Client Stories

The ways in which I support people are many and varied and (like people) don’t easily fit into nice, neat categories. Probably the best way to provide a flavour of what is possible is to share a few client stories. Some of these were 1-2-1 clients and some participated in group programmes. (*All of their names have been changed in order to respect their privacy).

Greg*: Navigating change and uncertainty in senior leadership

Greg was a senior leader for a large national retailer heading up installations, which meant his team extended to several thousand people. Deeply caring and diligent he was referred to me through his line manager as he was struggling to deal with a period of change within the business. The introduction of new systems and processes had created a lot of stress within his team and he was at a loss as to how to skilfully communicate his concerns around the changes to the executive team without conflict. The additional work load and stress this had created, had also had a negative impact on his physical as well as mental health. He was left feeling exhausted, disillusioned and unsure where his future remained with his current employer.

We worked together to reconnect Greg to his core values, something he'd never spent time doing. When he gained clarity around what was most important to him in both his career and his personal life, he was able to find strategies and to prioritise activities that brought him balance,  joy and fulfilment. As he put these into effect, he became aware of the positive impact this had on his energy levels, attitude and clarity of thought which confirmed his commitment to them.

We also worked on some more nuanced communication skills. Greg is an extremely emotionally intelligent and articulate man. The gap we identified was his difficulty in appreciating that not everyone he encountered had the same level of skills. He developed greater compassion and awareness in spotting when this was the case and supporting colleagues who were less skilful to understand their own feelings and needs and to communicate his feelings and needs in a way that brought people with him, rather than made them more defensive.

He also discovered that when he was in a more balanced and well-resourced place, he could accept and navigate change and uncertainty with greater equanimity and skill.

At the end of our six sessions together, Greg recognised that his current position met his needs for challenge, accomplishment, recognition and reward and there was more to explore within it. He was excited to embody more of a coaching role within the business, putting his new knowledge and skills into practice to support the rest of his team. This was a refreshing new aspect to his career and he was looking forward to see what the future held.

Katie and I built a strong bond during the program, she is easily relatable and kept the sessions really engaging. I really feel I have taken lots of value from the experience and would look to replicate in the future. Coaching really helped me gain a deeper understanding of how my mind works, this is an essential part of the process in order to move forward and succeed.

Sarah*: Recovering from injury

Sarah was a passionate squash and netball player, devoting several nights a week to her chosen sports. She was captain of her local teams and much of her sense of identity came from these roles and communities. 

When we began working together she was struggling to come to terms with an ankle injury that left her unable to play either sports and required surgery. She had to walk away indefinitely from the teams and communities that had formed such an integral part of her life for so long. She had put on weight which further negatively impacted her confidence and self-esteem and was struggling to know who she had become without her beloved sports, an altered physical image and was terrified by the possibility of never being able to play again. She had seen various dieticians and slimming coaches and signed up to online fitness apps in an effort to address her weight gain, but had found herself stuck in a cycle of rebounding from periods of extreme weight loss and not sticking with any fitness plan. An added pressure for Sarah was that undergoing the surgery that could potentially restore her ankle function and resilience, was contingent on her losing a certain amount of weight.

We began by helping her understand why she repeatedly self-sabotaged, making choices that did not serve her well. She learnt to understand the needs that those choices were trying to meet and to give herself compassion and permission to meet those needs. This helped to break the cycle of shame and frustration she found herself in, while also exploring what other strategies might better meet her needs. I cannot and will not provide advice on nutrition and exercise programmes, but once Sarah was able to stop clinging to specific strategies and focus on meeting the underlying needs, quite independently she was able to discover better strategies and constantly make choices that were aligned to her goals. This included making better nutritional choices and finding alternative activities and exercises that met her need for challenge, movement, belonging, fun and achievement that squash and netball had previously provided. 

We also focussed on preparing her practically and emotionally for surgery, recovery and the inevitable pain and frustrations that would follow. She put strategies in place to ensure she had the help and support she would need while she rehabilitated from surgery.

When we finished working together, Sarah had successfully had her ankle surgery, had lost a sustainable amount of weight and was enjoying a variety of exercise classes that she saw as part of her slow and patient road to full strength and fitness. She was feeling healthier, stronger, more confident and full of hope that in the not-too-distant future she would be back to her beloved squash and netball.

Katie has been the most incredible support system for me over the past 6 months. She has helped me over a tumultuous period of my life, from hormonal teenagers, historical and present family traumas and my own health factors - I'm so grateful to have had her there quietly bolstering me. I'm not sure I'd have been able to manage everything the way I have without her support and I'm sure she came into my life exactly when I needed her. I can recommend her wholeheartedly.

Liz*: Giving herself permission to meet her own needs

Liz was a participant on my 8 Week Introduction to Mindfulness for Parents group programme. Liz has two daughters, her eldest of which has a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). While her daughter is very bright and capable from an academic point of view, her social skills, anxiety and difficulty coping with change and uncertainty made her emotionally vulnerable and requiring a lot of support. 

