José Penrose, Life Coach

Case studies

Jennifer is a woman in her sixties and all her life has been convinced she could write a novel. She already has it all planned out but, even though she is now retired, she just cannot get down to starting. In the very first session, we were able to identify that her inability to begin was almost wholly due to her fear of failure. There was no foundation for this fear, as Jennifer had had several articles and short stories successfully published. By working together to increase her confidence, draw up action plans and set tasks each week, Jennifer found she was able to spend a couple of hours each morning working on her novel and is now well on the way to completing it.

John began a new job in a large company a little over a year ago. He felt very flattered to have got the job but a year in still feels an outsider and is beginning to believe that this exclusion is deliberate. He has excellent ideas for developing his team and making changes in his area. His boss apparently supports these changes, but John just cannot move ahead. Over six coaching sessions, John was able to analyse exactly what it was he was trying to achieve, identify and get action on his identified needs – training, a mentor, a proper induction to the whole company. Although his progress did not proceed in the manner he had anticipated, at the end of the coaching John was much happier and fulfilled in his role and feeling he was part of and making a real contribution to his area of the company.