Parenting can be fulfilling, joyful, exhausting and overwhelming — often all at once.

It’s easy to become so focused on everyone else’s needs that you lose sight of your own. Work, family life, responsibilities and the constant mental load can leave you feeling stretched thin, unsure where you fit in or quietly running on empty.

Coaching gives you space to pause.

A space where you don’t have to solve problems for anyone else. A space to think clearly, talk honestly and work out what you need in order to feel calmer, more balanced and more like yourself again.

It hasn’t been straightforward. Is it ever?

As children grow up, things change. You can find a nursery that works around your job, then school brings a whole new set of demands.

People sometimes assume children need you less as they get older.  In reality, teenagers need your time, energy and emotional presence in different ways.

Over time many parents lose sight of themselves — their needs, ambitions, interests or sense of identity outside family life.

Across the years, I’ve changed working pattern and job roles many times. Work and family have both had to flex to fit, and that often felt difficult, uncomfortable and guilt-ridden. At one point, during the teenage years, I stopped work altogether for several months to support my children through difficulties at school.

Alongside my own experience as a parent, I served as a school governor for more than ten years and have navigated the EHCP process with my family. Those experiences have given me insight into the realities of working with schools and advocating for children.

For a long time, parenting and work took almost all of my time and energy, often at the expense of what I wanted for myself.

That experience is part of what led me to coaching.