Hello and welcome. Based in Hampshire and covering Berkshire, Surrey, London and throughout the South East, NewDay Coaching is a life coaching and wellbeing practice providing coaching, support, understanding and awareness around all aspects of mental health. I am also available for online coaching wherever you may be.
I founded NewDay Coaching because I wanted to provide the sort of support I would have loved when I returned to work after mental illness.
I am a European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) accredited coach at Foundation level. I bring traditional life coaching techniques together with an understanding of the particular stresses about returning to work after mental illness to provide a programme of support personally tailored to your needs and situation.
I am a trained Mental Health First Aider. Talking about mental health is hard. Really hard. I know - over the years I have avoided talking about it to everybody; family, friends; bosses, myself. But I have learned to talk frankly and openly and that has given me the confidence and the sensitivity to discuss these topics with others. We’ll never, ever take these subjects anything less than seriously but we’ll use a mix of gravitas and humour to make them less daunting to tackle without ever compromising on developing plans to move forward.
I spent much of my working life in national security and intelligence analysis both in the public and private sector, roles I have described as looking at “bad people doing bad things”. In my most recent corporate role I managed a team analysing terrorism risks around the world which involved them reading and watching the most vile terrorism propaganda on a daily basis.
Given my own personal mental health history, their wellbeing was a major concern and over time I started taking a greater interest in mental health support in the work environment, becoming a Time to Change Champion and talking about my own mental health history to the wider team to try and reduce the stigma and prove that mental illness was not a death knell to a career. The response was amazing, some of my colleagues opened up about their own circumstances and I ran several more sessions around mental health issues with the support and encouragement of a fabulous boss.
I’ve been a mentor throughout my career, in the civil service and to junior analysts and all of a sudden everything started to align. I’d felt myself drifting a little at work, not really enthused by the day to day and doubting my value. But I started to feel a purpose again and saw a way to combine mentoring and the idea of mental health in the workplace.
I am a Time to Change Champion. I am also an “expert by experience” having suffered from severe clinical depression in 2008 and 2010 and occasional incidences of depression since then. Those first two periods resulted in lengthy times out of work and I know how stressful a return to work after any time can be.
The first weeks and months are particularly difficult and you can be particularly vulnerable to slipping back as everyday work stresses take on a major significance. The first time I went back to work, it was without a plan, without any clarity and without any sort of professional support. The stresses returned and while it took a while, my second period of depression resulted directly from the way I returned to work that first time.
The second return to work, was much more successful. Done with some professional support and a set of techniques to recognise and address the stress and most of all a structured plan.
Through NewDay coaching I am focused on providing bespoke support to individuals and organisations to support your return to work. Whether its providing a supportive training programme to raise awareness of, and de-stigmatise mental health issues in the work place, or 1-on-1 coaching to make a return to work successful and enjoyable. Together we will develop tailored plans to understand your particular concerns and worries and develop and work through practical steps to address them.
So if you are in the process of planning your return to work, or as an organisation you recognise the merits in offering the best support possible to employees in that position, it makes sense to maximise your chances of making that step successfully and with a feeling of control over your working life.
Life Coaching is a recognised and proven way of using specific tools, techniques and methods for helping people or organisations improve their own performance, set targets for the future and devise plans to get there and then offering support and challenge to succeed.
Coaching isn’t therapy, and I am not a therapist. I have had some amazing experiences in therapeutic relationships and they have made a real difference in my life. And while there are some areas where the fields of therapy and coaching are closely related, my focus with NewDay Coaching is to help you look to the future and set goals and targets and plans to get there, and then provide encouragement and accountability as you do. This applies equally to you if you are returning to work after a period out, or are CEO wishing to develop your organisation and senior executives to provide high performing, supportive working cultures, fit for the modern world.
1 in 6 UK workers experience stress, low mood or poor metal health and mental illness is the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK costing an average of £1,035 per employee per year. While a positive attitude towards mental health has become more public in recent years and the availability of support and awareness of its benefits are growing, there remains a gap in support for people to fully get back on their feet between counselling and therapy to treat the specific mental health issue and the actual practical steps of returning to work.
NewDay Coaching focuses on addressing that gap by providing bespoke support to individuals and organisations to support your return to work. Whether it is providing a supportive training programme to raise awareness of and de-stigmatise mental health issues in the work place, or 1-on-1 coaching to make a return to work successful and enjoyable.
Coaching uses tried and tested techniques to make real changes for people and organisations. The other element in all of this is what the coach and the coachee bring of themselves. On my side, that is lived experience of mental illness, a real passion to offer help and support to others and a strongly held belief that by de-stigmatising the subject we can make a massive difference to the wellbeing, productivity and profitability of the workplace.
Together we will develop tailored plans to understand your particular concerns and worries and develop and work through practical steps to address them.
Coaching is available either face to face in Hampshire, London, Surrey, Berkshire and throughout the South East, or online via Zoom video chat.
