Sarah Godfrey

MAPS COUN AHPRA PBA
BPsych, BSocio, GDip App Psych, Reg. Supervisor

“I suppose you want to know a bit about me? The short version is that throughout my working life, I realised I was searching. Moving from creative to intellectual pursuits, from design to directorship. It dawned on me that the common denominator, what I really enjoyed about each job I took, was people. They were the connection to each position I held. I finally understood what it was I was good at and loved. Inspired to take this knowledge further, I returned to academia to study human beings. Once graduating, I worked in schools, and in other clinics for a little while until my natural need to lead pushed me to set up my own clinic. I bought the building and built a highly successful business for over 16 years, managing my own client base and the private practices of a wide range of consultants, increasing their own brand so that some have been successful enough to move on and set up their own clinics. Using my creativity in the aesthetic and styling of my clinic, my imagination filtered into my therapeutic approach to treatment. My background in business and management has built a strong and successful business structure. Finally, I had found how to balance my two strengths and make them into a passion.

During these years I have constantly looked for new challenges and inspiration to improve, grow and develop, as a person and as a practitioner. I have given workshops and seminars, run professional and peer development groups, master classes, developed tools and workbooks, guided and supervised, advised, been on panels, T.V, radio, interviewed for print and online papers. I have worked with literally thousands of clients over my years in this industry. From every day people to CEO’s senior management, entrepreneurs, actors, media personalities, athletes, writers, artists and musicians. Each one of them has taught me a little more about life, happiness and success.

I’ve also had some really tough life lessons, like most of us. Each time I think I have tried to find the gift in those hard and often traumatic moments in life. The gift that will give reason to those events and make me stronger, wiser and better for those around me.

Amongst my working career, I had 3 children, met my life partner who is a successful musician and made my amazing friends to fulfil my personal life.

My friends make fun of me, in a good way. They are constantly amused how I am always challenging myself to take on something new, something I don’t know, something that will push my limits. From my perspective I am amused how they don’t! One life. One chance. One opportunity to discover who you really are and what amazing things you can learn and finding the people who can teach you along the way. So many hours in the day to utilise and explore.

Now, I see who my authentic self is. I am very driven, fearless to try, strive and challenge myself to take on new adventures. Failure makes me stronger and more determined. My philosophy is there are so many versions of who I could be in this world that when opportunity knocks, I should grab the chance, even if I fail or it isn’t what I thought it was going to be, the life learning is worth every minute of hard work, anxiety and self-doubt. I track my life by what I do and what happens next, not by what I missed out on or avoided.”

Sarah brings her own blend of personal and professional style to the coaching experience. Focused, individual, evidence based and highly experienced, Sarah has developed her own tools and approaches to get her clients where they need to go.

Coaching works on all aspect of your professional and personal development. From relationships, career, executive management and leadership, business, life-work balance, self-fulfilment, self-awareness, coaching helps you develop specific skills and abilities to move you towards success and a better you.

What are the benefits of personal and professional coaching?

If you haven’t used a personal or professional coach, you may have some questions about how it works and what benefits you can expect so, I wanted to provide an overview of what you might expect.

Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that can help you to produce extraordinary results in your life, career and / or businesses. Coaching is not counselling or therapy; it is a forward-looking interaction and is about achieving positive results in your life. As your coach, I will show you techniques and effective strategies aimed at closing the gap, between where you are now and what you want to achieve.

As everyone is different and every need is unique, it is hard to globalize what you might experience. I’ve put together some common outcomes my clients have told me helped them through their process. In general, here are the 8 benefits;

Clarity
Accountability
Unbiased Input
The Opportunity to Focus on You
Personal Development
Motivation
Self-Awareness
Resilience

Clarity: Ah, don’t we all want this. Knowing what you want in your relationships, career path or life direction can be a huge stumbling block. We often know in a general sense, but details? That can be where we stumble. How about when those tried and tested management styles stop being effective? Knowing what needs to change is an important part of coaching. As part of your pre-coaching work, I will help you to get clear about what you would like to achieve from coaching (if you are not already). On an on-going basis, coaching will help you plan, strategize and define the needs and wants to get you to your goal.

Accountability: Accountability is a powerful tool for creating change. When engaged in the coaching process, you will work with me to create goals and platforms of success in between sessions. Coaching is very much about joining together to start a journey of self-discovery, improvement and awareness. As your coach, I don’t give you advice or tell you what to do, that’s not why we are doing this. Together we will brainstorm, motivate and create goals that will be realistic and achievable and more importantly, inspiring to you. The goals should be your goals and owned by you. If for some reason, you are not able to achieve that goal, we will workshop what held you back. Having a psychological background for over 16 years, it won’t be hard to find the mental stumbling block. Don’t forget, the simple act of telling someone else what you intend to do can make an enormous difference in the desire to achieve it. If you find that you are putting something off week after week, it can be picked up in the coaching session and can be dealt with quicker than you may do by yourself. Sometimes coaching helps you define that the idea you had for yourself, in reality, is not helpful and may even be part of a bigger pattern that is holding you back.

Unbiased Input: Friends and family can be a major source of support, but sometimes unbiased input can make a significant difference to your perspective and help you to see things about yourself and your life situation differently. As your coach, my job is to provide clear, unbiased and professional options, based on your needs and my 16 years in a background of psychology and over 20 years in business.

The Opportunity to Focus on You: Coaching is an opportunity to focus on you and your dreams and aspirations. In day to day life, being busy with family, friends, work and hobbies often means that it is hard to find some mental space to plan and think where you have been, where you are headed and what you need to get there. Coaching gives you the space to think about bigger issues about life and work purpose, thoughts, feelings, relationships and about what is important to you. Coaching can be truly life changing. If you like epiphany moments, coaching is for you!

Motivation: The power of motivation. People are motivated by different things — money, time, freedom, family, travelling, success, and so on. Zig Ziglar has said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why I recommend it daily.” It’s very true. From believing you can conquer the world, to feeling deflated and lacking energy. Battling waning willpower and decision fatigue, are hurdles for everyone. Developing the skills to re-energize, re-boot and re-focus. It’s about finding what will continually motivate you!

Self-Awareness: Self-awareness, insight, self-reflection. Can’t move forward in life without having a true understanding of who you are and why you do what you do. At some level, at some point in your life, a deep understanding of self is important whether you’re an employee, the boss, or the CEO. Understanding your strengths and your weaknesses fall under self-awareness. Knowing where to shine vs. where not to focus your energy is crucial. Coaching, if you are up to the challenge, can untap hidden strengths and re-work old, tired methods of how you relate to your world and others.

Resilience: Resilience is another big benefit and an essential tool to develop and keep in your back pocket. Resilience is not something you’ll need to use daily. It will be needed when life throws you curveballs and drops you into stressful situations. Coaching can help you identify and foresee triggers and issues that are hurdles and blocks in what you want. Coaching can help you develop strategies to hold steady and survive life when it gets tough.

Don’t forget to have fun: Coaching can be thought-provoking and hard work, but it should also be rewarding and fun. You will be looking at yourself honestly and challenging yourself to push beyond your comfort zones. Because it is serious, like in life, it’s important to balance the hard stuff with laughter and celebrations. That’s what I can offer in my role as your coach.