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WHO I HELP
You might recognise yourself here...
You're the one who remembers the appointments, the medication and everything that everyone else forgets.
You're constantly thinking three steps ahead.
You struggle to switch off, even when someone else is helping.
You carry the invisible mental load that nobody else seems to notice.
You feel guilty when you take time for yourself.
People ask how the person you're caring for is.
Very few people ask how you are.
Somewhere along the way, your identity became wrapped up in being the person everyone relies on.
And you're starting to wonder...
What happened to me?​
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If you're ready to rediscover the person behind the caring role, you're in the right place.
My particular experience is as a parent-carer of a young person with Type 1 diabetes. But the coaching isn't about managing diabetes. It's about what happens to you when caring becomes such a big part of your life.
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So whether you're caring for a child, a partner , a parent, another family member or someone else; if you've found yourself somewhere at the bottom of your own list, you're in the right place.
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MY STORY
When my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, our world changed overnight.
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Because of the restrictions at the time, I was the only person allowed to stay with her in hospital and the only person given the detailed training we needed to manage her condition at home.
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Suddenly, the responsibility for understanding what was happening, making decisions and keeping her safe sat almost entirely with me.
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And being the parent of a pre-teen brought its own challenges. Caring for your child isn't just about appointments, medication and practical tasks. As they grow, there are also changes around independence, privacy and the relationship between parent and child.
Over the following months and years, we worked through the constant learning curve that comes with a long-term health condition. Different treatments, different technology and the ongoing responsibility of being the person who knew the details and carried the knowledge.
All while I was working full time and grieving the additional loss of close family members.
Eventually, the weight of trying to hold everything together caught up with me.
A change in treatment a year after diagnosis pushed me to a point where I realised I couldn't keep putting myself at the bottom of the list.
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Not because I cared any less.
Because I cared so much.
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I was lucky enough to work with a counsellor who worked with young people with Type 1 Diabetes. She had Type 1 diabetes to - which meant that when I needed support from her, I could park all the technicalities of Type 1 life and just talk about the things that needed focus. No need to explain what carb-counting, sugar pixels, CGMs or Hba1C was. Or why I'd had a sleepless night of finger pricking and jelly babies.
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Having space to talk without all that additional narrative helped me recognise that looking after myself wasn't taking anything away from my daughter. It was what allowed me to keep showing up for her.
That experience changed the way I think about caring.
I know how easy it is to become so focused on the person who needs you that you lose sight of yourself.
Now, through coaching, I help people reconnect with who they are beyond the caring role — without feeling that prioritising themselves means they are letting someone else down.​
WHY COACHING?
When you're caring for someone, it can be very easy for your own needs to disappear somewhere underneath the appointments, phone calls, paperwork, organising, worrying and constant mental load.
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And when you're also trying to work and keep the rest of life moving, there can be very little space left for you.
Coaching gives you something that can be surprisingly difficult to find:
Dedicated time to focus on you.
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Not the person you're caring for.
Not what needs organising next.
Not what everyone else needs from you.
You.
For parents of young people with Type 1 diabetes, there can be an additional layer of complexity. That's an area I know particularly well, and one where my own experience means you don't have to spend half your coaching session explaining the world you're living in.
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Coaching isn't about giving you another list of things to do. It's about helping you step back from everything you're carrying, work out what you actually want and find small, realistic ways to make life feel a little more like yours again.
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WHAT COACHING IS AND ISN'T
Coaching isn't therapy or counselling, and it isn't medical advice or support for the person you're caring for.
I won't tell you how to manage someone else's condition or care, and I'm not here to diagnose, treat or fix you.
Instead, coaching gives you space to explore what's going on for you, consider different perspectives and work out what you want to do next.
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We'll look at what's within your control, what isn't, and where a small change could make a meaningful difference.
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There's no expectation that you can simply "do more self-care" or magically find another hour in the day.
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Sometimes the answer is recognising that something genuinely can't change right now — and finding another part of your life where you can make a change that gives you some capacity back.​
WHY WORK WITH ME
I know what it's like for caring to become part of the fabric of your life.
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My own experience includes caring for a young person with Type 1 diabetes, as well as supporting older family members. The circumstances are very different, but there's something I've recognised across both: how easy it is for the person doing the caring to gradually disappear underneath everything that needs to be done.
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You become the person who remembers.
The person who organises.
The person who thinks ahead.
The person everyone knows will sort it out.
And because you keep making it work, it can be surprisingly difficult to notice what all of that is costing you.
That's the bit I want to help with.
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We don't need to spend our time working out how to care for someone else. You already know how to do that.
We can spend it looking at you.
What do you need?
What matters to you?
What has got lost along the way?
What could be different?
And what might make life feel a little more like yours again?
If you're a parent of a young person with Type 1 diabetes, there's an additional benefit: I've lived that particular world too. You don't need to spend half a coaching session explaining the alarms, appointments, school issues, technology, decisions and constant mental load that come with it.
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You can park the Type 1 diabetes complexity at the door. I understand that bit.
For everyone else, you don't need to have a particular condition, relationship or caring situation to work with me. You can still park the detail and we can focus on you.
If caring has become a big part of your life and you've realised there's not much space left for you, that's something we can work on together.
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WHAT MIGHT WE TALK ABOUT?
Your sessions will be shaped around you, but you might want to explore things like:
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Whatever is getting on top of you
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Feeling less guilty about making time for yourself
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Rebuilding confidence in your own needs
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Working out what you want beyond the caring role
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Setting boundaries without feeling selfish
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Finding ways to create more space in your life
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Reconnecting with things you used to enjoy
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Exploring what independence means for you and the person you care for
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Preparing for changes as your caring role evolves
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Feeling more like yourself again
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And sometimes we won't work on anything at all. You might just need somewhere to say it. This isn't about becoming a different person. It's about making some space to work out who you are, what you need and what you want next.
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A PRACTICAL, POSITIVE APPROACH
My coaching approach is rooted in positive psychology, but you don't need to know anything about positive psychology to benefit from it.
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In practice, that means we won't spend our sessions endlessly analysing what's wrong.
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We'll acknowledge the difficult stuff — because with being a carer, sometimes the difficult stuff is genuinely difficult — and then look at what you can influence.
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What is already working?
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What matters to you?
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What could be different?
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And what's one small step that could move things in the direction you want to go?
Because you don't need another person telling you how to manage your life.
You probably need some space to work out what you want your life to look like.
WAYS TO WORK WITH ME
DISCOVERY
FIND OUT MORE
A free, no-obligation conversation to see whether coaching is right for you.
INDIVIDUAL
ONE TO ONE COACHING
A structured coaching programme to help you reconnect with yourself beyond the caring role.
INDIVIDUAL
THE VENT SPACE
A private space for carers who sometimes just need to talk to someone who understands, without judgement, advice or pressure to fix anything.
RESOURCES
DOWNLOAD THE FREE NEWLY DIAGNOSED AT SCHOOL CHECKLIST
Has your young person has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes over the summer? What happens when they go back to school?
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Download my free Back-to-School with Type 1 Diabetes checklist to help you work out what you need to think about while school is closed, from who you need to contact and staff training to healthcare plans, communication and the things you may want to discuss when school reopens. You don't need to have September completely figured out. This is simply somewhere to start.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
Listen to the episode where I talk about what it's really like to become a carer for your child — and why looking after yourself isn't something you should have to feel guilty about. Sometimes putting your own welfare first is exactly what your family needs you to do.
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
READ THE BLOG
Practical thoughts, honest stories and useful things I've learned about parenting, caring and finding your way back to yourself when caring for someone else has started to take over.
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