“Trekking with you: from where you are, to where you want to be.” (Dr Ileana Dimitriu)

As MindTrek LifeCoaching, I can coach you either in person – if you live in the Durban area of South Africa – or by telephone, or Skype. I’m a certified life and team coach with Results Coaching Systems, which is accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF), and am registered with Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA). Some 20 years ago, I made the transition from Europe to South Africa. I currently live and work in Durban, am married, and have an adult son. I have a PhD and have been a teacher and university lecturer for three decades. Throughout my career, I have also mentored and coached students, their parents, and colleagues on life/ career direction and performance management and, in the case of senior students, on advanced research competencies.

I have also been an intercultural facilitator and researcher, and fully appreciate that words, as much as actions, ensure our success, whether in our personal or professional life. I have published widely in the fields of culture and communication studies, with a focus on intercultural issues.

Why choose me as your coach?

As a consequence of my career and life experience, I’m sensitive to the challenges of living in structures in transition. I turned to coaching to help facilitate positive change for individuals facing life-changing circumstances in their private and professional lives:

• Do you, or your team at work, have to cope with change and transition?
• From one city, country or company, to another?
• From high school to university? From university to first job?
• From working life to retirement? From being single/ married, to being married/ single?

Do you feel lost in the maze of transition?

If this is how you feel, coaching is what you need. You can't stop people and situations from changing, but you can control your response to change. What you can do is take charge of your mental journey - your inner transition - as you navigate external change.

• We'll ‘trek’ together through your thoughts and feelings about life or career changes. I’ll facilitate an increase in your awareness of choices and provide you with a fresh perspective on your particular situation.
• I’ll listen for attitudes that do not support you, based on where you say you want to go, and I’ll reflect back to you on where your strengths might go unnoticed.
• I'll support you through the various stages of transition. From coming to terms with endings to being ready for new beginnings. From letting go, to being in-between, to letting be.

MindTrek LifeCoaching will help you find the path out of the maze of transition.

So, what will coaching do for you?

Coaching will facilitate change through your improved thinking and purposeful action. Coaching will not ask ‘why’, and will not dwell on your past. It is not counselling. Neither is it primarily about giving advice as in mentoring or consultancy. It is not judgmental; it is not moral arbitration.

What, then, is coaching?

Through powerful questions and structured sessions, coaching will empower you with tools and skills to support you, or your team at work, to define and achieve your goals.
In a process of drawing the answers and solutions from you, its aim is to get you from where you are to where you want to be, by gently guiding you to your own insights.
“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn, rather than teaching them.” (Sir John Whitmore)

My coaching programme

MindTrek LifeCoaching is modelled on the internationally proven and recognised structure of Results Coaching System, which draws on current neuro-scientific findings. Our brains desire certainty, positive thoughts and clear solutions to our concerns in life. Solutions require attainable goals and a structured approach to strategies and actions. Given the pressures of modern life, a persistent question is: How do you achieve a better quality of work/ life balance?

As your coach, I offer you the following structured programmes:

• The extended coaching programme (1 – 3 months)
• The dilemma programme

Extended coaching programme

1-hour weekly sessions over a 1-3 month period. The aim is to identify and achieve 3 significant, but achievable, goals and chart your way forward to success.

• Complimentary first session

During this obligation-free session, either face-to-face or over the phone, you will have the opportunity to find out more about how the coaching process works, and whether you wish to give coaching a chance.

• Initial stage

We start by defining and refining your individual goals, or your team’s common purpose.
In interaction, we reflect on the gap between best outcomes and your current reality. Through solution-based questions and responses, together, we plan your strategies and actions for change.

• Middle stage

Throughout, I shall ‘hold the space’ for you. This gives you, or your team, the space to explore the perceptions, emotions and habits that might be holding you back from success.
You will get lots of feedback and encouragement along the way.

• Final stage

This extended programme culminates in a review of what you have achieved in your unique coaching journey.

Dilemma programme

You might have a specific dilemma, or issue, on which you need clarity and decisive action. How to resolve the dilemma? Such dilemma sessions – one 1-hour session a week – might involve two or more interactions between you (or your team) and me, depending on the nature of the particular dilemma or issue.

I can also coach you by phone or Skype. Did you know that telephone coaching is the most widely practised form of coaching in the world? It offers the focus of the one-on-one experience without the nervousness of face-to-face contact. It saves time, travel and is adaptable to your busy schedule.