Katharine Collins

We know, through our own experience and many years of working with unpaid carers, that juggling work and care can take a toll on your mental, physical and social health and wellbeing.  It’s also not a situation that others without caring responsibilities can always easily understand, and more general advice or support may not feel helpful or appropriate to their situation. Coaching can offer a safe space to talk and much-needed support for carers wanting to work on a wide range of topics such as:

• managing the stress of caring
• maintaining motivation and resilience
• juggling the demands of work and caring
• doing things for you (without feeling guilty)
• building assertiveness skills
• navigating relationships with family members and partners
• and much more!

A recent coaching client told us she found the coaching to be invaluable to her as a working carer: “you get time to talk about your challenges, but you go away with something to try out which gives you hope. It was a real lifeline to me at a time when I felt really alone and fearful of losing control of being able to work full-time and manage my home-life situation. It has given me encouragement and hope that I can tackle the situation and continue to achieve in my career despite it all.”

I am trained in using a range of models and tools in a flexible and adaptive way to suit you and how you like to work. I will listen to you deeply and make sure I understand what is important to you, giving you space and support to figure that out if it’s not clear. We will then clarify the goals of the coaching before getting to work. Every coaching session is different, but this often includes working out what the challenges or issues are, and then thinking about how to address these. I can help you break down big goals into smaller, more manageable steps and will offer you both encouragement and gentle challenge where appropriate. You can count on me to work with you in a collaborative way, without judgment and without telling you what to you.

I have lived experience of being a carer and worked at my local Carers Centre for many years before retraining as a coach. I now have now been coaching unpaid carers for over 6 years and co-founded social enterprise ‘Coaching for Unpaid Carers’ with Catherine Macadam in 2019 to make good quality coaching available and accessible to as many carers as possible. I am currently the acting chair of the Coaching for Social Impact network and have been invited to speak about my work at conferences and events at the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy- which now also includes a Coaching Division) and have written articles for Coaching Today magazine.

I am rigorously trained, qualified and am a registered member of the International Coaching Federation (Membership Number: 009708774I).

Alongside coaching, I work as an accredited psychotherapist in private practice where I have particular experience working with LGBTQ+ people and neurodiverse adults.