What is Life Coaching?

Coaching is a different relationship from any you will have encountered in normal, everyday life.  Coaching is dynamic and inspirational, not merely a chat with a friend over coffee.  Although a coaching session can be fun, it can also be challenging for the client.  A friend might agree with you about how hard life is – a coach never would!

Coaching is about working with the client to help them to achieve their goals and to reach the full potential.  It is not about making judgements or “telling someone what to do”.  Coaching is also not “Rocket science” but merely giving people the confidence to understand their own needs and have the confidence to be the person they really want to be.

For me coaching is:

• About trust
• Challenging
• Inspiring
• Developing
• Empowering

Life coaching is not a “quick fix” to all your problems and should be seen as a way to discover what motivates you to achieve your goals over the long term.  Life coaching brings about lasting change but the client has to be determined to make changes and meet the challenges.  I usually suggest that people have a couple of sessions close together to establish commitment and to work through the obstacles first and then clients can have less support depending on their own requirements.  The key to coaching is really that it is the client who sets the agenda of the sessions. Top

How does life coaching happen?

I coach people face to face or over the telephone.  I do the workshops in various locations and in businesses throughout the country.  Once coaching has been established, the sessions become less frequent and support is via email or briefer telephone conversations. Top

What is Personal Training?

Helen’s unique take on Personal Training comes from years of struggling with her weight and fitness, progressing from Walking to now completing Triathlons!  Currently training for the Mazda London Triathlon (1500m swim, 46km bike and 10km run) Helen understands the need to keep “at it” and that fitness and health is actually a life long commitment and it’s all about taking small steps particularly when you’re new to exercise.  We’ve all done classes when we can’t move for the next week – that’s a whole week of exercise wasted!

Qualified in Nutrition and weight management Helen can support you to achieve your goals.  Helen says “I can devise an eating plan for you or I can help in your success with any plan you might be following – the choice is yours”.  I am not saying I have all the answers to your weight loss goals but I can give you that extra motivation.  Some people need just an extra helping hand to find the right way for them.

As a Personal Trainer it is important that we get the level just right – it might be that we start off with gentle walking and progress when you are ready.  I am certainly not going to make you do hundreds of squats, lunges and press-ups on your first session – unless that’s what you want! On another note, you don’t have to feel embarrassed about getting out of breath – I puff and pant like a train and have to turn my ipod up load when I’m running to drown out the sound of my breathing! Top

Life Balance workshop - Your Life in Balance

The perfect day for anyone who is feeling they need to a little motivation to get them started on the road to successful body and mind confidence.  During the day we look at:

1. Food for thought – our relationship with food – good and bad
2. What motivates us towards success
3. What is health and what that can be for us
4. Body confidence – feeling good in your skin
5. Our values, beliefs and attitudes and how they can help us or limit us

Costs for this workshop

The cost for this day is £89.00 per person on an individual basis (includes lunch).  This cost can be negotiated for groups from one place

Life Coaching can help you:

• Achieve those personal and business goals, whilst acknowledging obstacles and limitations
• Build your self-confidence, self -esteem and self worth
• Find a sense of purpose and direction to your life.
• Understand yourself and your reactions to different situation or to difficult people
• Understand where your motivation comes from
• Develop meaningful relationships with others
• Find your inner happiness

Life Coaching and Lifestyle challenges

All of us need to have a positive and balanced life, most of us aspire to gaining this, in fact this is the most common reason people come to coaching.  Everyone understands the benefits of adopting a healthy lifestyle, such as being at your correct weight, not smoking and taking regular exercise.   The key to success is to  focus on the positive benefits and to phrase the goal in the positive – not “I want to give up chocolate” but “I want to make healthier choices” – although sometimes a bit of what you fancy does you good!

Life coaching towards your lifestyle changes can help you:

• Find the right goal for you
• Discover your motivation
• Feel positive about the challenge
• Set achievable targets
• Overcome the obstacles and see them as part of the journey towards success
• Think about rewards and being nice to yourself!

Life Balance from Strawberry Sofa

With all my training and coaching I am assured that you will be able to find your own life balance.  My aim is to work with beginners to exercise and give them the confidence to take the plunge in more ways than one.  I hope that my enthusiasm for exercise rubs off on my clients and they can have that great feeling of going for a jog on a sunny day with a smile on your face and your music turned up loud!

Business Training and Coaching Workshops from Strawberry Sofa

As a qualified trainer, teaching and coach I wanted to bring my style of delivery into the workplace, to empower people but also to help you achieve your business goals – maybe reduced absenteeism and greater motivation from your employees. I am pleased to be able to offer several courses that can do just that:

• Work/life Balance
• Become a trainer
• Become a Life Coach

Work/Life Balance workshops

A course designed to make you think about your work/life balance, this always used to be known as “stress Management”, but now encompasses much more than just stress and is more about recognising that you can have a balanced attitude to work and life.  Through this course we look at stress and the effects on the body and what you can do to alleviate stress in your life.  We also explore

• Values, beliefs and how these limit us
• We analyse all the things we do each day and decide which we could stop doing or even delegate to someone else!
• We get to understand the importance of taking care of ourselves through diet and exercise
• We look at how to spot the signs that we are becoming stressed and find suitable coping mechanisms

This course is designed for men and women who both face similar dilemmas coping and trying to achieve a work/life balance. Praise for this course:

“Really made me think – I need to go home and really read through everything and then get back to you”

“Helen makes a really good life coach – a very good course”

These workshops are interactive, but I promise there are no role plays!  It is an opportunity for people to discover their inner happiness and to take ownership of that feeling. 

In praise of happiness workshops “the course was brilliant – all of it was positive and thought provoking – thank you, it was fun and enjoyable and helpful to all aspects of life”

“An enjoyable course which makes you think”

When asked what the best parts were “Thinking about me and my values in life – very thought provoking” – “realised that I shouldn’t set limits on myself”

All of the above courses will also be delivered on an ‘Open’ basis at regular intervals throughout the year.  Should you wish to have further information on when and where these will take place, please email me your details.

Top