I’ve spent 25 years in the City of London. I know exactly what you’re up against.
I’m German-born and have lived in the UK since 1995. I know the City from the inside, with all its pressures and opportunities. Before I became a coach I spent 25 years working as a lawyer — first in private practice at City firm Ashurst and then in financial services as the manager of a commercial contracts team at Santander. I was good at my work. I was well paid. I was progressing. And I was quietly miserable.
The truth is I never really chose law. Like a lot of people, I stumbled into it. Without a clear sense of my own values, I adopted the ones of my environment: status, security, money. Law seemed a reasonable thing to study, one thing led to another, and years later I found myself in banking — an industry I didn’t much care about, where people were led with fear and pressure rather than heart and vision.
“I was trapped in the golden cage of corporate life. It pays you well enough to keep you there, comfortable enough that you stay in the discomfort of a job that was never the right fit.”
Over time, the disconnection became stress, and the stress became a serious physical crisis. I developed an autoimmune disease that left me unable to work and housebound for almost two years.
When I finally recovered — through a range of alternative mind-body healing approaches — one thing was clear: I did not want to spend my regained life back in the job that had drained the joy out of me. I had been fascinated by the human mind and personal growth since I was a teenager. It had simply taken me this long, and this much, to realise it could be a career.
So I retrained as a transformational coach, left my corporate job and built a life that felt like a second spring. As a coach I get paid for doing the things I love most. I can help you create that kind of change too — whether you choose to stay in your current role or move on.
