Hi,

My name is Clare Roberts and I am a coach and owner of CR Coaching and Consultancy Ltd.

How did I become a coach?

By 2008 I had gained a number of qualifications including a masters degree, partly completed a PhD, gained a graduate position that I was head hunted from within three years and had three children.  I was also a magistrate and had lots of interests and was involved in many voluntary activities, but somehow it still felt as if something was missing and that I hadn't yet found the key to my life.

I was constantly bored n my employed role and would spend hours flitting around the internet on the evenings and weekends, subconciously trying to fnd the missing link.  Then one day an advert for a 2 day introductory life coaching course popped up on my computer screen.  Attracted by the word 'free' and being immediately intrigued by the term life coaching, I clicked on the advert and read more. Ping! It was like an enormous light bulb went off in my brain.  I know lots of coaches who have descibed similar moments but it really was a blinding moment of realisation that all my experience, skills and dreams of fulfilment were wrapped up in two simple words; life coaching.

With disappointment I looked at the locations and dates of the courses and realised that none were within my region or were on dates I couldn't attend.  Not being put off by this I checked the website regularly, hoping that the course would soon return to the West Midlands.  It did and I immediately booked my place.

The course was fantastic and it really felt like coming home and within my very first practice coaching session, although far from perfect I helped a fellow trainee discover a new way of viewing a problem he faced which lifted a huge weight from his shoulders and helped him to see that the situation wasn't impossible.  It felt great!

I'm a natural optimistic, solution searching problem solver and while my coaching style is strictly non-directional, it felt amazing to watch people discover the solutions for themselves.

I was hooked! Unfortunately the hard sell then started and I realised that at that time I couldn't afford to pay for the course.  However, being an optimist I knew in my heart that when the time was right I would find a course I could afford and that the money for the course would come to me; and it did.

In 2009, nearly a whole year later I attend a free business start-up exhibition in London, because by this time the idea of being a self-employed life coach was ingrained in my soul, and although I hadn't yet even started a course I wanted to learn about starting a business.

As fate would have it, a number of coaching companies exhibit and present at this annual event and I eagerly visited their stands and attended all of the coaching related presentations.  One company stood out head and shoulders above the rest; Noble Manhattan. Never before had I seen such an inspirational and motivational speaker as Gerard O'Donovan.

With my sense of purpose and motivation stronger than ever I went on the Noble Manhattan website as soon as I got home and signed up for their one day coaching course in London.  I came away convinced that Noble Manhattan course was right for me and was even more pleased to learn that it was elegible to a career development loan so that I would be able to gain funding to complete the course.  I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and that when the time is right that the right things will happen.

And so I started the Practioner Coach course! It is a fantastic course with great flexibility which is exactly what I needed being a working mum of three.  The residential part of the course is invaluable and I met people there who are now firm friends and I even returned this year as a Team Leader. I have never once regretted embarking on this path and have grown enormously, and am still growing, as an individual.  I am now also helping my family to grow and develop.