I haven’t always been The Identity Coach. My journey began in a very different profession — a long career as an optometrist and self-employed businessman. But life has a way of changing our direction. Following a difficult divorce in my early forties, I stepped into a second career as a Counsellor and Psychotherapist, training first at Keele University and later completing a Master’s in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy at the Berne Institute.

After a brief retirement, I retrained as a Life Coach — and that was the turning point. Coaching gave me more than skills; it gave me a roadmap back to myself. It was through this process that I uncovered who I truly was, beyond the roles I had played and the expectations I had carried.

But my story starts much earlier. Having been abandoned to a children’s home at the age of three and sent to boarding school at seven, I grew up without the nurturing environment that helps a child develop a secure sense of self. For many years, I lived with the consequences of that early disconnection — chasing success, but feeling an inner emptiness.

The truth I have discovered, both personally and professionally, is that we never completely lose ourselves. Our true identity doesn’t disappear — it becomes buried under layers of survival strategies, limiting beliefs, and unhelpful narratives. My own healing came when I stopped abandoning my inner child and began to nurture myself with clarity, kindness, and compassion.

This is why I became The Identity Coach. My purpose is to help others who feel lost, stuck, or disconnected rediscover who they truly are. By blending the depth of psychotherapy with the forward-focus of coaching, I guide clients through life’s transitions — divorce, redundancy, burnout, midlife crisis — into a place of clarity, confidence, and belonging.

If my story resonates with you, I invite you to take the first step on your own journey of rediscovery. Book a free discovery session, and together we’ll begin uncovering the identity that has always been there — waiting to be seen, heard, and lived fully.