Life Transitions Coaching

The key elements of the coaching process with Melissa involved exploring her options, enabling her to clarify where her interests and passion lie and to work through her conflicting feelings related to a strong sense of loyalty to her husband and family, as opposed to a compelling urge to change the course of her life. Melissa was able to acknowledge her deep sense of dissatisfaction with both her marriage and career. As a result of the coaching process she started to commit to her own needs and to pay attention to the feelings that were stirring within her. Exploring options helped Melissa to make choices about her next steps.

Fortuitously, at that time, Melissa’s company was asking for volunteers to take redundancy, as they were downsizing the workforce. Initially this posed a real dilemma for Melissa, as she struggled with her conflicting feelings about whether to go for this. In the coaching sessions she was able to acknowledge that in many ways this was a real opportunity, which could support her in moving forward and, in the end, she decided to take the risk of going for it. Making this momentous decision, after a period of agonising over her fears about relinquishing the financial security her job provided, was a huge turning point. She realised that the payout would give her the financial means to retrain in a completely different field and in one session we focused on supporting her in making a choice between training in biodynamic massage, deep tissue massage or of doing a more eclectic course in complementary therapies. In the end, Melissa chose to apply for a course in deep tissue massage, which she was clear she wanted to specialise in, whilst recognising that she could also train in other modalities if she felt motivated to do so at a later point.

At the culmination of our work, Melissa had taken the bull by the horns and had spoken to her husband, Greg, about her feelings regarding their marriage. This was something she had been dreading, as she’d felt extremely anxious about how he and their children might react. To Melissa’s surprise, Greg seemed almost relieved that she’d voiced her feelings, which allowed them to communicate honestly about the state of their marriage. They were both able to acknowledge that they had grown apart and now had very different interests and priorities in life. After long hours of talking and several Couples Counselling sessions, they agreed amicably to part, without animosity. Their middle daughter was initially quite upset about the break-up and clearly was going to need some time to process her feelings about it. At the end of the coaching process, Melissa was quite excited about the prospect of what she recognised as a new chapter opening up in her life. The lack of motivation she had experienced at the beginning of the process had been replaced by a new-found passion and enthusiasm. Melissa recognised that there would be more challenges ahead, but she now felt confident in her own choices and in her ability to draw upon her inner resources to meet whatever challenges she might encounter in the future.