Katherine
Mother of two
Proud Small Business Owner
Warwick
United Kingdom
Living the dream as my own boss!
I started work with Tina as I had been contemplating starting my own business for over 5 years. Due to having young children and moving countries and towns a few times, it had never felt like the right time. Once my husband and I made the decision to stay in our current location, I knew there was no better time, but I seemed to be continually coming up with excuses for getting started.
Through one on one coaching with Tina, and then group coaching, I was able to explore and understand my reasons for delaying, a fear of failure and concerns regarding my lack of knowledge.
In the one on one coaching I was able to break down the big scary goal of starting my own business into bite size pieces. I was then, with Tina’s support and accountability, able to take action and begin the steps needed to make my business a reality.
The accountability continued through the group coaching and in fact spurred me on to actually launch my business website and social media. The group environment was so encouraging and supportive and it was very reassuring to know that the doubts I had early on were common concerns.
Had I not worked with Tina, I think i would still be making excuses for why I couldn’t start my own business, instead of enjoying being a small business owner.
Sarah
Mother of three
Student
Home School Teacher
Kenilworth
United Kingdom
Tina and her skills really changed my life.
I was stuck, I wanted to make big changes to the way we lived our life and I had all these thoughts in my head but I felt unable to sort through them. I felt like to my friends they would be ridiculous and far from the ‘norm’ and I knew I would be discouraged and my fears would stop me. Those thoughts would never leave my mind.
I found Tina! I told her my dreams and what I wanted to achieve and week on week I made progress. My husband left his job, I sold our family home, I planned and organised a huge trip to take my husband and three children back to where I grew up in Fiji and we travelled feeling the total freedom I had wanted to achieve. It was the best thing I have ever done in my life. It was terrifying to do knowing the financial risks and all the uncertainty and without Tina I would have talked myself out of it. By being reminded of what I really wanted in those times kept me going. To have some one read back your own words from previous weeks helped. Tina gave me strategies I could use to keep me focused.
During this time I also went to the groups and really found that these just added to the support and reassured me that other women battled with the same stuff that I do battle with in my mind.
To have time set each week as time to plan and think in detail was invaluable to me gaining confidence and belief in myself.
I returned from our travels but ‘what next?’ Again, I contacted Tina and talked in detail through ideas, plans and emotions. I know the life I want to live and in the past I would have thought it was just dreams and told myself
I should put my head down and get on with it like most people do. However now I believe I CAN make big changes and I have.
So how did Tina help me? She supported me in making huge life decisions. She helped me organise my thoughts, prioritise and plan. She taught me strategies to keep calm and on track. She helped me see that I’m not alone.
In terms of what I achieved, in a year, I have changed as a person, I have sold our house, travelled, taken my children out of school to home educate them and am pursuing things I enjoy, I have nearly finished year 1 of a Counselling course.
Although this sounds a bit cheesy, I think for me Tina and her skills really changed my life. Having belief in yourself and what you do and what you want to do makes living life so much better!
Mary
Mother of two
Coventry
United Kingdom
The programme gave me the clarity I needed to start taking tangible steps towards making my ambitions a reality.
I started the Revitalise Programme after leaving the job I’d held for the previous 6 years and feeling unsure of what I would do next. Although I had an idea of what my ideal career would be it was completely different to what I’ve done in the past and I lacked the confidence, qualifications or experience to go for it.
The programme gave me the clarity I needed to start taking tangible steps towards making my ambitions a reality. Tina and the ladies in my group were incredibly supportive, positive and encouraging and made me feel capable of achieving my goals. Knowing we had a session set aside each week to discuss our progress also gave me the structure and motivation I needed to stop procrastinating and start getting on with it! Having the opportunity to share our experiences in a group setting helped me to realise there are plenty of other people in the same boat – it was great to meet others in a similar situation and realise that we shared a lot of common barriers to making our next move.
Since competing the programme I have started working part-time in my chosen field and started a college course to gain a relevant qualification. I would definitely recommend the Revitalise Programme to anyone who feels they may have reached a crossroads and would benefit from some guidance, focus and confidence-building around what to do next.
(Participants names have been changed to ensure confidentiality)
Kim is a stay at home mother of two (ages 5 and 6) and had been in a defacto relationship for fifteen years. She and her partner were seeing a counselor. She came to our group “to do something for myself and to gain confidence to be the best parent, partner, friend I can be. Be the best influence especially for my daughter.” She came to the group wanting to find herself, her interests, and to plan for the future.
