During last month's mental health awareness week, I shared a post about my own experience of loneliness (and severe depression with suicidal ideation). I ummed and ahhrred all week about what to write on the topic of mental health and loneliness.
I'm glad I did because my post reached thousands of people across LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook! I'm passionate about working with women who feel isolated or marginalised, because I've been isolated and marginalised. I don't have lived experience of racism, but I do have lived experience of other forms of discrimination, emotional suffering and benefitting from the wisdom and connection with others to come out the other side.
Why am I telling you this? Well, in the autumn I will be delivering a brand new group coaching programme for women who feel isolated or marginalised and want to meet their leadership potential. Let me tell you another story and see if it feels familiar to you:
Sitting at my desk in the office, I was surrounded by people busy tapping away at their computers and others in meetings room. Day after day, I would scroll through my inbox wishing I was anywhere but here. I felt worthless, lonely and couldn’t connect with my purpose (I knew then that it is to be of service to others). I’d been in yet another meeting where I felt alone and struggling to influence stakeholders around me, feeling like I’d been set up to fail. As soon as I could, I ran to the bathroom to wait for the lump in my throat to subside.
What I needed then was a group of encouraging women around me – ones who wanted to work together to understand ourselves more, to understand how we show up in the world, and give each other the confidence to be our real selves at work.
What if you find yourself in that tricky meeting again, but for the first time these faces are actually listening to you? You finish making your point and instead of someone changing the conversation entirely, they nod their head in agreement and build on what you’ve said. It feels like the light inside you is finally shining bright and work is fulfilling.
This is why I’ve created a brand new group coaching programme called You, In Focus. Together, we will explore what our individual strengths and values are, and how we live these every day to be authentic. We will also look at different ways to understand conflict and how to respond to it. By working together, we truly are the greater than the sum of our parts – the learning comes from within and between each other. It’s a magical experience – growing and developing, while building new connections.
Want to know more? Sign up to be the first to hear about enrolment details over the summer: www.fullframecoach.com/subscribe
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