A little about Helen
From business to coaching
I've spent my working life interested in two things: organisations and the people within them.
Before moving into coaching, I spent more than 25 years in business, initially in marketing and later in senior and board-level roles, consultancy and entrepreneurship. I've worked across corporate, SME and not-for-profit organisations, in sectors ranging from telecommunications and financial services to fashion and sustainability.
Along the way, I also founded and ran my own fashion business, designing and retailing my own collections.
That means I've experienced organisational life from many different perspectives – as an employee, leader, adviser and business owner.
But the common thread throughout has always been people. I've long been fascinated by what motivates us, what matters to us, why we flourish in some circumstances and feel stuck in others, and how we navigate the challenges of working alongside other people.
It was that fascination that eventually led me to train as a coach.
Coaching and research
Coaching opened up another set of questions for me.
What particularly interested me was how often the issue someone initially brought to coaching turned out to have something deeper beneath it. Conversations about work, relationships or career decisions could become conversations about identity, purpose and what really mattered to them.
That curiosity eventually led me to undertake a Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring at Oxford Brookes University.
My doctoral research explored people's experiences when their personal values came into tension with what they experienced at work, and the role coaching played in helping them navigate those tensions.
The research has deepened my understanding of what happens through coaching and continues to inform the way I work – particularly my interest in helping people understand what matters to them, make sense of difficult experiences and find their own way forward.
How I coach
I trained in Co-Active coaching, an approach founded on the belief that people are naturally creative, resourceful and capable of finding their own answers. That remains fundamental to how I work.
I bring curiosity, warmth and challenge to my coaching. I'll give you space to think, but I won't simply sit and listen. I'll ask questions, reflect back what I'm hearing, introduce different approaches and sometimes invite you to look at something in an entirely different way.
My coaching draws on both my professional training and my experience of organisational life, but there isn't a formula. The way we work together is shaped around you and what will best support the changes you want to make.
Experience and qualifications
Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring
Oxford Brookes University
Co-Active Coach Training
Coaches Training Institute (CTI)
MSc Cultural and Social Anthropology
University College London
MBA Strategic Marketing
University of Hull
GTCI Team Coaching
Power of Embodiment
Coaches Rising
Symphony of Self
Coaches Rising
Over 25 years' business experience, including board-level leadership, consultancy and entrepreneurship.
