I burnt out. Although , at the time, I didn’t have the words to articulate my experience. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. What I did know was that nothing had become more important to me than work, and nothing made me feel better than achieving at work.

I chased down every possible opportunity throughout my almost two decade career in financial services. It began in international invoice finace and I loved everything about it! I had won all the accolades, run remote pilots before remote was a thing and led value-adding projects. I had even been handpicked for managment training and thrived under the constant chaos and pressure. I moved to London and leaning into my strategic ops background began training as an cost management Accountant eventually landing an excellent job in an accounting firm in the West End – an Accountant, living and working in London. A far cry from the Zimbabwean high school drop out I desperately wanted to prove I wasn’t. I craved the respect I commanded as a professional career woman and this felt like the pinnacle of that.

That is usually where it begins: burnout. A deep desire to prove yourself as worthy – in my case, worthy of respect and capable of accomplishment. Don’t be duped into thinking burnout is preserved for “boss babes” and work-a-holics – burnout is a human-thing that follows a slow and pervasive cycle.

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) assesses burnout on 3 dimensions: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalisation (cynicism), and reduced Personal Accomplishment or Efficacy. For me it was reduced personal accomplishment, nothing I did was ever good enough for me. It didn’t happen overnight, it was a slow and erosive force that undermined every close relationship and ultimately laid waste to my identity. If I wasn’t an accountant, who was I? My coup de grâce was failing a simple accounting test in an interview. A fail that forced me to reconsider what was important to me and ultimately led me to retrain as a Coach and build a company to support women who lead, women like me.

Coaching is an unregulated industry, and many coaches lack rigorous psychological training. However, I am among the top 30% of coaches worldwide who are professionally trained and certified. As one of 33,000 accredited coaches, I hold a certification from the International Coach Federation (ICF), the globally recognised gold standard in coaching.

Being an ICF accredited Coach means I adhere to a strict code of ethics and high proficiency standards. It means I’ve made a commitment to engage in continuous professional development, maintain a reflective practice, work with a supervisor, collaborate with a peer coach, and dedicate significant time to ongoing training.

Choosing to work with an ICF accredited coach means partnering with a professional committed to the highest ethical standards and impact.

My role as a coach is to listen to you and your experiences in a way you may never have been heard before. I set aside my own expectations and aspirations to create a safe space for you to explore your thoughts, feelings and choices. My role includes challenging your beliefs and thought patterns to understand what will best serve you. I help you develop self-acceptance and integrate your own, more productive, uniquely supportive ideas.

Your results are entirely your own, based on two key factors:

What insights you choose to integrate and implement: The change you experience is driven by your commitment to applying the insights gained from our sessions.

How vulnerable you’re willing to be with me: The depth of our work depends on your openness and honesty with yourself.