My Journey
I am a curious citizen of the world. I have dipped my toes in many environments and roles: researcher, consultant, writer and entrepreneur.
It has been a winding path to find my calling as a coach, yet I am incredibly grateful. All the life experience I have gathered so far has given me deep appreciation of mankind, and I believe I can lean on it to accompany others.
Paradoxes have been a part of my life for a long time. I am an artist at heart, with a doctorate in engineering. I have worked both in academia and industry. I was born in Slovakia, and have lived in both France and England for long periods. I am a mother, a wife, and an entrepreneur. I am a geek and a sports fanatic. So many identities…which luckily started making more sense as I followed the training course to become a coach.
I practiced engineering for a decade, if I include my studies. Which I feel is appropriate when we are talking about identity. Deciding to change my career allowed me to discover I could be using my strong points and my passion for certain subjects to avoid the road to burnout. Even more appealing was realising I could work doing something I could enjoy and excel at. I think many bright people follow certain career paths as they seem like logical choices, to hit a wall later on in life when stress becomes high and the quest to find meaning in life comes knocking at one’s door.
James Hollis, a Jungian Analyst, writes in his book “Finding meaning in the second half of life” that this call can arise anywhere from roughly 35 to 70. Mine came at the beginning of this age range, in the middle of changing careers and after being at home for 2 years with my little boy. I often wonder about this timing, and have come to the conclusion it happened because it could. Sometimes called other labels such as the dark night of the soul, it changed how I walk through life. More aware.
I had been considering training as a coach for a while, but I was also distracted by different fields such as psychology, behaviour science and nutrition. Nothing felt right until I stumbled across the training course from Institut Maïeutis whilst on a course on Non Violent Communication. It combines traditional coaching with psychology, for example leaning on Viktor Frankl and his explanation of why meaning is extremely important.
I haven’t looked back since…and stand up straighter as the meaning behind the identities I am composed of is clearer. Personal, professional, managerial, organisational…
Learning about communication and identity has been like a healing balm, and a lifeline. Knowing more about my behaviour through theories and models such as Transactional Analysis (TA) and Process Communication Model (PCM) has given me tools in reclaiming my seat in life as the driver, as opposed to letting life happen to me. Even a simple thing as discovering the meaning of autodetermination from William Schutz has had quite a large impact on my mindset. The process of self discovery is long and winding, and I am looking forward to continuing to discovering things and using this to make choices about my behaviour.
More importantly, I am very excited to be able to share my findings with you, the people walking alongside me on their own paths.