I am a Coaching Psychologist supporting individuals, entrepreneurs, and organisations to navigate careers, leadership development, team dynamics and organisational change.  I am an executive coach, career strategist, business consultant and an experienced L&D facilitator.    I work as an associate coach for organisations to support career transitions and leadership development.  Organisational clients are across different industries, examples include ITV, CIPD, GlaxoSmithKline, NHS and Stantec.

Coaching Career (Journey, Experience and Qualifications)

I began coaching after becoming an accredited Positive Psychology and Leadership Coach in 2012, as an extension to regional Head of Learning, Development and Talent role. I continued to research, learn, experience, and integrate different coaching philosophies, discourses, theories, and tools into my practice so that I can individually tailor my coaching experiences to the needs of each client.

I have a Graduate Diploma in Psychology from the Open University, a Post Graduate Certificate in Coaching Psychology from Birkbeck University, and a MSc in Coaching Psychology from Birkbeck University.  I am accredited through the Association for Business Psychology; I am a graduate member of the British Psychological Society and I am currently completing the BPS Division of Coaching Psychology accelerated route to become a chartered Coaching Psychologist.

My coaching practice is also influenced and informed by my previous 20+ year career. My varied career includes client management within a successful and fast-growing Telecoms start-up and as regional Head of Learning, Development and Talent Management for a global insurance company. I managed the advocacy, implementation, and management of a country level programme for entrepreneurship and youth employability in the Middle East and have worked for Franklin Covey, an internationally recognised leadership development organisation (known for the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).

I took a career break to raise my young children.  This shaped my career identity, sense of self and provided the focus for my coaching psychology research on the lived experience of women on career breaks and how coaching can support relaunching careers. My coaching approach has been shaped by my lived experience of many years living and working abroad and experiencing the world through different cultural lenses.

The Eight Tensions^® Framework:

Individuals and organisations have experienced rapid change in recent years, leading to an increased blurring of personal and professional lives.  This has impacted company culture, career expectations and employee experience.  The world of work requires a human centric approach, which we need to fully support as coaches.

I have found that individuals are exploring much deeper questions around meaning and purpose within careers and are seeking coaching to make sense of how their work choices impact all areas of their life.  There is a need for careers to be part of an intentional, well-lived life.  Within coaching we actively explore the complexities, challenges and dilemmas that are part of being human (existential philosophers have grappled with these tensions for thousands of years).

The Eight Tensions^® Framework developed by Dr Natalie Lancer provides the tools, language, and insights to deeply explore my clients’ work and life challenges.  This is an evidence-based system, allowing for deep reflection, shifting perspectives, practical learning, and tangible results.

I experienced this myself through group supervision with Natalie, where each of the eight tensions were explored in detail to support my client work and coaching practice. I joined the coach training to become accredited, as I wanted to integrate this formally into my individual coaching work and to offer to organisations. 

The Eight Tensions^® content is accessible, relevant for executive coaching, broader organisational culture change and leadership development initiatives.

In the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey created a framework based by summarising 200 years of leadership theory by organising this into a framework, and made accessible to all through stories, questions, and tools.  Dr Natalie Lancer has created a new framework based on in depth research of existential philosophy and psychology.  This allows us to really understand what it means to be human – which is at the core of coaching.  To really understand what each individual needs to thrive in work and live.

My coaching clients have said that they continue to use the Eight Tensions^® framework after our coaching has finished.  It has become central to their reflective and problem-solving practice.  They use the language and tools within their role, team, organisation and wider families and networks.  It creates a new lens, accessible framework, and a shared language and to makes sense of life’s inevitable tensions, especially in these rapidly changing and complex times.

CONTACT DETAILS

🗣️: English 

🌐: linkedin.com/lauragarwoodconsultant/