PERSONAL COACHING FOR
MID AND LATER LIFE
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What is possible in later life? Not what is impossible due to the inevitable limits. Not what is possible despite ageing. But what is possible because of it?
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- Connie Zweig, The Inner Work of Age
As I’m sure you have experienced yourself, life doesn’t stop challenging us and teaching us new things just because we’ve hit a certain age. In fact, for many of us, the mid and later years of our lives offers a new awareness — the invitation to slow down, pause, look around, and ask, “Who am I, now, in this stage of my life?” and “What do I really want, now?”
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That’s where coaching comes in.
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Rather than simply trying to 'fix' problems or going over the past, coaching for mature people is about cultivating a deeper awareness of your self and where you are in your life, looking ahead with curiosity and with courage.
It may be about practicalities and goals that will support you in moving to the next stage of your life. It may be asking big questions—about values, purpose, joy, change, and even dreams that you might have put on hold for years.
It is certainly about creating space to explore, to discover and to thrive in this next chapter of life.
Some writers, as in the quote below, refer to this exciting and purposeful process as 'eldering': reviewing who you are, what you want now, what you have to give and discerning what your soul is asking of you at this stage of your life.
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Whether you’re working full time and wondering what more there is; preparing for retirement or adjusting to it; looking for more meaning, dealing with a major life change, or, excitingly, just wanting to rediscover yourself, coaching can be a powerful support.
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You will not be told what to do. Rather, coaching is about being truly heard, compassionately witnessed, gently challenged, and authentically supported as you decide what you want next. Take a look at what the experience of coaching with me is like in the information and testimonials below.
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…And a beautiful truth in life: it is never too late. Never too late to reawaken curiosity, to discover more about yourself, to revision and reframe experiences, or to find the courage to believe in yourself again. With space and time for soulful reflection and compassionate self enquiry, you can thrive in this new stage of life with energy, confidence, and a renewed sense of perspective and purpose.​​​
When I refer to someone as 'eldering' the 'ing' of the word refers to a state of growth and evolution, a process with endless possibilities. Eldering implies that we take active responsibility for our destiny in older age, living by conscious choice rather than social expectation.
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ronald S. Miller , From Aging to Sage-ing
TESTIMONIALS
Coaching may bring many benefits, including:
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An opportunity to focus deeply on yourself, a current situation or a particular issue.
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Empowering your own imagination and creative solution finding.
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Exploring feelings of 'stuck-ness', overwhelm or burnout and drawing upon your whole self to find solutions or ways forward.
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Identifying your true values so that you deepen your motivation and sense of purpose.
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Building resilience and resourcefulness.
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Creating, developing and practising perspectives and strategies that will sustain you in your day to day experiences.
KEY ELEMENTS IN MY COACHING APPROACH:
A CONFIDENTIAL, PERSONAL SPACE
Coaching offers you a confidential space to slow down, notice, feel and think with an empathic and responsive other. It is an opportunity to pause, to reflect, gain a fresh perspective and then return to the world again with renewed energy and insight. The session can be varied and there may be laughter, emotion, the use of coaching 'tools' or periods of silence to think and process. It is always focused upon and individual to you. You set your own goals and are in charge at all times of what you do and don't want to discuss.
A PROCESS OF
REFLECTIVE ENQUIRY
You may bring a particular issue, theme or question to explore and this is where we will begin. As we explore it together, this question sometimes changes, produces other questions or ideas, or deepens as the conversation progresses. At other times, there may simply be a need to unpack whatever is present for you in the moment. By noticing, reflecting and being curious together, the process supports a resilient, forward-looking approach and empowers your own 'observer mind'.
EXPLORING YOUR OWN DEEPER UNDERSTANDING
Coaching conversations are an opportunity to consider carefully whatever arises. Moving through the initial 'not knowing' with curiosity and compassion, expanding your awareness of yourself, accessing your own deeper understanding and increasing the range of choices that you have. Coaching is an approach based on the belief that, with space to think and feel with an attentive other, we are each creative, resourceful and whole.
What can we create because of our extended life experience, because of our resilience, because of our 360-degree view? What can we create because of our personal history of wrestling with shadows, inner critics or creative blocks? What can we create because of our ripeness, our capacity to get out of the ego’s way and open to soul time?
Connie Zweig, The Inner Work of Age
ABOUT ME
This process of getting older, a fundamental and inevitable part of our experience of life, increasingly draws and fascinates me. The changing perspectives, deeper awareness and ongoing reflection that come with this so very human experience are real and significant for many people. In Connie Zweig's use of the word 'eldering' to describe 'an internal demand to honour the voice of soul' I hear enriching and personal possibilities for each person able to listen.
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My coaching style is very much who I am. I am a quiet, thoughtful person, who enjoys depth of conversation and feeling. Coaching sessions are a warm, confidential space in which you feel able to engage in your own process of reflective enquiry with an interested and compassionate other. I will listen to your carefully, reflect back what I've heard you say (you'll be surprised how revelatory this can be!), be curious and ask questions that prompt your deeper thinking, feeling and awareness in the moment.
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My professional coach training was undertaken with the well respected Barefoot Coaching Ltd and I am also an Associate Accredited Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), one of the most established coaching regulatory bodies. I abide strictly by their code of ethics, including clear agreed boundaries and confidentiality which I will discuss with you before we enter into a coaching relationship.
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If you would like an informal online or telephone conversation to find out more, please contact me using the form below.
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I found it a very respectful process, with the boundaries clearly laid out.
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Tomas is a great listener, empathetic, but objective and has a wide and varied background to draw from.
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He asked some very good questions, speaking to what I think of as my essential self, rather than to the parts of me that were struggling.
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CONTACT
