My story
I know this from the inside.
I don’t share my story because it’s unusual. I share it because, if you’re reading this, parts of it may sound like yours.
The one who held it together
When I was thirteen, my mum became ill and I became, without anyone quite noticing, the one who made sure everyone else was okay. Nobody asked if I was. Least of all me. I lost her when I was twenty, and that pattern of holding everything came with me into adulthood.
Twenty years of giving everything
I built a career in the charity and mental health sectors, moving from the front line into leadership, responsible for teams, services and other people’s wellbeing. From the outside, I was capable and dependable. Inside, I gave everything to the work and almost nothing to the person doing it.
Losing myself
Then came a run of losses: my marriage, pregnancies, relationships. Loss led to isolation. Isolation made room for self-doubt, and the inner critic got louder. I knew how to hold everyone else. I had no idea how to let myself be held.
The darkest days
I was in a paid role that looked safe from the outside, and I stayed because it felt like the only safe option. I knew I wanted more, and I didn’t know whether I could step beyond the limiting beliefs I’d carried for years: that I wasn’t enough, that it wasn’t for people like me, that I’d be found out. Those were some of the darkest days I’ve known.
The leap
When my son was born, I understood in my body that I couldn’t keep showing up depleted. So I did the thing that terrified me. I stepped out of that role, opened my own practice and, slowly and honestly, began to back myself. Appreciating You grew from one room into a team of counsellors and supervisors, and I moved from struggling to thriving.
Living on my own terms
I broke through the limiting beliefs that kept me small for so long. Today I live and work autonomously: on my terms, in my freedom, in a life I once wasn’t sure I was allowed to want.
Why that matters to you
I know what it is to be the one everyone leans on and have nobody to lean on yourself. I know how loud the inner critic gets when you’re standing at the edge of a leap, and how lonely it feels to lead when you’re quietly unsure of yourself. And I know you can move through it, because I have.
“The only difference between those who think they can and those who do is the faith to take the step into the unknown.”
I’m proof that you can take that step. Now I guide leaders, founders and high achievers to take their own leap: out of overthinking, past the inner critic, and into the life and work they know they’re capable of. You don’t have to take it alone.
