About Jess
Voted Life Coach of the Year 2017 at the TCA International Coaching Awards celebrated all those I have been blessed to work with and the exciting possibility life offers, whatever age, of positively handling whatever life challenges us with, discovering what makes your heart sing, creating a life you love, happy and fulfilled.
My life began in a mother and baby home in Birmingham, a Summer of Love love child to an unwed newly qualified nurse and doctor. This was at a time when amazingly now there still huge social stigma about being born out of wedlock!Ironically my birth surname was Guest. I was adopted down South into another medical family (my paternal grandfather was Churchill's private physician and helped keep him alive during the 2nd world war). I successfully traced my birthparents a few years ago and my children now have three sets of wonderful grandparents and extended family.
I started my career as a recruitment consultant, and then worked in various in-house HR roles before moving into Executive Search, helping build teams in both start-ups and growing businesses.
Whilst working full-time, I qualified at night school to be a Montessori Early Years' Teacher with the specific objective of being the best mother I could possibly be when the time came. Together with my training in Youth Impact and Emotion Coaching (for children and teens) I've found my Montessori training to be invaluable in my current work with families and young people, for example helping them come through divorce and separation.
When I started my own family, I experienced a very severe form of morning sickness ('hyperemisis gravidarum') with all four of my pregnancies. It was a very challenging time, and it has motivated me to focus on the importance of health and well-being, and being the healthiest and most vital you can be. This enhanced my interest in nutrition and so trained in Macrobiotics (which assisted my return to peak health). I also have a keen interest in and practise mindfulness and the latest research into natural relaxation and sleep remedies.
When my children were older I was propelled back to work during a traumatic divorce, which involved losing our family home and going through a period of huge change for all the family. I wish I had known about coaching back then!
I started by organising events to connect and introduce people - including an Exclusive Membership Singles Club that raised money for different charities.
This in turn led to my setting up a charitable Foundation for a commercial organisation, which involved creating teams, organising volunteer programmes, offering donated and discounted product, leading various fundraising initiatives and projects, and connecting commercial expertise with philanthropy.
I then headed up an international portfolio of around 100 Third Sector (Not for Profit and Social Enterprise) clients for a Salesforce.com consultancy, helping them with their productivity and efficiency, bringing together teams, and facilitating and delivering consultancy and cutting edge technology solutions.
In these last two roles, I brought in coaches to present at client events, assist on volunteer programmes and our graduate programme, and to help me personally overcome my then irrational fear of public speaking!
It was at this point I realised how much I would have benefitted from the additional support of a coach to help me and my children through the emotional upheaval and onward journey of divorce: the personal conflict, challenge and change. However helpful and supportive family and friends might be, we sometimes need to talk to someone who is objective and without their own agenda.
So I trained to become exactly that person. Now I help others to go through the divorce process in as positive and supported a way as possible, so that they and any children involved can embark on the next chapter with confidence.
I now help businesses and people like you through conflict, challenge and change by delivering 1:1 coaching and mentoring, workshops and training so you can make the positive changes you want, making even more of a difference in the world, be proud of who you are, what you do and how you will be remembered.
Experience
I qualified with The Coaching Academy as an NLP practitioner and as a Personal Performance Coach with Distinction, including extensive training in Corporate and Executive, Small Business and Youth Impact Coaching. I am also a qualified Emotion Coach (helping parents and professionals working with children and teens) and in Emotional Freedom Therapy (EFT). I am an accredited Goal Mapping Practitioner (an inspired goal setting tool) and an accredited DISC psychometric profiling Practitioner and Trainer.
I now help businesses and people like you through conflict, challenge and change by delivering 1:1 coaching and mentoring, workshops and training so you can make the positive changes you want, making even more of a difference in the world, be proud of who you are, what you do and how you will be remembered.
I also specialise in professional and personal relationship coaching, helping you handle and successfully manage conflict with newfound understanding and enhanced relationships. And here to help those navigating through separation, divorce and the aftermath as positively, constructively and collaboratively as possible for all involved, including any children.
Coaching style
I now help businesses and people like you through conflict, challenge and change by delivering 1:1 coaching and mentoring, workshops and training so you can make the positive changes you want.
I specialise in professional and personal relationship coaching and helping people decide on whether to embark on and those navigating through separation, divorce and their new chapter, as positively, constructively and collaboratively as possible.
www.valiamo.com