A devoted parent, Liz had given up a beloved and exciting career in broadcasting in order to better support her teenage daughters. She also volunteered at a local ASD support group and spent a lot of her time researching and studying how better to understand and support young people with ASD.

When we began the programme, Liz was extremely emotional. She was, after many years of trying to be everyone else's rock, given a safe, confidential and non-judgemental space where she could fully recognise just how hard the burden had been of caring for everyone else at the expense of her own needs. After this initial release of emotion, she felt a little lighter. It was of huge comfort to Liz to vocalise the maelstrom of resentment, guilt, sadness, frustration and also deep love and joy that she carried within her, and be seen, heard, understood and held by the other participants of the group. It was of huge comfort to hear of other parents' struggles, fears, successes and delights - some similar, some very different to hers. 

Over the duration of the course, Liz learnt to give herself permission to feel all of the feelings that come with parenting including the difficult and unwelcome ones, and to take more time to take care of her own needs, boosting her resilience and reserves so she had more capacity to care for others. She felt less guilt and recognised how incredible a job she was doing. As the group explored how to offer themselves more patience, respect and compassion, they started to notice this being reflected in their parenting and their relationships with their children. 

At the end of the course, Liz was less fazed and overwhelmed by the prospect of navigating adolescence and senior school with her daughters. She was able to notice and relish all the moments of joy and delight that parenting brought her and more resilient in the face of the inevitable challenges that would come. She was even planning to begin part-time study to further fill her cup and develop her passion for supporting others families navigating similar challenges. 

Jo*: Coming to terms with Neurodiversity

Jo was a recently promoted branch manager for a national retailer. She was referred to my by her line manager as she had recently received a diagnosis of ADHD and was struggling to come to terms with it and how this might negatively impact her career.

When we began working together, Jo's self-confidence was at rock bottom and she was doubtful of whether she was capable of the role she had recently been promoted to. She felt constantly overwhelmed by the level of responsibility and was extremely sensitive to the moods of others in her team. A deeply intuitive and caring person she felt a responsibility to fix everyone else's problems.

During our time together we spent a lot of time establishing what was true for Jo and what were just stories she was telling herself. When we did an inventory of all that she had achieved in her life thus far the evidence suggested she was an extraordinary person who had successfully survived childhood trauma, overcome addiction and built a loving stable family of her own. We also explored the ways in which her neurodiversity challenged her so she could find strategies to manage them (organisation, breaking down big tasks into smaller ones, making time for daily movement, carving out moments to pause and recalibrate during her working day for example.) She also realised all the gifts her neurodiversity gave her - creativity, passion, hyper-focus, intuitiveness and sensitivity to name a few.

She learnt to become acquainted with her "Inner Committee" - the many voices we all have within our own minds (such as our Inner Critic) and to appreciate the ways in which all these voices were trying to serve her. She became more skilful at chairing her own inner committee, calling on the more helpful voices when appropriate (such as her Inner Coach) and respectfully asking unhelpful ones to stand down. In this way when challenges arose she was able to have her own back and support herself and her confidence blossomed. 

She began to model many of these skills of compassion and self awareness with her team. Combined with her acute sensitivity, emotional intelligence and desire to help others, she discovered she was an excellent coach and leader. 

When we finished our time together Jo was confident to get stuck into her role as branch manager and had put in a request to HR to start a coaching course so she could take more of an active role in the business supporting colleagues and use her wonderful talents to best effect.

I recently had the pleasure of working with Katie as my coach for ten weeks. During this time, I was able to experience her incredibly nourishing environment and apply the examples we had discussed to help guide my thinking and behaviors. I was also able to coach a couple of people in my life through their own events using the tools that Katie shared with me. Her approach to coaching blew me away. I did not expect to encounter such a warm and engaging person. Thank you, Katie, for opening my eyes to better coping strategies that not only benefit me from a work perspective but also from a personal one.

James*: Becoming the Dad his daughter needed

James came to me for support navigating a difficult period in his life. A devoted father of two young daughters, his eldest had contracted an illness that had left in its wake a rare and little understood syndrome that impacted her moods, behaviour and personality. The little girl he knew and adored had almost overnight become a different, and far more challenging person. 

James felt an overwhelming burden of responsibility and helplessness in the face of this. The main breadwinner of the family, he was struggling to balance his work and to have the depths of patience required to skilfully parent his volatile, erratic and vulnerable daughter. He was exhausted by the daily battles to just make a normal day work - getting the kids to school on time, meal times and betimes involved protracted arguments, tears and tantrums. As a father he felt a desperate need to fix the situation, something he was helpless to do. He felt deep guilt at his own frustration with his daughter's behaviour, anger that this could have happened to his family and isolated in his struggles. 

