About Me
With over 30 years’ experience working for social change as a lawyer, commissioner and leader in the public and voluntary sectors, I understand the challenges we often face, how systems function, and the psychological flexibility required to make change happen.
I worked for over 15 years as a solicitor, in private practice and local government, specialising initially in child protection and adult social care and later in governance and equality law. I then worked as a local authority commissioner for many years, leading city-wide commissioning and service design projects in homelessness prevention, education and services for children and families. Latterly I’ve been a member of the strategic leadership team of a youth charity, leading teams delivering services for young people who’ve experienced care or homelessness.
My profound interest in people, and how best to help them to develop and thrive, led me to coaching. I am a certified coach with the International Coaching Federation (Associate Certified Coach, ACC) and abide by their Code of Ethics. I completed an ICF-accredited diploma in transformative coaching with Animas Centre for Coaching as well as a certificate in Executive and Corporate Coaching. I have a certificate and extensive training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and am a certified Prosocial facilitator. I am an experienced reflective practice facilitator and trainer, having developed these skills while working in the homelessness sector. I have worked in trauma-informed services and bring an understanding of the impact of trauma to my coaching and training. I am committed to developing and improving my practice, through my own reflective practice, ongoing training and regular supervision.
I mostly live in Bristol in the UK and also spend some time in Greece, staying between the mountains and the sea. I am a wife, mother to two adult children, and daughter to two impressively active parents. I’m happiest in nature especially on a fresh sunny day, running, walking, or sitting and watching the view and listening to the birds. I love to move, to dance and sing and for many years I practised capoeira. Sadly, my knees and hips won’t allow me to play capoeira anymore, but the playful dancing-fighter spirit re-emerges every now and again!
“Joanna is fundamentally interested in people and how they interact, what makes them tick and how to get the best out of them. She balances empathy and challenge in ways that can be confronting, but always positive. Her understanding of different contexts, having personally worked across private, public and third sectors allows her to understand the landscape I work in. Her analytic approach has been invaluable in helping me creatively unlock some tricky challenges.”
“Joanna used techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and her coaching skills to empower the team to come up with our own solutions and make sustainable changes to what were embedded issues. She worked with the strengths of the team, encouraging ideas that were outside the box. She also supported me, as the manager of the team, to develop my own skills to coach the team through issues that arose beyond Joanna’s consultancy. It is clear that Joanna in invested in and passionate about the support she offers, and it has had a long-lasting helpful impact.”
“I found the coaching challenging but also a great opportunity to take a deep dive into what makes me tick, developing a greater awareness of how my habits and long-held beliefs have sometimes been holding me back from the things I want to achieve. I now feel more able to ask for help when I need it, to take risks and not get caught up in whether I’m making the right decision. This has enabled me to do things that I’ve really wanted to do, but always put off, like starting driving lessons and dance therapy as well as booking the first ever holiday abroad for me and my partner.”
“Joanna made me feel listened to, guided and secure and I had an extraordinary sense of wellbeing after our coaching sessions. From the first session, I felt confident I could gain more control over my life and from session to session something happened, a kind of general reset of my system of thought and action. Coaching enabled me to understand something essential: that my success depends above all on me, my conviction and the actions I take. I no longer have any doubt that I will achieve my entrepreneurial goals as well as my personal goals.”