Who am I to help you survive a breakup?

A highly qualified coach and published author, I have been specialising in divorce since 2010, well before it became ‘a thing’. I was the UK’s first specialist divorce coach – the original, you might say – and where I have led, others have followed.

I have worked face to face with over 1,000 clients, supporting them through difficult separations and divorces. My service is professional, impactful, and highly praised. I am proud of my reputation as an outstanding coach in the area of divorce recovery, with glowing testimonials from clients and their solicitors.

I am a fully qualified coach. After my first Masters Degree (Sociology), I trained with Kim Morgan at Barefoot Coaching which offers a Masters in Coaching accredited by the University of Chester and endorsed by the National Council of Psychotherapists. I am a member of the Association for Coaching (MAC) and also Collaborative Family Law North, which aims to help people achieve a more amicable separation. I am an associate member of Resolution, a community of family justice professionals who work with families and individuals to resolve issues in a constructive way.

If you are thinking of working with a coach, please ensure that they belong to a respected professional body. This guarantees that the coach is properly qualified, experienced, supervised, undertakes CPD and believes in fostering high standards in the profession.

What I do

Over several years, I have worked exclusively with people looking for clarity around a fractured relationship. Most often this involves helping them deal with the practical and emotional fallout of a long-term relationship breakup. Sometimes it involves looking at how they can change their relationship for the better; and sometimes it involves reaching the decision to end it.

I don't judge or try and tell my clients what they should or shouldn't do. Instead, I help them make the choices that are right for them. There is no magic wand and no formula for coaching. It is about the empathy with the client and finding what will make them make positive changes.

I absolutely love my work. I feel privileged to be able to help people during desperate times: I have been through the experience of a breakup myself and remember how it feels. To see people move, often in a relatively short space of time, from a place of heartbreak and desperation to one of hope and strength is positively life affirming.

How divorce coaching found me

At the age of 55, I chose to move away from a 20-year career in senior roles within higher education and train as a coach. I find people fascinating, and I soon fell in love with coaching. I discovered that I’m very good at listening, asking searching questions that help my clients make sense of their new situation. Without this, they are unlikely to be able to move forward.

When I first set out along this path, I thought my background would lead me to a career in performance coaching. But something about that just didn’t inspire me.

Everything changed when someone asked me to speak to her friend, whose husband had recently left. The impact of that conversation and subsequent conversations, coupled with my own experience of a relationship breakdown, showed me many of the challenges and emotions facing people when a relationship ends, and I knew I could help others in a similar situation.

Now I work exclusively in divorce coaching, providing emotional support during divorce and separation and helping people make decisions about staying together or separating. I have never heard the same story twice, but every day I see people’s lives changing for the better and each time I see these changes taking place I love my job more and more.

Why Me?

One of the things I love most about my work is seeing someone move from the depths of despair to a place of strength, determined that a life event will not define them. It is a true privilege to be able to help with this transformation, and it is a combination of my passion, hard work and dedication to this area of coaching that puts me in this privileged position. Together, they have helped me become:

• A specialist: I’m an expert in separation and divorce coaching, working with people who are going through or facing the prospect of a relationship breakup

• Highly qualified: I have a Masters Degree and I trained with a highly regarded organisation providing qualifications in coaching, accredited by the University of Chester and endorsed by the National Council of Psychotherapists (NCP)

• Experienced: I have specialised in divorce coaching for over seven years and worked with hundreds of clients, all with different stories. Every client is unique; there is very little I have not heard, and nothing surprises me.

• Professional: I am a full member of the Association for Coaching, dedicated to promoting best practice and raising the standard of coaching worldwide

• Highly rated: By my clients and those who refer clients to me

• Respected: I work hand in hand with senior family solicitors in prominent legal firms across the UK

• Published: Author of After the Split: the definitive guide to recovery when relationships break down

• Expert: I am a contributor to The Divorce Magazine and other specialist publications, a regular regional BBC radio station contributor and a presenter at family law conferences

• Collaborative: I am a Collaborative Family Law North member, helping couples achieve more amicable separations.

You can also read what my clients, and those who recommend people to me, say here about my work.