Client success story

Hallo!

So, I’ve wanted to do this for ages and finally got a jumble of words down. I’d like to do this again soon once I have fully got to grips with my story and whatever the last 15 years have been! I’ve tried not to be too soppy as I know you hate that. But yes, you have changed my life. I hope you can use this in someway or it at least makes up for the times when you had to speak to me at every service station as I pulled over on the way over to see you. I don’t think anyone has ever spoken to me so kindly or determinedly or powerfully as you did at those times. (I was also kinda afraid of you obviously…;) ) Speak soon and hope you’re well. Thank you and here goes…


With everything going on during 2020, like many others I can’t help but reflect and compare this year to the last. Despite the global pause on ‘normal life’, I can’t believe how far I have come this past year and am grateful to be in the position I am now – this I put largely down to seeing Karen.
The sessions have empowered me to make the changes in my life that I have wanted to make my whole life. I have always feared wasting my years on this earth and could not bear any further regret to add to the growing list. Karen acted as the catalyst I needed and I have finally found momentum which means that I no longer rely on her for every decision or move I make. That’s not to say I always make the right decision but even more valuably, I am no longer afraid of making mistakes.
When we met, I was 27, had been struggling with eating disorders for years and when I was first recommended to see Karen, I was crippled by self-doubt and would second guess my thoughts, beliefs and the accuracy of my memory and that was before even opening my mouth to speak to another human!
Our initial conversation was over the phone and I felt under no pressure to commit to coaching. However, she was professional yet so incredibly genuine and trustworthy that I recall agreeing the time and place for our first session before hanging up. Over the coming months, our sessions adapted to what I needed as did her coaching as I became more resilient and stronger. Karen knew I needed ‘tougher love’ and we challenged more hard-wiredd thought processes and tackled more challenging obstacles that stood between me and obtaining the life I desired. I wanted to trust my own thoughts, have more independence from my relationship and family, become self employed and attract some new clients to my new business. I wanted to like myself and have some confidence for once!
During our sessions (for which I would travel 3-4hrs for each time) I would turn up, a scramble of words would spill out and she would have this incredible power of listening without judgement, make sense of what I’d said and explain it back to me whilst posing a question about how I could change the circumstances or see it from a different stance. Our very first session, I had to travel by train to see Karen which was a huge step for me due to my anxiety around public transport and my mule-like resistance to any change from my daily routine. 5 months later, I had left my job, become a qualified PT, started my own business, gained new clients, gained a better relationship with every person in my life and am now the most confident I have ever been. Karen gave me the ability to take risks and ask myself ‘what’s the worst that can happen’…
I can’t believe how little time has really passed since we first met considering how much my life has changed. I was always a serial flake too… And no that’s not some kind of delicious snack but someone who would constantly say I would be somewhere only to cancel due to feeling unwell or giving into my eating disorder. I never missed a session with Karen and this was unprecedented. It was too valuable and I somehow managed to override my erratic, anxious and craving-filled mind in order to make it over to my session with Karen because every time (without fail!)
I came out of a session feeling better and empowered. More like the person I wanted to be but equipped to make the most of the time between our sessions so that I would have enough to report back on the next time we met. My oxygen tank was refilled by Karen, I had more clarity on everything and I would feel protective over my oxygen tank that she had refilled until we next met. Now I am better at keeping my oxygen tank topped up myself as I am much more capable of identifying what I need to do to alleviate tension or stagnancy in my life.
Empowered. That’s the overriding and repetitive word that springs to mind (and this testimonial!) I am now able to own my life more than ever, the mistakes & choices I make and thus my future. Karen has been a true coach to me; never telling me just what I wanted to hear, rarely telling me something in the way I expected to hear and sometimes she has told me what I already knew but couldn’t face myself.
When we first spoke, I said how important it was that I didn’t need her to like me (as a lifelong people pleaser). It felt like a last chance for me so I wanted to leave nothing behind and throw everything I had at this opportunity. I am so glad I did and now, as a coach myself, I will never wish to be without my own coach. I trust her implicitly and I will be forever grateful to her for giving me my life back. That sounds like hyperbole but it is no exaggeration; she is one of a kind and I honestly am not sure whether I would still be alive today if it weren’t for her. I have been scarily low, unfathomably stuck and very lonely but seeing Karen has got me through it. She taught me how to work out what I want, how to say what I want and now how to even get closer to what I want. She has never been a therapist or a friend to me (and has never shied away from telling me How. It. Is and when the time has come for me to put my tiny violin away. She has however been the one person in the world I have felt was on my side and has made me dig my heels in when I would have given up before. She has no hidden agenda and is not on a constant selling pitch loop – that is why I have written this because the one coach out there who isn’t selling herself constantly…actually should be!
Karen makes action happen and with that, confidence and change.Thank you Karen and see you soon!

If you have been inspired by Ali’s story and would like to find out more about how my coaching could work for you, please get in touch. I would love to hear from you.

http://www.outward success.com info@outwardsuccess.com