It varies more than you might expect.

Some people come because something's come off the rails — they've had to take time off, they're making mistakes, a performance review has flagged things requiring attention. Some come because of personal challenges: repetitive family conflict, a partner telling them they're working too much or that even when they're there, they're not really there, and general relationship issues.

Sometimes it's something positive — I love my work, I also love other things, and I don't know how to hold both.

And sometimes people come because of significant life events — a bereavement, a relationship breakup, leaving a job — where they just need a way of figuring out how to get through this period well.

There's not a hard line between any of those. There's not really a line at all.

Yes, definitely.

Many of my clients are referred by their employer, eg where a performance review has identified areas to work on or where a leader needs support for new challenges facing the business.

In these situations we have a three-way arrangement (you as client, me, employer as paying party..

The coaching space remains confidential but we have in place agreed processes to report back to the employer to ensure accountability.

No, definitely not!

My clients include lawyers, but also people in diverse kinds of helping professions: marketing, planning, transport, property, environment, and creative consultancies and public service — and people going through significant personal transitions that have nothing to do with their profession at all.

The common thread isn't the industry. It's the dynamic. If your work involves offering your expertise in service of someone else, the patterns that get activated tend to be quite similar, whatever your field. And if you're carrying something personal — a bereavement, a family rupture, a moment that's made you stop and ask bigger questions — that's a very good reason to get in touch.

I hold the highly respected Professional Certified Coach (PCC) accreditation with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), whose code of ethics I follow.

My certified coach training is all ICF accredited, in individual, leadership, team and organisational coaching.

I am also trained in systemic therapy with a specialism in systemic constellations. I'm on the teaching faculty of the Centre for Systemic Constellations, where I teach alongside senior psychotherapists, primarily to therapists who want to learn this approach.

I am trained in NLP (Master Practitioner Certification with Richard Bandler, the co-creator of NLP), meditation, and handling trauma.

I also run a busy and successful law practice — still leading teams, still in court, still on the coalface. Not only do I love my law work, I also feel it’s important to keep living and performing at the highest professional level and practising what I teach. This way my coaching remains grounded in practical reality and the challenges that my clients face. I have law degrees from both Cambridge (MA) and London (LLM) Universities and am a Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple.

Yes, definitely. I think this is really important.

I am certified with the International Coaching Federation whose code of ethics I follow. My certification is renewed every three years, a process that involves independent assessment of coaching sessions, a three hour exam to test understanding of the coaching framework, and mentoring coaching.

For my therapeutic work I am a long-time member of a supervision group (comprising psychotherapists and coaches) run by the senior Gestalt Psychotherapist Judith Hemming. As part of my teaching work I receive support from senior therapists who are also members of the teaching faculty I belong to.

I engage my own ICF accredited coach for my own professional development, and engage in regular therapy myself. I view my own self-care as integral to the quality of service I bring to clients.