Welcome.
I’m a coach helping people to grow and transform their work, their relationships and their lives. Witnessing people find choice, access their talents and become more confident and excited about their lives is magical. Coaching is a personal journey of knowing yourself, your values and patterns so that you get more out of life for you, your work and your family. Before coaching I worked for more than 30 years as a Strategist in Marketing Agencies working on brands including Microsoft, Specsavers, Lloyds Bank, Renault, John Lewis and Hendrick’s Gin.
Who I work with.
Typically clients have a goal they want to achieve or a problem they want to overcome . In many cases, they will be stuck, knowing what they don’t want but not sure what they do want. Building confidence is a frequent aspiration. In any event, the common thread is a dissatisfaction with things as they currently are and a commitment to change.
Where I specialise.
I work with professional women to lead a life that’s true and authentic to who they really are. Where they can be fully themselves, bringing their voice and all their gifts and talents to bear at work and at home. Whether that’s strength, caring, drive, bravery, empathy, leadership skills or another quality. I’ve worked with many women who have found themselves conforming to cultural conventions at work or well established family roles that are neither intentional or desired. Often, we’ve learned to keep aspects of ourselves hidden where they’re not acceptable to others. For me, in my first career job, it was a male-dominated traditional environment where you fitted in better by suppressing more female characteristics and not dressing in an especially female way.
Knowing yourself and your values is important to creating the next chapter you want. Building confidence is often necessary to reach your goals, so we work together to discover your inner resources and raise confidence and esteem.
Clients are often looking to change direction and don’t necessarily know where to point. Becoming clear about your values and what matters to you, helps clarify what that new job or move needs to look like. I support you through change and help keep you accountable throughout so that change really does happen. And in changing, you’ll become more aligned to your life purpose.
How I came to coach.
As a Strategist in Communications Agencies I often pitched to win business. On one occasion, I presented a (what I thought was) compelling and effective strategy to a group of prospective clients. It didn’t land. I reframed it. It still didn’t land. One of my colleagues voiced it. The clients nodded. They loved it. I had no idea what the difference was. I subsequently studied the relationship between language and the mind. And that was the start of what would be my coaching journey.
I enjoyed my work and I always knew that the people I worked with and my clients were an important part of that. Their stories, working together, discovering our different ways and figuring out how to be better together. I knew that. But more recently, I became increasingly conscious that something had to change. There was something missing in the work I was doing and I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I yearned to work wholly with people. In support of people. Plus, I wanted freedom in my working day. Freedom to move, time away from screens and more variety and flexibility in my day. That inspired my career change to coaching. Coaching, thankfully has given me both. Plus, the deepest sense of fulfilment.
When I’m not coaching.
I live in North London with my husband Jeff. When I’m not working you’ll find me on my bike, getting close to nature, travelling (hopefully again), being with friends or whirring away on my sewing machine with great enjoyment and moderate success.
What clients say…
“Shivaun is a very calm and thoughtful coach who very effectively guided me through topics I bought to discuss. This enabled me to approach and think about them in ways I hadn’t before and have clear actions and goals at the end of each session. She’s also a great listener and I felt very valued throughout the sessions. I have come away with new perspectives about myself and how I can move forward with my career. Thank you!”
“I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started coaching sessions but I have found that Shivaun’s empathy, understanding and ability to ask the right questions at the right time, have got me thinking about my issue in ways I didn’t think possible. I would highly recommend getting in contact with Shivaun if there is something bothering you. Talking it through and looking at the situation from different angles worked for me. A first rate coach!”
“Coaching with Shivaun has been invaluable in helping me tap into and channel my own resources. I have clearly defined my goals and have a vision for what I want to achieve. Working with her I’m developing the tools to get past the barriers when I get stuck and overcome my limiting beliefs. Her style is warm and supportive but what I really like is that sessions are targeted, directly address the issues and I walk away with actionable next steps to keep up my momentum.”
“Shivaun has helped me navigate life at a time of significant stress, and as I was making a big change to my life. Coaching with Shivaun has given me the space to reflect, remind myself of what is most important and feel more confident about my choices. Shivaun is a great listener, asks challenging questions and is not afraid to explore challenging topics, whilst at the same time being incredibly supportive and warm.”
“Shivaun has a gentle, inquisitive, thoughtful coaching approach which helps to draw out feelings and emotions, as well as focus on positive steps to move a situation forwards. She is empathetic and non-judgmental, and draws on a range of different coaching skills and techniques. Working with Shivaun has helped me to explore the deeper side of a number of issues and to look at things with a different perspective”
“The discoveries I have made during coaching with Shivaun have fundamentally changed how I achieve what I want. I’ve become aware of some obstacles that were stopping me and that alone has made many of them disappear. Coaching has brought me more clarity and acceptance and shown me where I was wasting energy. I’ve now re-established my goals while being true to my personal values.”
“I was quite ‘stuck’ with a particular issue that I just couldn’t resolve, despite talking it through with friends, at length. I just couldn’t ‘move on’. Until I started coaching with Shivaun. Oh my goodness, I have had an epiphany. She’s given me a magic carpet and helped me to fly. I can’t stop smiling, and there’s been a sea-change in my dealing with the problem that everyone has noticed, and the problem has not now just been addressed, but I’ve moved away from it and onwards, at speed. ”
“Shivaun showed patience, integrity and a lot of empathy but not so much that it felt insincere and she was just playing lip service to me.
There were a lot of ‘a-ha’ moments for me which were uncomfortable, confronting and liberating. Shivaun helped me navigate through these and let me work out what was important and most importantly how to quieten my saboteurs when they reared their ugly heads.
I would highly recommend Shivaun as a life coach.”