Success Stories

Sarah

I have been attending Life Coaching sessions with Amanda since July 2007 and have taken part in 7 sessions so far. I have found Amanda to be extremely professional during these sessions and she explained to me from the start the importance of confidentiality. For these reasons I have always felt very comfortable talking about my problems. I feel we have had a good rapport from the beginning and although I initially struggled to voice my problems with anxiety, Amanda is very good at drawing you out and deciding what areas need looking into.

We started by determining what areas of my life needed work by carrying out various activities such as the Wheel of Life, the SWOT analysis and values elicitation. Using these Amanda showed me how to look both at my home and work life and find out where the imbalances were. These activities also helped me to discover that in spite of a feeling of low self-esteem, I have more strengths and confidence than I had realized, which was very encouraging. I have found this balanced way of looking at life very useful to me.

We also drew up targets in areas where I had little confidence. I have always found planning to go away on holiday very draining as I spend the preceding weeks worrying about preparations for being away both at home and work. Amanda showed me how to set up an action plan for my next holiday and we found ways to help reduce workload in the office both before and after the holiday by better planning, delegating tasks to others and prioritising. I also drew up a list of jobs at home that needed to be done before we left and asked my partner to carry some of these out. On return from holiday we reviewed the action plan and discovered that carrying out these actions had helped to reduce the work in the office both before and after the holiday. My anxiety about leaving the house to go on holiday was also reduced because I had less to do and think about before going. This has really helped me to feel easier about going away in the future.

Amanda has also given me information on positive thinking and recommended a book about dealing with fear. The book suggested among many other things the use of mantras, and I have found that using them has helped in many areas including going to the dentist with less fear and also speaking up in meetings at work.

We are still looking at other areas for development, but I have found that the tools that Amanda has given me have already helped me to see life in a different way and will enable me to find ways of dealing with events in the future when they arise. I feel much calmer about things and find that I panic less when faced with difficult situations. I think I have gained a great deal from working with Amanda.

- Sarah December 2007

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