Hi and thank you for visiting my website.

My name is Delphine and I’m a professional coach.

You are probably here because there is something in your life you are dissatisfied with, and you’re wondering whether coaching might be helpful in resolving it.

Do you already know exactly what you’re looking for, or are you browsing, knowing that you'll recognise what you need when you see it?

Either way, please continue reading – let me describe some of the most common issues that I deal with in my coaching practice, so that you can judge whether you’ve come to the right place.

• Career Transition:  You have recently been promoted to a position of authority but your lack of experience is affecting your ability to make decisions: Such a person looks to a coach to help build self-confidence, assertiveness and judgement.  There are usually a few other areas of exploration and work as well, such as personal development or further career goals.

• Entrepreneurial Adventure:  You have tried your hand at starting up your own business and are feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of the challenges and the loneliness of not having a trusted confidant or ‘fellow-traveller’.  As your coach I will help you to explore your choices more deliberately in order to make better decisions with the information at hand.  Or, we might explore ways of modifying a business model to suit a new set of opportunities. Some of my entrepreneur clients recognise the need to continue developing themselves and find coaching an excellent adjunct to formal learning.

• Empty Nest #1:  Are you someone whose adult children have moved to another  part of the country or emigrated, who has to work out the meaningful continuation of their own life without the kids and grandkids nearby.  A coach who has travelled that journey is a great companion in exploring the fascinating world that awaits you - where your adult children and grandkids are always part of the fabric of your life, and you find new pleasure in other areas worth exploring.  You discover and refine hidden strengths and get on with living the life you're meant to be living.

• Middle-Age Trap Between Kids and Parents:  Someone caught between the demands of a young and growing family and the increasing dependency of elderly parents, along with the growing consciousness of  career inhibitors and financial worries, or someone who unexpectedly has to take care of a disabled partner or relative.  Such a person often feels lost in the middle of all of these demands – everybody draws on their energy; and they start feeling depleted and resentful, and guilty about being resentful.  They are worried about their own future and don't seem to have the wherewithal to picture it anymore.  These are natural normal reactions to difficult situations.  Being able to take time out for yourself, and to talk to a coach who is fully focused on you, the client, is of infinite value at times like these. Coaching helps the client find balance and a way through and forward.

• Transition from Paid Career to Full-time Parenting:  Someone who has gone from a full-time high status, demanding career to full-time parenting, who is finding it much harder to adjust to than s/he would have thought.  Such a client often benefits from coaching in that s/he is able to explore the meaning of personal fulfilment in her/his life, beyond and including the parenting role:  Day-by-day parenting can be awfully hard and one often misses the true value of it: with a coach you take out time for yourself so that you can be more fully present as a parent when you’re back with the family.

• Empty Nest # 2:  Someone who wants to refocus on her own life as her children become more independent.  You wake up some morning and realise that your youth is gone.  You’re not middle-aged yet but you can see it coming.  You feel all you have to show for it are your kids and suddenly that’s not enough. You wonder what happened to the dreams of your youth.   You find a coach and start rediscovering those dreams -  which ones are still important to you and how might you achieve them are central to the coaching conversation. Through coaching you discover inner strength and courage to do something different - to become more like the person you you'd like to be.

• Green Living:   You are concerned about global warming and your carbon footprint. You are concerned about the future of your children and what the world will be like for them.  You are disturbed about the health risks that seem to abound – swine flu, HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes. You know that lifestyle diseases are preventable if you change your lifestyle. You have chosen to live a healthier and more natural life.  Yet, matching what you know with what you do is difficult.  Opting for green living feels like abandonment of your culture and family traditions.  In green living coaching we work together on the resources and choices that are available to you.   I help you craft your new green and healthy life in a way and at a pace that incrementally moves you to where you want to be as a nature- and health-conscious person, parent, community member and/or world citizen.

 

• Retirement: It is now 4 months or 4 years, or any other period of time since your retirement.  You are financially OK because you planned carefully and you manage your income stream carefully.  Your health is pretty good.  However, what you thought would be fulfilling in retirement is now that you’re in it, not enough.   You miss the buzz of being busy with all sorts of things.  You’re supposed to feel rested and at peace but there’s a feeling of emptiness. The future is somewhat frightening in that it stretches endlessly. You fear you’re becoming boring because you are, deep down, bored.  You want to have a sense of direction; a sense of purpose again.   In coaching we explore the things to be passionate about in retirement: we discover the adventures and pleasures that are still yours for the having and I help you keep focused on doing it.

• Immigration/Emigration:  You are considering moving to another country or you have just done so.  Things are stressful and confusing.  You aren't always sure of what your options are or whether your choices are right.  You need an experienced sounding-board.  You thought it would be easy but the cultural differences are greater than you imagined.  You feel ill at ease and yet you know you have to make a go of it.  As someone who has changed countries three times and with my experience of working with expats and foreign students I will be able to relate to your experience without judgement.
  

Do any of these examples sound like you?  Your specific issue may be somewhat different, but I find that there is a common theme in coaching clients:  they have something in their lives they want to change.  They don’t need therapy or counselling – they’re fine. What they do need is a process of thinking about the things they want to change in themselves; someone to talk to.  A good coach is someone who truly listens without judgement and with some degree of wisdom. 

If this sounds like what you’re looking for, please continue browing my website.  If you like what you see, your next step is to email me at delphine@lwazi.com.   We will then make telephone contact and explore the details of how we can work together.