Kim came to our first session of group coaching to apologise in person for not being able to make it. She had been unable to find care for her five-year-old son. You could hear the relief and gratitude in her voice that she was able to stay, as we set her son up with stickers and pencils on a table in the back of the room.
Kim is a vibrant, caring, bubbly person who shared in the first introduction that she felt like she was two different people – the one she showed the world and the other, the real one she didn’t…
Over the course of the 8-week programme Kim became increasingly excited about the changes she was able to make in her life. She was a fantastic support to others in the group and really thrived on realising that she was not alone in her struggles and concluded that the most useful thing to come out of the program for her was to openly take on accountability. Her biggest learnings from the programme were:
- That she wasn’t alone
- That planning enables her to achieve
- That she is worthy
Kim was able to move from a state of blame and frustration to taking responsibility. When asked what things most surprised her about the program, she said: “I can express my emotions well and that the things I think people don’t like about me are my strengths”. When asked what she would like to tell others who might be considering doing the programme she said: “Life coaching has changed my life. Whether you need to find your own identity again, have a passion you want to pursue or further yourself in all areas of life, then this (programme) is a must.”
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Lisa is the mother of two boys (aged 7 & 11) and has been married for fourteen years, having also been married previously. She came to our group because of changes in her life including recent redundancy and the illness of her spouse. She wanted some focus and direction to pursue for herself. She had struggled with combining working and being a mum for many years, beginning work outside the home and leaving numerous times over the past 11 years as she attempted to juggle ‘work’ and family. She struggles with health issues and really wanted to revitalise her life.
Lisa was a very enthusiastic participant of the group. She provided very insightful observations and was particularly supportive of other mums having issues with their partners and helping them work through these. Lisa found the most useful thing to come from the programme for her was setting manageable commitments for the week. Her biggest learning was that baby steps are okay and to just keep moving. The biggest surprise for her was “that others had similar thoughts regarding overwhelm, motherhood and the daily churn.” When, in the final week we reviewed how far we had each come in the past two months, she said she was “blown away (with) big noticeable differences in the areas I focused on. Small commitments each week paid off and have improved other areas as a result.”
Lisa feels that the Revitalise Programme helped her to reconnected with what is most important in her life. After completing the programme she feels more at ease and does not place such high expectations upon herself or others. Lisa went on to loose weight and take her time researching her next steps without the urgency she had originally felt. This left time for her to enjoy her family more and to do some training that might lead her on ultimate path, but it was Ok if it didn’t. Lisa has gone on to do some volunteer work and is considering starting her own business. Lisa feels that she now leads a much more balanced and fulfilling life.
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Sarah is the mother of four (ages 1,4,6 & 8) and at the time of attending the Revitalise Programme was a stay-at-home mum. She has been married for ten years and had come to our group because “the letter (offering the Revitalise Programme) that came home seemed just at the right time.” She wanted to sort out her priorities and feel more in control of her life.
Sarah was a quiet, contemplative member of the group and her contributions were always well thought out and a little guarded. It was difficult at times for her to concentrate as she had at least one, sometimes two of her youngest children with her. Sarah seemed to be a little uncomfortable in the group situation, but got a lot from just listening to the other participants. At the end of the programme she said that the most useful part of the programme was “listening to others work out their blocks and goals and applying that to my situation”. Sarah’s biggest takeaway was that everyone had similar setbacks, so it is a matter of putting the self constructed ones aside and worrying about the ‘real’ problems that can generally be sorted out though organisation and assistance.
Sarah signed up to do some individual coaching upon completion of the programme and six months later returned part time to her teaching job, a prospect that had seemed overwhelming when beginning the programme. Sarah was able to break down the steps that were necessary to organise herself and the family for her to return to work and ask for the help she need to make this happen.
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Tanya is the stay at home mother of two girls (aged 10 & 12) and has been married for seventeen years. She came to our group because she had been made redundant and was uncertain about her next career/job. She wanted a bit more clarity around her life goals and direction.
Tanya was a wonderful asset to our group. She brought with her a great deal of wisdom, having already gone though a long period of self-discovery and renewal. She was very constructive regarding suggestions of strategies that may help others and was a wealth of knowledge regarding books to read and other self-help tools.
Tanya found the most useful thing about the programme to be the making weekly commitments to the group and her biggest takeaway was to take baby steps to achieve her goals. The thing that surprised her the most was “how so many other women feel exactly like me about their lives!”
As part of her action planning Tanya was able to initiate a monthly woman’s group of her own to explore lots of learning opportunities, something she has wanted to do for many years!
