I have been teaching English for 16 years. A student of mine gave me the idea to start my own business. It took me quite some time to take this step, but when I finally got to that point, I had to summon up all my courage to go to the shops to distribute my flyers. I often thought to myself, “Who am I to teach English?” I did it anyway. I took slow but stable steps. That was two years ago. Now, I’ve got a small language school for English, I’m working with other freelance trainers and I’m on the way to establish a small language school for other languages, too. It’s not a large school by any means, but it’s a great balance to my family life. How I’m using my coaching skills? By helping people who might be in a similar situation, who’re stuck in their lives, who have a lack of self-esteem and a lack of structure, people who want to find out about what they would love to do, people who simply want to live a happy and fulfilled life. I know exactly what it feels like when you’re in a sorry state AND I also know what it feels like when you live at peace with yourself. I hope I can show people that it’s possible to get there. So, my areas of coaching: life as well as health & wellness.

I had an interview with an English trainer for my language school who was doing her coaching training at ICA at the time. (She graduated last year and she’s a great trainer.) I got hooked and wanted to hear more about coaching. I went to see her and she told me about ICA. I also phoned Teresa Haines to find out more about ICA. She was very patient and friendly answering all my questions. I’m a gut feeling person, so everything seemed very good and ICA is international. Doing a coaching training with a German company would somehow have been too limiting for me. I felt that I could learn a lot in this international atmosphere. In the beginning I was a bit overwhelmed. I’m not much of a “manual reader” but do you know what? Going through all the papers helped me to learn it. I had to apply it recently to something else and I just remembered my experience with those ICA papers and that gave me confidence. The curriculum is very user-friendly, of course I can only speak for myself but I never had problems fitting in the lessons. The community: It’s absolutely great! Most wonderful and helpful people. I’ve met very special people. On the whole ICA provides a very safe environment to learn coaching. The personal impact: It’s changed a lot in my life. I had already been working on myself before I started with ICA but attending those teleclasses, reading the material, meeting the trainers and the other students were and still are the icing on the cake. I’ve also learned to be a lot less critical and judgmental towards myself and other people and it feels simply good. I’m also more focused and structured now. I can say now that I live at peace with myself, I don’t get so easily overwhelmed by my emotions anymore. And I’ve also learned to look at other areas of my life to find a balance between my body, mind and soul. The most valuable things I’ve learned? The answers are all within us! I don’t feel the desperate need to help other people anymore. I still want to help but it’s not desperate anymore. I’ve learned that we are where we should be at the time, to accept the individual learning process and to hold myself back. Of course, I’m still learning, still making mistakes but I’ve also learned to accept them and grow through them. After all we’re all human, right? And that makes it so interesting and wonderful! I’d like to mention one trainer who was (I guess still is ) a most wonderful sounding board for me: Nick Bosk. I’ve learned a lot from him and I very much appreciate the time he took to help me grow.