James initially chose to begin an 8-week introduction to mindfulness course, but after several weeks it became clear to him this was not right for him at that time. We switched to coaching sessions instead, providing a safe, confidential space for James to reflect, share, think aloud and be met with non-judgement and compassion. This saw an immediate improvement in his progress.

We explored ways in which James could find more balance and top-himself up more. He felt guilty taking time out for himself after work to meet up with friends and play sport, leaving his wife to manage the children. But he and his wife have a strong partnership and it quickly became apparent that the positive effects of this in terms of James' capacity to emotionally support his family made it worthwhile.

James become more skilful at recognising what was within his control (his attitudes, attention and behaviours) and what was out of his control (everything else), to let go of the latter and focus his precious energy and effort on what he could control. 

We worked on his understanding of what compassion is and how to offer more of it to himself and his daughter. He began, slowly to stop clinging to the version of his daughter from before her illness and dreams of how life would be if she recovered, and to meet her - and accept and love her - exactly where she was. 

James learnt some new approaches to communicating with his daughter which resulted in less conflict and more calm within the home. 

A year on, James and his family are doing really well. His eldest daughter has confidently begun senior school, James has been committed to maintaining a balance between his career and living a fun-filled life and most importantly his relationship with his eldest daughter is strong. They have enjoyed many small moments of everyday joy and some incredible adventures together since our time working together. 

"I came to Katie with a huge amount of baggage as a parent that felt he was not doing enough, and who was at an emotional tipping point. Three months later I feel I have a range of tools to apply to different situations, the guilt has lifted, and my mis-placed sense of having to control the uncontrollable is so much better. On bad days I am better able to give myself a compassionate word or two, when previously I beat myself up. Bottom line, I think Katie's coaching with me has helped me step into the dad I want to be more of. Thank you so much!

Jenny*: Recovering from burnout

Jenny came to me after being signed off work with stress and burnout from work. An ambitious and hardworking woman by nature she arrived to our first session a trembling, tearful shadow of her former self. Following a protracted period working in an extremely toxic work environment, she described her mental state as "like a bowl of electrified spaghetti" and could so no clear way forward. She chose to undertake a private 8 week introduction to mindfulness course as she wanted a clear structure and process to follow. At rock bottom and feeling that this was her only option she threw herself into the course with the same level of commitment she applies to her work. I will let her generous testimonial speak for itself. Suffice to say since our time together she has been head-hunted twice and is now a global transformation leader in for a huge multinational marketing and media provider. She delights in passing on the tools she has learnt with me to her teams and seems to have developed a talent for bring calm and balance to overstretched teams.

I just wanted to take a moment to share how mindfulness has been a total game-changer for me, both at work and at home. In the chaos of daily life, it's easy to get swept away by stress and lose sight of what really matters. But with mindfulness, especially through meditation, I've learned to keep calm in the midst of the storm. It's like having a secret weapon against the craziness of life.

One of the biggest shifts for me has been in how I approach challenges. Instead of catastrophizing and letting stress take over, I've trained myself to stay positive. It's like I've developed this mental shield that helps me navigate through tough situations without losing my cool.

Taking regular breaks has become my mantra. It's amazing what a short pause can do for your mental well-being. I used to think I had to power through everything, but now I've realized that stepping back for a moment actually makes me more productive and focused.

Recognizing the signs of stress has been a game-changer too. Before, I would push myself to the brink without realizing it. Now, I can spot those warning signs early on and take steps to address them. It's like having a personal stress radar. And let's talk about the acceptance part. I've come to terms with the fact that I can't do everything for everyone. It's liberating to understand my limits and prioritize what truly matters. This shift in mindset has lifted a massive weight off my shoulders.

Rachel*: Overcoming fear of public speaking

Rachel came to me through her employer - a large, national retailer for which she was an HR Business Partner. Her main concern was a crippling fear of public speaking - including presenting to colleagues in internal meetings - which she and her line manager felt was negatively impacting her career potential. Through our 1-2-1 conversations, it emerged that the fear of public speaking had stemmed from a previous employer when she did not receive the support she needed from her line manager in a very aggressive and challenging meeting. This incident seriously dented her confidence and she became more fearful of speaking up in any context. Even the thought of an impending meeting where she would be called to present was enough to induce a panic attack. The fear of the fear become the problem. Rachel had previously undertaken a course of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to address the issue but it had not helped.

As we worked together Rachel came to better understand the nature of fear and stress and to change her relationship to it. She learnt that she was not dysfunctional and to have more compassion for herself for experiencing fear and this allowed her to accept its presence without it derailing her. She learnt tools to self-sooth, calm and regulate so she was able to present effectively (despite still being nervous). She realised in many ways she relished challenge and pressure and loved to rise to the occasion. She learnt to reframe speaking up as another form of challenge that she was fully capable of meeting. When we finished working together she was feeling excited, confident and well equipped to navigate her career progression.