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Sally works part time and has a son and daughter (aged 6 & 8). She has been married for eleven years and has also been married previously. Sally came to our group because of life change. Her kids are now at school and she wanted a different career but didn’t know what to do. She wanted some clarity around which career to pursue to fit in with her children and husband, who does shift work.
Sally was a valuable member of the group and despite needing to miss 3 of our 8 sessions because of her and her children’s illnesses, she was very dedicated with homework and contributions to the group. The group has supported her through resigning from a job she disliked and has wanted to leave for years and she is now enrolling full time in a course she has wanted to do for many years! “You made me accountable for not only my actions but my thought processes too, when they had almost become a habit of whinging. I had become tired of the complaining-Sally and just needed something or someone to stop that process and make me finally accountable to change.”
Sally has now started a new part time job, which she loves and fits better around her family “I don’t know why it took me so long to change from something that I was dreading every day.”
Bethwyn’s Story
Hi, my name is Bethwyn, I live in Canberra, Australia with my husband Todd and 3 kids (12, 9 & 7yrs).
Two years ago my youngest child started school. I felt lost and had no self-confidence. I had dedicated the previous 10 years of my life to being there for the kids. Blessed, as I was to have the time to focus on kids with the support of my husband, I was not prepared on that first day of school, I felt many new emotions. It had been so many years since I had been in paid work (and having been a Scientist- there had been many changes and advancements to catch up on). I knew that I didn’t want to return to my old ‘work-life’ of long hours and researching at home, I still wanted to be there for the kids after school and in the holidays. However I was concerned who would employ me on my terms. The guilt I felt for wanting so much was awful.
That is when I was pointed towards Life Coaching. I found Tina who was available for on-line coaching sessions at a convenient time for both of us, and I booked in 12, 1 hour sessions over the next 3 months. It was only a few weeks after starting that I realised how much more confidence I had found. Within this time I had walked into a school and organised to talk to the Head. A few weeks later they offered me a position- 4 days a week, school hours and school holidays! EVERYTHING that I had wanted.
Through my discussions with Tina in these sessions she I found the direction I needed and the confidence in myself to give things a go. Importantly she removed the guilt that I was feeling for thinking myself selfish for putting our family first.
The coaching sessions with Tina were fantastic, and I recommend them to anyone who needs to put some direction and confidence back in their life. I realise now that I was not alone at that time in my life, many women (and men) experience a similar ‘lost’ feeling when their kids start school. There is no doubt that Life Coaching changed my life, Tina was an amazingly patient and understanding coach. She was able to help me find direction, by lifting my confidence and opening my eyes to life’s greater picture- allowing me to acknowledge what was important in my life and to find a path for the future that has had challenges, but great rewards.
Tina changed my life 2 years ago in 12, 1 hour sessions, thanks Tina, for helping me find more self-confidence, more time to look after me and hence more energy for my family, and a more positive outlook. She encouraged me to practice new ideas and empowered me to move forward towards the goals I had set.
I often wonder- where would I be today if I didn’t make those changes in my life that Life Coaching showed me I could?
“The Revitalise Programme? Do it! Don’t be afraid – there is something for everyone within this course”
Debbie
Kenilworth, United Kingdom
“Through life coaching I have finally been able to focus, achieve my goals and get a better work / life balance. It’s been an amazing life changing experience.”
Katherine
Warwick, United Kingdom
“I would recommend coaching to anyone who needs a little direction in life. I have found it an incredible experience, far better than I could have imagined. It has opened my eyes to life’s greater picture, allowed me to acknowledge what is important in my life and find a path for the future that will have challenges, but also great rewards. Tina you have changed my life in 12 one-hour sessions, thanks, you are awesome.”
Bethwyn
Canberra, Australia
“The (Revitalise) programme gave me time to nurture my personal growth and learning and has encouraged me to move forward in a clearer and more targeted way. What surprised me was how so many other women feel exactly like me about their lives!”
Tanya
Melbourne, Australia
“The improvements to my life through undertaking group coaching have blown me away. Big, noticeable differences in the areas I focused on. Small commitments each week paid off and have improved other areas as a result.”
Lisa
Blackburn, Australia
“Doing the group coaching with Tina gave me the confidence to believe in myself again. For that I will be forever grateful.”
Kirsten
Melbourne, Australia
“Life coaching has changed my life. Whether you need to find your own identity again, have a passion you want to pursue or further yourself in all areas of life, then this is a must. For me there is a huge change from undertaking the (Revitalise) programme. I am more positive, have more confidence and have been given permission to put time aside for myself. Positive talk, moving forward and not spending too much time looking back.”
Susan
Melbourne, Australia