I have always been a student of transformation

This began with studying philosophy in school and continued through my BA in Political Science, Sociology, and Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Philosophy trained me in the art of critical thinking - a skill that kept my mental health on track during tumultuous teenage years marked by tragedy. Learning to question assumptions, examine beliefs, and think rigorously gave me tools I did not know how much I would need in sculpting my discernment.

As a highly sensitive person with elevated empathy, I was drawn to study an MA in Community Development. During that time, I worked with refugees and asylum seekers in my home city, Galway. Like many Irish people, I have an affinity with the disenfranchised - those navigating displacement, marginalization, and the challenge of rebuilding identity in unfamiliar territory. That work shaped my understanding of resilience, belonging, and the structures people need to thrive.

Later, on a personal mission to gain a deeper understanding of addiction, sobriety, grief, eating disorders, complex family dynamics, complex PTSD, and a trauma informed approach to the human condition, I pursued an internationally accredited qualification in coaching through the Irish Life Coach Institute, accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

I am now completing an MSc in Psychology at Arden University, with modules in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and lifespan development. This academic work deepens my understanding of the mechanisms underlying transformation - how the brain changes, how the body stores experience, and how we can facilitate healing through evidence based methods.

What Is a Coach?

A coach is not a perfect person who will teach you how to replicate their life. A coach is someone trained in the methodology of transformation - someone who has studied the toolkit of this strand of psychology and practices it daily.

There is a common misconception that anyone can call themselves a coach. Accredited coaches complete rigorous training programs ratified by organizations like the International Coaching Federation. We learn coaching ethics, competencies, and evidence based techniques. We work with supervision for ongoing professional development. We are held to international standards.

A huge part of my training was a deep awakening to the judgments, assumptions, and projections we make in every interaction when we are unaware this is a default of the human condition. Even if a client shares the same demographic and experiences as the coach, the coach remains impartial, following coaching principles and ethics.

This is not about me imposing my worldview. It is about creating the conditions for you to discover your own.

The Coach as Facilitator, Not Instructor

A coach never gives advice. If someone is telling you what to do, they are a mentor or consultant, not a coach.

The truth of your reality and the answers you seek are subjective - they can only be accessed by you. The coach facilitates the space for that discovery to occur. I help you examine your goals by asking questions to explore reality, widen your focus, and allow options you may not have considered to come into view.

I arrive at every session as a blank canvas. My personal experience informs my ability to have empathy and compassion, as well as my capacity to construct powerful questions for you to access answers from your most authentic self. But I am not there to project my story onto yours. I am there to hold space for your process.

The Listening Technique

My favorite part of coaching is deep listening.

As a coach, I listen in an almost meditative state - fully present with you, tracking not just your words but the shifts in your energy, the pauses, the moments where something lands differently. I let questions arise and pass. I do not interrupt to insert my own agenda. I stay with you in the moment, following where you need to go rather than where I think the session should go.

An important part of listening is recognizing when silence means you are accessing a deeper part of yourself. That pause is not empty - it is you reaching inward, finding language for something that has not been named yet. I hold that space without rushing it.

When I experienced coaching as a client, I was given the time and space to find words for feelings I had not named before—deepening my understanding of blocks I experience in my own life. That gift of being fully witnessed, without judgment or fixing, is what I offer to my clients.

The Somatic-Mind-Body Connection

I am deeply interested in the somatic approach - the mind-body connection—as a pathway to accessing wisdom from the essential self.

Our social self (ego) keeps us functioning in this world. It manages relationships, responsibilities, and external expectations. But our essential or higher self is our eternal essence - the part of us that knows what we truly need, what we truly want, and what aligns with our deepest values.

Coaching creates the conditions for that deeper self to emerge and speak. Often, the body knows before the mind does. Tension in the jaw, a shift in breathing, a sense of contraction or expansion—these are signals. Learning to track and trust those signals is part of the work.

Transformation as a Lifelong Practice

I do not position myself as someone who has "arrived." I am still in the work. I practice the tools I share with clients. I am still learning, still integrating, still discovering blind spots and patterns I did not see before.

What I can offer is the kind of depth that comes from lived experience, rigorous training, and ongoing commitment to this path. I can meet you where you are because I have been in the depths myself. I know what it is like to rebuild identity, to face shadow material, to sit with discomfort and not run.

If you are standing at a threshold and ready to do the work, I would be honored to facilitate and witness your transformation.