Coaching

I love to see people succeed!!!!

Being part of the success of others really excites me.  I’m willing to work hard to help another succeed. My ‘hard work’ has included studying hard, both formally and informally, to be as useful as I can be to others.

It is this will to succeed for self and others that led me to complete my first degree in biochemistry, three successive postgraduate diplomas in firstly business management, secondly marketing, thirdly counselling/ psychotherapy and subsequent masters and doctoral level qualifications in researching effective ways to help people succeed. For my doctoral thesis I was awarded the BACP 2011 award for Outstanding Research Project, presented by comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax (see left). As a coach, counsellor, psychotherapist, and clinical supervisor I use self-directed reflective learning in my own daily practice.

In my work as a member of the Coaching Division of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) what clients say to me is kept confidential. As a senior accredited member I adhere to the BACP ethical framework.

Coaching is a term used in many forms including and not limited to life coaching, performance coaching, executive coaching, recovery coaching and so on. These are all forms of helping people get more of what they want out of life and less of what they don’t want; with different focuses. Sometimes people want to know how coaching and counselling/psychotherapy differ and one way of thinking about this is to consider these on a continuum. At one end coaching is more likely to be developmental and at the other counselling is more likely to be reparative. Generally, although not always, coaching clients are less likely to be highly distressed and are more focused on developing their potential, greater self-understanding, improved awareness of beliefs and behaviours and how these can be harnessed in the pursuit of meaningful goals.

Over the years I have worked with a wide range of clients, from many walks of life, striving for a multiplicity of goals. Past and present clients include those looking for work and those responsible for the working lives of many thousands of others, e.g. roles such as owner, chair, director, executive, manager. I have worked with clients from all parts of the economy including and not limited to: energy, materials, industry, finance, healthcare, technology, telecoms, utilities and consumer goods and services such as law/judicial, education, emergency services, arts, entertainment, etc.

Client goals vary a lot and some common themes have included: greater career success, stress reduction/ wanting a greater sense of wellbeing, developing more positive habits, improved relationships, a more spiritual focus in life, better work/life balance, support through a challenging time, greater self-confidence, higher self-esteem, making the most of new opportunities, and many many more.

Elsewhere on this website you can find sections on a range of mechanisms that are sometimes addressed as part of a coaching focus and these might include:

Personality problems, habitual ways of being and behaving that may have been helpful at the time they were developed and are no longer helpful/ may cause upset, ineffectiveness and so on

Attachment Styles, the extent to which a person feels the need to avoid emotional expression and/or feels at risk of losing/missing important others

Rejection Sensitivity, acting in ways in order to defend one-self from being rejected by others (sometimes the strategies to prevent rejection can become self-fulfilling)

Feeling and thoughts that may cause difficulties

Being Oneself daring to be who you really are

In my coaching work I typically work with individual clients and sometimes with work groups of two or more people (e.g. business partners) in quiet and comfortable surroundings in a thatched cottage reputed to be four hundred years old thatched cottage at the village of Horseheath, near to Haverhill. Being a Grade II listed Renaissance building the house has its charms, one of which is that the thatch recently began leaking. The thatch work is now complete, there is a description of the thatch work here, and with a new roof the cottage now looks like this:

The village of Horseheath is close to Cambridge, 11.5 miles south of Addenbrookes NHS Hospital, just off the A1307 (and on the 13 bus route) in South Cambridgeshire, close to Suffolk, Hertfordshire and Essex. Distances from local centres are: Bishops Stortford 20 miles, Braintree 20 miles, Sudbury 20 miles and Bury St Edmunds 21 miles. The photographs on this website were taken by me in the cottage garden and the village. The photograph at the top of this page is of the village sign in the centre of Horseheath.

At present my professional fees are £105 per one hour session for individual clients, plus an additional £25 per one hour session for each additional person, so for two clients together (e.g. business partners) it is £130 per one hour session.

The fastest and most convenient to contact me is tony.weston5@btinternet.com to make an initial appointment.

At a typical first appointment I’ll ask you to complete some paperwork for me, which will include some psychological questionnaires. The results of which I will share with you. If I seem like someone you can work with I’ll ask you to take away some further questionnaires to complete and post back to me (it turns out the most effective way of doing this is for me to give all clients a stamped self-addressed envelope). Taking all of this together I would usually be able to present you with a plan of how I think we can accomplish your goals through working together, at our second appointment.

Sometimes clients ask me how many sessions they’ll need to achieve their desired goal(s). There is no one answer to this because everyone and their situation is unique. How many sessions you have is up to you. The number of sessions you have is up to you, and is a matter of individual needs and goal(s).

You can contact me by phone on 01223 894896, answered by a receptionist 24/7. A faster method of communication is to email me at tony.weston5@btinternet.com for any enquiries and to make an initial appointment.