Hello you.
Nice to meet you
Kia ora e hoa
Preferentially
Purposefully
I coach with thinking humans
At the core of my work is an unconditional commitment to helping you to create a life you actually like.
Self-belief School is all about helping you become braver, freer and ultimately more at home within yourself. This probably sounds amazeballs but SBS is so much more than lofty ideas. You'll learn proven approaches to goals you can get excited about achieving (instead of binning them off at the first hurdle). And how to set and honour boundaries to help you keep promises to yourself. Oooh! and how to make decisions, get organised and stop talking shit to yourself. You'll be supported to develop robust and tangible self-belief, self-worth, self-trust and self-acceptance. Sound good?
I teach thoughtful coaches.
Enabling our clients to understand and heal the root causes of their self-doubt doesn’t happen by chance. We need specialist knowledge and tools to be able to do this effectively.
The truth is, us coaches struggle to create real, lasting results for our clients because we're busy contending with our own self-doubt - particularly when it comes to showing up and going all-in with our business dreams.
Self-doubt distracts you from the TRUE PURPOSE of your work - the sacred work you were born to do. After taking the first 50 coaches through the SBCA programme I know for sure that what you learn here will not only create powerful change in your client’s lives, it will also utterly transform how you show up as a coach.
I CAN HOOK YOU UP WITH THE BEST DAMN COACHES I KNOW.
We all need someone in our corner advocating for our future self. When that someone is a trained and experienced coach, it's life-changing.
Find a committed, thoughtful practitioner who has specialist knowledge and tools to be able to support you effectively. No matter where your self-doubt is showing up, no matter how illogical or entrenched it feels: we can help.
Click here for everything you need to find the best coach for you:
I SHARE AS A PRACTISING HUMAN ON SPACESHIP EARTH.
I've been oversharing online since 2007: it’s the longest relationship of my adult life.
Words are like oxygen to me and I am fascinated by stories, ideas and conversations. Through podcasts and newsletters, I am able to create a bridge between you and me; the personal and the universal, the mundane and the magical.
Professionally
Narrative Coaching for Practitioners, Centre for Narrative Coaching, 2016
MASTER OF ARTS, COACHING & MENTORING (MERIT), OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY, 2015
CERTIFIED DR. MARTHA BECK COACH, 2013
COACHES TRAINING INSTITUTE, 2012
POST-GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, MASSEY UNIVERSITY, 2007
BACHELOR OF ARTS, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY & WOMEN’S STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO, 1995
Philosophically
MY COACHING APPROACH
I am a developmental coach at heart.
I believe we actively and unconsciously construct narratives about who we need to be to feel safe - to be accepted, to belong - based on our past experiences. These stories inevitably become fixed and constraining - we end up feeling stuck between what we want, and the risks our desires present. Self-doubt is a protective mechanism that tries in complex and sophisticated ways to hold us back from psychological risk.
Because self-doubt is a 'developmental dilemma' my approach to coaching is very much interested in exploring how you conceive of your 'self'. We look at how you can uncover, understand and heal the unconscious protective beliefs that are in charge, how you can develop psychological flexibility to create a life that feels fulfilling and meaningful to you.
Developmental coaching is quite different from solution-focussed or cognitive approaches that focus on behaviour and managing your mindset.
MY SPIRITUAL BELIEFS
Since I read the children's bible to keep my 9-year-old insomnia at bay, I have been fascinated by the mythical, magical, mystical.
When I stopped drinking ten years ago, I began in earnest an increasingly wild and wondrous search for the immaterial, the mystery. I've worked with shamans and seers, tarot readers and astrologists. I wanted answers that I sometimes got - prophecies about my place in the world that felt exciting and synchronicities that felt other-worldly. I craved a close, personal relationship with God, it was an ache. I think for much of it, I just wanted to feel special: chosen and seen.
Then, in 2020, as the world was turned upside down, so was I. The last couple of years has led me to teachers that helped me create a bond with the divine that feels real and grounded, practical and healthy. I'm still walking this path.
Personally
I am powered by curiosity, kindness and black coffee.
I’m sharing this adventure with Mr P. Ash is my best friend, co-conspirator and favourite human. On paper, we couldn’t be more different, but our conscious, loving, sometimes crazy-making marriage is the thing I am most proud of. I don’t ever want our conversation to be over.
I love our big squishy sofa on a rainy Autumn afternoon. I can’t see a great movie too many times. I’ve travelled to every country in Europe and I still don’t believe in the physics of flight. Home is where my books are.
I believe in the healing power of belly laughs, poetry, bear-hugs, singing loudly while driving alone. And pie.
I’ve come to understand that being alive is an unending meaning-making process of imagination, experimentation and interpretation.
I agree with John Steinbeck: nothing good gets away.
Thanks for being here. I can already tell we’re going to get along bloody marvellously.
Arohanui,
From grieving, burnt out and lost to
finding my way home...
Before I worked with Sas, I felt stuck in a rut and going round in circles, knowing I needed to make change, but being very fearful and confused about what, when and how.
Since we’ve worked together I’ve been able to gain clarity about my situation, take steps to make major change and understand myself a lot better. I have become more of a champion for myself. I cannot recommend Sas highly enough.
Sas has a way of getting you to really think about what is behind the issue and since working with her I have come to terms with things that had been concerning me for years. I have accepted myself for who I am and I feel so much more confident in my own instincts now.
Without any doubt, working with Sas is the best investment I have ever made in myself. Sas is a total master at sensing where the tightest knots really are and then gently but firmly encouraging you to unpick them.
It’s been like adding the final pieces to a puzzle that I’ve been grappling with for years.