Meet Emma
My Coaching Journey
Taking a sabbatical break in 2019 from my work in a traditional deprived community where, for many years I had been thinking creatively about transformation, growth and renewal, I attended a Neuro Linguistic Programming diploma course with Lizzi Larbalestier, which ignited my curiosity into developing as a coach, later that year studying with 3D Coaching.
After this, working colleagues, I knew this was a powerful transformative process for creating change! An opportunity arose to do more training with Lizzi, joining the first a Blue Health Coach™ cohort in early 2020. There was a sense that I had really come home, gaining real insight and understanding about why working with Blue Space can make us more creative, productive, and is so beneficial for our wellbeing. And more than that - how being fully nature-connected can make us even more compassionate towards ourselves, others and the environment.
During the pandemic I noticed - and felt - the pressure that professional care givers, helpers and healers were under, actively seeing to reach out to and work with those who suddenly found themselves overwhelmed with the pace of change, and struggling to maintain helpful boundaries and a work-life balance. Some felt an erosion of purpose or identity.
It felt important to me that I gained my first credential with the International Coaching Federation, giving a robust ethical framework and professional accountability to my work, and I was thrilled to be awarded my Associate Certified Coach qualification on day 100 of 100 Days of Blue in 2022. My love of learning and development continues, and I most recently studied Transactional Analysis, and qualified as an mBIT coach - which uses the wisdom of the heart, head and gut to make truly aligned decisions. Additionally I am also an action learning set facilitator, and hold a Mental Health First Aid certificate.
My Water Story
Though we all have watery beginnings, I was literally born to life on the water; a rickety houseboat on a Gloucestershire canal was, for my first few months, the family home - until it sank in a storm! A childhood spent playing in water meadows and exploring rivers and waterfalls nurtured a wild heart connected to nature, and holidays in rugged west Cornwall confirmed in me a deep joy of being near the sea - I still feel those butterflies and excited anticipation on seeing the sea, even after living in Cornwall for over twenty five years.
There are still some places that time after time take my breath away, and need to make an effort to literally keep my eyes on the road and not the horizon!
Developing a healthy respect rip currents at Porthcurno and big seas at Penberth, I also loved the soft Zennor sands and Penn Vounder blues; awe and wonder has always been part of my experience and way of looking at the world, making meaning from the environment around me, and valuing so deeply the connectedness I feel with nature.
In landlocked schooldays I think I may have been of a few who secretly enjoyed those freezing visits to swim in the outdoor pool - out of season - and it was a treat to visit in the warmer summer months. Even now I can still feel the thrill and chill of that cold water! Three university years in North Wales followed. While from my bedroom window the mountains were admired in their majesty, it was always the sea and isolated rivers and lakes that called me to spent time in those unspoiled places. Studying English, linguistics and theology to higher degree level, I developed a love and awareness of language and expression, and don’t shy away from exploring life’s bigger questions surrounding meaning and purpose, and developed a curiosity for deep thinking and philosophy. I continue to draw inspiration from poetry, and am beginning to find hidden depths and clarity of unconscious thought when writing my own.
In a family of artists I find my main creative expressions in music, singing and crafts, and enjoy exploring new things, inspired by nature and the world around me, sometimes gaining different perspectives through photography and careful noticing. Interestingly, most of my passions have a distinctly liquid aspect, and are a little risky! I am a flame worker (manipulating molten glass into beads), a soap maker, and love to play with fluid acrylic art and cyanotype prints. I enjoy creative exploration and experimentation, and love how it can help inform our thinking. Of course I also spend time near, on, or in the water, swimming, walking and the occasional paddle-boarding adventure.
By way of giving back to the ocean environment I am a Marine Mammal Medic, volunteering with British Divers Marine Life Rescue. My first rescue was also the first pup to be admitted to the new BDMLR seal hospital in Cornwall, for which I had also helped with fundraising - a very proud moment! I also beach clean while out walking, get involved with organised cleans, and assist others with helping remove discarded fishing nets from Cornish Beaches, which are not only a pollution hazard but also a risk to birds and wildlife.
The first seal admitted into BDMLR's Cornwall Seal Hospital
My Blue Health Coach™ training helped me to understand, perhaps for the first time, the impact the environment has on me, and the intra-connectedness of all things.
If someone were to ask you for your water story, or as Wallace J Nichols, author of Blue Mind, would often say,
What’s your Water?
how would you respond?
“Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.”
You can find out more about British Divers Marine Life Rescue on their website here.
Many of the community of Blue Health Coaches™ give time to ocean advocacy charities, either financially, practically, or both. If you would like to donate to BDMLR Lizzi Larbalestier, my trainer, coach and fellow medic, has a Just Giving page, which helps us to see our collective impact. It would be awesome if you could add your donation there - we love to see the ripple effects of positivity that come from our coach communities.