About Barbara
How long have you been a Life Coach?
I have actually been a Life Coach for ten years but a couple of years prior to that I had qualified as a Reflexologist so spent most of my time doing that.
What do you enjoy about being a Life Coach?
I think it is that I see people in obvious distress on arrival and even at the end of the first session the change is noticeable. Another thing that I like is that I teach them skills that they can then use for life and on many different situations in their lives.
What conditions do you most enjoy working with?
Without a doubt Stress, Depression and anything associated with them.
Why?
Because these are conditions that are terribly miss-understood and I have also suffered with them for most of my life. Until recently if we went to our GP with these conditions the only answer was antidepressants which only address the symptoms and not the cause of the condition. Another thing I felt was that my symptoms were bad and I was broken which made me feel powerless to help myself.
It is so lovely to open my door to people who clearly feel the same way I did and then after working with them over a number of sessions, they leave stronger, happier and confident that they can face life in the way they choose.
Do they all have the same amount of sessions?
No! People are unique and therefore take on information in their own unique way. Some grasp it in 2 – 3 sessions and others take 6 or more. I have found that as stress and depression are such huge conditions, they usually mask other conditions, so when they are worked on and reduced, these other conditions appear so we then work with those until the client feels life is manageable.
Which of your skills do you use most when working with clients?
Most of the work I do is Life Coaching and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Sometimes I use very light Hypnotherapy but not that often. I also use EFT, which is the tapping you may have seen Paul McKenna use. This is amazingly powerful and some of the change we see using this is so fast and painless.
Do you work with groups or just individuals?
In the past I have mainly worked with individuals and what I have found is that the conditions have a very similar structure, even though the foundation of the problem can be very different. Also the belief structure that surrounds the conditions are very similar, so after specialising in these conditions for so long, I have been able to develop a programme that addresses and then changes the beliefs and therefore changes the condition. The programme is called ‘Flip the Switch’ and this can be delivered to groups. It was 6 years in the making and I trialled it last year with very positive results so am now offering it as an option.
If Stress is your speciality, why do you work with weight conditions?
Because I was extremely overweight for the majority of my life and not only is it stressful to not be able to lose weight but also weight is usually the symptoms of something else and that is, nine times out of ten, something stressful. I have worked with clients that have weight problems because of medication and we have been able to really make a difference there too.
Do you give talks?
Yes! I am happy to talk to groups because I feel the more people who manage to live life the way they want and not controlled by stress and depression, the better.
What about going to places of work, are you happy to give talks there?
Yes! It doesn’t make a difference to me who they are, if they are interested in helping themselves deal with stress and depression, I am happy to point out the options available to them and also give them little tips.
