1-2-1 Coaching · In Person · Walking · Virtual · Phone
For the woman learning how
to be herself again.
One-to-one coaching for the stretch after a job, a role, or a version of your life has been lost outright or simply outgrown, and you're left working out who you are, with or without it. Wherever you're at, we'll meet there, on a park bench, on a screen, or on the phone while you're walking the dog.
Choose Your Starting Point
You do not need to be ready for ongoing coaching.
Start with the level of support that matches what you know right now.
Free and Self-Guided
Find your Midlife ARC stage
Take the free quiz to understand which stage you may be in and receive the companion guide written for that point in the process.
Take the Free QuizOne Structured Session
Work out what needs your attention first
The Midlife Review Session looks across eight areas of your life, identifies three priorities and gives you three realistic next steps.
View Session DetailsOngoing Support
Work through what comes next
Choose a single coaching conversation or a longer package when you want regular support to make and sustain changes.
View Coaching OptionsWelcome
You are not broken.
You're grieving who you were.
Somewhere along the way, a job, a role, or a version of your life that used to make sense ended, whether that was your choice or not. The questioning that followed isn't a crisis to fix, it's grief nobody gave you permission to feel. This is where 1-2-1 coaching begins, not with a diagnosis, but with a conversation, and a place to work out, at your own pace, what's actually true and what you want to do about it.
Why This Work Exists
Vision, mission, and values
Vision
A world where grieving who you were is expected, not hidden.
A world where women who've left a role, a title, or a version of themselves behind don't have to apologise for the mess in between, or rush themselves toward a tidy answer. Where that in-between stretch is met with understanding rather than treated as a diagnosis, and seen as the natural, valuable chapter it is.
Mission
To walk alongside you, exactly as you are.
To offer honest, unhurried 1-2-1 coaching that meets you wherever you happen to be, in your identity, your confidence, your relationships, or your sense of what comes next, and to do that through conversations that fit around your real life rather than asking you to rearrange it.
Values
I.
Honesty over positivity
We won't rush you to silver linings. Some stages just need to be felt through.
II.
You are not broken
What you're feeling is grief for who you were, not a personal failing.
III.
Capacity before productivity
Sleep, food, movement, nature, and connection come before goals. They're the ground goals stand on.
IV.
You are the expert on you
Coaching draws out what's already there. It doesn't hand you a script to follow.
About Your Coach
Hello, I'm Rachael.
I help women who feel lost and looking for direction learn how to be themselves again.
Whether the job title, a role in life, or the life you've built has been lost outright or simply outgrown, the work we do together will help you finally give yourself permission to grieve who you were, listen to what's been there all along, and act on what you hear. I do this having been through exactly that myself, twenty years into a career that once defined me completely.
My training runs through Optimus Coaching Academy's Professional Coaching Diploma, and I'm currently working toward ICF and EMCC accreditation. But the truest qualification I bring is having grieved a version of myself I was proud of, and learned to trust what was there all along, underneath it.
Read My StoryHowever Suits You
Coaching that fits around your life
Every session is 1-2-1, entirely yours. How we meet is up to you, and it can change from one session to the next.
In Person
Face to face, somewhere quiet enough to think.
Walking
Side by side outdoors, where honesty tends to come easier.
Virtual
Over Google Meet, from wherever you happen to be.
Phone
No camera, no screen, just the conversation itself.
A Fifth Option
The Grounded Conversation
Some people think better with their hands busy than sitting across from someone answering direct questions. If that's you, a session can be built around a shared, hands-on task instead, such as baking, gardening, a jigsaw, or Lego, in person or over a video or phone call, and the conversation is left to surface on its own rather than being pulled out of you. More on this on the services page.
“Nobody tells you that leaving a role you built your whole identity around is a grief, not just a life change. Once you name it as grief, you can actually move through it.”
Rachael Finlayson · Her Midlife Empowerment
What Coaching Can Make Possible
Understand yourself more fully.
Change what no longer fits.
Coaching is not only about solving the issue you bring or deciding what to do next. It is a place to understand yourself as a whole person: how you think, what you feel, how you respond, what matters to you and what may be influencing the choices you make.
Awareness
See yourself more clearly
Explore the connections between your thoughts, emotions, behaviour and physical responses. Recognise your needs, values and strengths, and notice the patterns that may be shaping how you see yourself and your situation.
Challenge
Question what no longer serves you
Examine beliefs, assumptions and familiar ways of thinking or behaving. Consider where they came from, how they affect you now and whether a different perspective or response would be more useful.
Change
Develop new ways of responding
Turn insight into choices and actions that are your own. Try different ways of thinking, feeling or behaving, learn from what happens and build changes that reflect who you are and what matters to you now.
The work is led by you. I listen, ask questions, share what I notice and challenge you when it may help, always without judgement and without telling you who to be or what to do. Not every conversation will cover all of this, and meaningful change often develops across more than one session.
Working Together
Single sessions and ongoing packages
From a single conversation to several months of steady support. No pressure to commit to more than feels right, and every package can move between in person, walking, virtual, and phone as your life needs.
In Their Words
What working together sounds like
“I came in thinking I needed to fix myself. What I actually needed was permission to grieve who I used to be, and someone who wouldn't rush me out of it.”
Client, The Check-In package
“The walking sessions became the one hour a week where I wasn't managing anyone else's needs. I looked forward to it more than I expected to.”
Client, Walking Sessions
“Rachael never rushed me toward an answer. She let me sit with the mess until my own answer showed up.”
Client, The Grounded Conversation
Follow Along
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@hermidlifeempowerment
Free To Download
Start with a free resource
The Midlife ARC™ quiz, the free companion guides, or one of the articles, a no-cost way to start listening to what's already there.
Join The HME Weekly Letter
Notes on becoming, straight to your inbox.
The more personal side of me, navigating this stage of life in real time, alongside reflections, prompts, and the occasional reminder that you're doing better than you think.