others. I set up my company in 2017 and haven’t looked back since.
So Why Anxiety?
It was an obvious choice based on what I knew.
So many coaches, counsellors and therapists believe they can help everyone with everything.
That didn't feel right for me, I wanted to become an expert in one area only, and that is what I have done.
By understanding and getting to the root cause of anxiety, relationships can be fixed, careers can be fixed, health issues can be fixed, and my clients do go on to thrive in multiple areas of their life.
This is all because I have one focus on anxiety initially, and not because we put a plaster/band aid over the original wound.
My Mission
I strongly believe that no one needs to let anxiety dominate their life, and I have seen this over and over again, even when clients didn't believe it was possible!
I understand that all these therapies have value, but I personally do not believe any one of them has all the answers so I love to combine them based on the needs of the client in front of me.
I believe that every one has the resources within themselves to create a fantastic life free from anxiety, it is my job to help you reconnect with your own resources.
I can honestly say I love what I do and I am forever grateful to my clients for sharing their journey with me.