So, who am I?

I never know how to answer that question.
What is it you really want to know?

I could give you the professional version.
Or the personality version.
Or the list of things I’ve done.
Or what I do for fun.

And still, none of it is the whole story.

Things I’ve been called:

Mother, wife, Director, Founder, Teacher, Coach, Therapist, Solopreneur, Expat, Dog person, S’African, Crocheter

Take your pick.
None of it is the whole story.

Hello.  This is me.

I didn’t set out to become the person I am now

In 2020, heading towards my 50th birthday, I left South Africa and came to Greece.  I wasn’t having a dramatic spiritual awakening.  I wasn’t looking for my purpose.  I wasn’t even particularly interested in “finding myself”.  I just wanted a reset.

I’d spent years building a comfortable life.  Married for almost 30 years.  Children now adults living their lives.  Work that I loved on a schedule that worked for me.  Business projects keeping me engaged.  I was keeping busy and functioning well.

But underneath all of that was a feeling I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  There wasn’t anything wrong.  But something wasn’t quite right either.

So I came to a small coastal town near Athens to “gather myself” and get intentional about my 50’s.  Then Covid happened.  Which, in retrospect, was a fairly effective way of making sure I had the time I needed.

I was “stuck” in Greece for three months, which became six months and ultimately two years.  Eventually I went back to South Africa to see whether my marriage could find its footing again.

My husband and I came back to Greece together.  First Athens.  Then Lefkada.

And then we separated.  I moved to the Peloponnese. Alone.

And then, because life apparently has a sense of humour, a job came up for both of us at the same place.  So now we live on the same property.  We’re friends. Co-parents.  Colleagues.

It’s not the conventional arrangement.  It works.

Which is another thing I’ve learned: life doesn’t always have to look the way you thought it would for it to be right.

I thought I was coming here for a reset.
I didn’t realise I was changing almost everything.

Somewhere along the way I stopped trying to figure myself out

I used to think the work was about becoming more self-aware.  Then I realised you can become extremely self-aware and still be completely caught up in yourself.

I became interested in what happens after we can see the pattern.  What happens when we stop trying to improve the personality and start noticing what is already here, underneath it?

What happens when we don’t immediately believe every thought, reaction, fear or story that appears?  What happens when we learn to listen differently?

That’s the territory I work in now.

The Enneagram is part of that.

I love the Enneagram — ever since I realised why my asking questions pushed my husband’s buttons (*Hint – He is an Ennea 9).

But we are not our Enneagram type. 

It’s a map, not a label.  It shows us the strategies we have developed to navigate life, the ways we protect ourselves and the places where we’re so identified with our personality that we don’t even notice we’re doing it.

And then, it shows us the way back to ourselves.

And then there’s the body.

I’ve alwasy been interested in the relationship between what we think and what we experience. 

After I became a coach, I started working with bodies.   Fascia release, muscle activations, massage.   Working with professional athletes and those with chronic pain.  Later, I trained in embodiment coaching and meditation. 

So I don’t have much interest in coaching that keeps everything neatly inside the head.  The body often knows before the committee in the head has finished its meeting.

In case you’re wondering if I am actually qualified

I am.  I have the certificates.  I’ve been coaching since the early 2000’s and have certified as a Master Coach, Enneagram coach and trainer, in embodiment, meditation, fascia release, muscle activations, among other things.  There is paperwork to prove I know what I’m doing.

In case you’re wondering if I am actually qualified

♦  InnerLifeSkills Master Coach & Wisdom Partner

♦  InnerLifeSkills Enneagram Coach & Trainer

♦  Embodiment Coach and Meditation Teacher

♦  Be Activated & Lyno Therapy Practitioner

♦. Kahuna Massage level 4

So, that’s me, more or less

I live at the end of a road in the Peloponnese.  I coach, teach and occasionally need to convince myself that four dogs would be exciessive.

I still don’t entirely know what I’m doing.

I just know a lot more about what matters to me that I used to.

And that’s probably the most useful thing I can offer you.