In 2024 I recovered from burnout, discovered a new career path after redundancy and launched Yellow Bench Coaching.

I’d studied social psychology at university and had always been interested in personal development. Over 25 years in financial services, what I enjoyed most was developing others: helping colleagues navigate challenges, build confidence and grow.

But I was inspired to actually go for it after a ‘triple whammy’ of bereavement, burnout and redundancy. The soul-searching that followed, initially alone and then with professional support, showed me the importance of developing deep self awareness. Most of my career I’d been focused on strategy, practical action and tactics. Now I saw that lasting change requires us to go deeper: to understand ourselves, our patterns and where they originate. And I wondered if I could help others better navigate the situations I’d been in. 

Coming from corporate, where little time is spent knowing yourself or others at a deeper level, I wanted to bring the techniques I had experienced in my own transformation back to that world. I’d never come across this thinking when I most needed it. It became my passion to bring this depth of transformation to others going through periods of change.

I felt a pull towards working with sustainability leaders, the profession I’d worked in most recently: purpose driven leaders solving some of the world’s biggest challenges. I wanted to encourage deeper personal development in leaders doing this important work and support them through fulfilling career transitions.

Through my one-to-one coaching work, and through the conversations I share with sustainability leaders in my podcast Rooted: the human side of sustainability leadership, I can continue to make my own impact on the issues I care deeply about.

What I love about this work are the tiny moments. When clients share secret dreams or say, “I’ve never told anyone that before,” or “I’ve never thought of it like that before.”

I love hearing about something my clients did differently because they have a different outlook on themselves, their relationships or the world. And I love it when a client tells me they’ve made the big dream happen: moved house, changed career or achieved something big they’d been contemplating for years.