Meet the coaches

Sean works with leaders, founders, and team members on everything from life and relationships, to personal project building, and creative impact in life and at work.

For 10 years, he has worked as a mixture of business-, career-, and project-coach, and as a creative workshop host for adult writers of fiction and poetry.

As a writer himself, he is interested in helping you establish your own creative expression, whilst navigating the many challenges that life throws up along the way.

He works with everybody from CEOs to charity organisers, from NGO staff to community leaders, from mums and dads to students, retail workers, theatres, sustainable companies, and local communities.

Sean is an impact driven coach, and is principally interested in helping you create a “defining chapter” in your life’s journey—for you to move forward with a powerful sense of who you are and all that you’re committed to achieve.

To book a coaching session: calendly.com/definingchapter/one-hour-coaching-session

Email: sean@definingchapter.com

Text/call: +44 (0) 7534 981 636

Susan combines her coaching training and experience with 25 years of experience working as a management consultant in organisational change and development in public, private and voluntary organisations varying in size from multinationals to 5 employees. She has also worked at the UN and the British Refugee Council over a 10 year period. Justice and integrity are central to Susan’s values. Her coaching practice is dedicated to helping an individual, or individuals, discover the issues that they want to explore and to facilitate him/her/them to develop options through which they feel they can overcome a particular problem. Susan brings deep listening skills, optimism, energy, care and humanity to her work. Her most recent coaching clients have been classical musicians but her coaching practice covers any individual from any background in any global location. She works face to face or via Zoom or FaceTime and speaks German fluently and French to good intermediate standard.

Email: susan@smblumltd.com

Text/call: 07391748182

Website: smblumltd.com

Mark focuses on transformative experiences and self-discovery, helping people live with authenticity and purpose.

Many people go through life following routines that provide comfort but limit their potential. We often find ourselves stuck in familiar patterns, doing what we’ve always done, meeting people’s expectations out of habit, repeating the same cycles while life passes us by.

Transformative experiences disrupt these routines and challenge our familiar understanding of who we are. They can take many forms – shifts in relationships, changes in home life or work, new roles, or even moments of profound play. We may seek them, or they may arise unexpectedly, but they offer opportunities for self-discovery, encouraging us to reassess what truly matters, and grow.

If you’ve had an experience that transformed your routine and familiar self-understanding, or want to plan for one that does, Mark will help you explore how to live with greater authenticity and purpose.

Email: mark@transformational-growth.com

Mark brings a unique blend of expertise and experience to coaching, having recently completed training in existentially informed coaching. This follows several years of training as a CMC-accredited mediator. His passion lies in empowering high achievers as they transition into leadership roles, particularly those with a strong focus on people.

Currently, Mark serves as the Head of Operational Change and Deputy Head of Administration (Deputy COO) for the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford. In this capacity, he leads the Life and Mind Building project, the largest construction endeavour in the university’s history.

Mark’s academic background includes a PhD in Pharmacology, and his professional journey spans significant roles in both scientific and clinical research operations. He has experience on both sides of the academia-industry interface, having served as COO and in various senior operations roles within spin-out companies and academic research units.

Email: mbutler@bath.edu

Website: https://www.biology.ox.ac.uk/people/mark-butler 

Monica is an established existential coach who works with individuals and groups primarily in the arena of business, executive, and leadership coaching and consultancy. She also has several clients from the music, film, and media industries and has a background in fine arts, business, government, and community work.

She has worked for the Desmond Tutu Foundation Peace and Reconciliation Movement in Belfast and the townships of Cape Town, SA. She is recognised as a leading figure in establishing existential coaching within the UK having created the first MA in the subject. She offers training courses in leadership, coaching, and conflict resolution as well as speaking at conferences on these subjects. She is the author of several books on coaching, leadership, mediation and supervision.

She is a warm and empathic coach who can challenge appropriately and enjoys the diversity of her client group and taking on new challenges.

Email: monicahanaway@icloud.com

Text/call: 07305457719 / (01865)450027

Website: https://monicahanaway.com/

Email: Shenguernsey@gmail.com

Text/call: 07911 766 838

When seeking a coach, it is beneficial to select someone who not only resonates with you but also brings varied perspectives. Such a person should grasp your circumstances and offer a wealth of experience to affirm, challenge, and help navigate through the unique aspects of each session. Nigel Smaller grew up in South London, attending a comprehensive school in Brixton during the 80s riots. He advanced to university and embarked on a successful corporate journey across technical and commercial roles, eventually finding his calling in helping others attain profound self-awareness, prompting their personal evolution and growth. He honed this innate skill by training in various existentially informed methodologies, culminating in a doctorate in 2017. Nigel’s research looked at midlife career change.

More information can be found on his website: www.findingme.co.uk

“Andra is a glutton for punishment,” remarked a client, referring to her relentless pursuit of growth. As a coach and creative consultant, she embraces challenges others may avoid and has an unwavering commitment to uplifting individuals and organisations.

For Andra, coaching is a shared journey, a partnership. She commits to supporting her clients, and in return, they commit to showing up fully. This collaborative approach not only allows them to get to work but also to have fun in the process. Andra’s unique approach helps clients unearth deeper relevance in their goals, fostering a sense of inclusion and teamwork. Her ability to hold space for individuals to simply “be” allows breakthrough insights to emerge, creating a supportive and empowering environment. For her, the real punishment lies in limiting one’s potential – a punishment she’ll never accept.

Email: andra.vlaicu@gmail.com

Allied to her growing mediation practice, Marina offers a coaching service geared particularly to those who find themselves struggling with conflict.

Marina has practiced as a barrister for most of her adult life, initially in Brussels and then London specialising in employment, public and human rights law. Having represented individuals and private corporations, public bodies and NGOs, she brings to bear an appreciation of varying perspectives when coaching and mediating.

She was appointed Queens (now Kings) Counsel in 2016 but has shifted her focus from litigating to mediating and conducting workplace investigations – especially where bullying, harassment and discrimination are in issue. She also teaches psychologically-informed mediation. 

Marina is the author of “The Lost Homestead”, a historical family memoir based on her Indian mother’s experience of Partition, which was shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize and an Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Award.

Email: marinaccwheeler@gmail.com 

Mark works with people who find they’re coming to question their place at work and in life. He enjoys exploring the client’s world, how they may be stuck and what that might mean to them, and ultimately how this could lead to new possibilities and horizons.

He is especially interested in working collaboratively to bring to light the questions and feelings that may not at first seem obvious but may well prove fundamental in overcoming barriers that stand in the way of a truly lived life and career.

Mark worked for 25 years in the property market, delivering complex developments in a competitive and high-risk market. Originally from South London, he now lives North of the River. He works in London, as well as online as a coach, psychotherapist, charity trustee and visiting lecturer. Mark once wrote a dissertation on the benefit of humour, and still laughs at his own jokes.

Email: markswhite1001@gmail.com

Text/call: 07789172675