ellen ryan,
mindfulness & coaching
Whatever is happening in your life, either personally or professionally, being able to adapt to change and adjust to new situations with ease is important. That’s where mindfulness and coaching can have a profound impact on your life.
The essence of my mindfulness and coaching practice is to enable you or your organisation to be able to interpret and respond to change skilfully, improving your wellbeing and overall performance in life and work.
Mindfulness is an awareness that arises through paying attention to the present moment, non-judgementally. Training to focus on the present enables us to make better decisions in both life and work and to work more effectively with others.
Mindfullness is an evidence based method of reducing stress and supporting wellbeing and overall performance. In interrupting the habit of getting lost in thoughts, mostly about the future or past, we learn to see how our habitual reactions to events add layers of difficulty for us. The issue that we are stuck with may not change as a result of mindfulness but the way we relate to and cope with the difficulty may shift, making it all feel more manageable.
In a complex world, it can spark innovation leading to resilient and low-cost responses to challenges.
Mindfulness is really about being in life more, rather than being on the sidelines!
Over the last 30 years, academic research in the field of neuroscience has documented the wide-ranging benefits of mindfulness. A 2017 review by the Oxford University Mindfulness Centre compiled a mass of scientific data to ascertain exactly how mindfulness acts as such an effective reducer of stress and anxiety. In essence, mindfulness teaches a combination of skills such as decentring (the process of learning not to believe all of one’s own thoughts), awareness and non-reactivity, all leading to a reduction of worry. Reducing rumination and teaching self-compassion are the two main driving factors in decreasing symptoms of stress and anxiety.
Research studies have also shown changes in brain wave activity during meditation and researchers have found that areas of the brain linked to emotional regulation are larger in people who have meditated regularly for five years or more. People undertaking mindfulness training have also shown increased activity in the area of the brain associated with positive emotion – the pre-frontal cortex.
All of us! Although Mindfullness has a specific wellbeing focus it benefits people from all walks of life. We all have times in our lives when we experience challenges or just want to feel better, the situation may not change as a result of mindfulness but the way we relate to and cope with the difficulty may shift, making it feel easier.
The 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course (MBSR) is an excellent starting point, scientifically proven to help people cope better with stress and improve their wellbeing.
The aim of the programme is to learn new ways to handle challenging physical sensations, feelings, moods or social interactions. Over the 8 weeks, a regular practice helps build new patterns of thinking and habits as we learn to respond to situations rather than reacting automatically.
The course includes components of the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme that addresses the negative thought patterns that can perpetuate stress.
The course supports us to cultivate new skilful ways of dealing with what goes on in our bodies, minds and lives using tools in mindfulness meditation, mindful movement and discussion on stress, stress management and how to apply mindfulness to interpersonal communication.
Benefits include:
The course consists of eight, two-hour sessions and a day’s retreat. The retreat supports you to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life and includes guided practices, movement and meditation.
All applicants will be invited to a pre-course meeting to ensure that the course is suitable for them. Each participant will be given a handbook for the course and three downloadable recordings for meditation and mindful movement.
Mindfulness trains our attention to focus on the moment and is a powerful tool in dealing with a broad range of workplace challenges including managing change, workloads and relationships.Mindfulness training for the workplace can have a positive effect on absenteeism associated with stress-related conditions, as well as improving overall employee engagement.
Mindfulness as a learning tool can bring self-awareness, clarity about priorities and greater collaboration to the workplace. It can help to generate an awareness of stress factors and habits and provide tools in how to mitigate this to improve performance and increase productivity. Mindfulness can help us to move from habitually reacting to stressful situations to developing more measured responses. It can help to support staff at all levels to be able to open up space for recuperation and wellbeing.
I offer a range of provision to organisations from the full 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course (MBSR) to introductory workshops and themed training events focusing on strengthening leadership, change management and resilience,decision making, improved communication and developing cohesive teams.
Coaching is a powerful tool in working through issues in a confidential manner and starts with a conversation. My role as your coach is to listen to you and explore your concerns, enabling you to have greater confidence in your own perspective to create the life you want to live.
My personal coaching programme offers you the opportunity to move you from uncertainty through to having a clear vision of a future that is right for you and a plan for how to create it.
I coach clients on a range of issues:
I specialise in career coaching and supporting you to access new opportunities in the job market.
I specialise in career transition. I have coached over 600 people through the recession; ranging from executive directors of wealth management companies, to editors, journalists, bankers and public-sector staff.
It can be challenging to think clearly when you are feeling anxious and working out a career strategy on your own can be daunting.
I support clients to:
I coach my clients to have confidence in their own perspective to develop a career which reflect their passions; where they employ their favourite skills and which is true to their values.
I will support you to move you from uncertainty through to having a clearer vision of a career that is right for you, and a plan for how to create it.
Coaching is a powerful tool to shift the workplace horizon from one where people receive direction from others, to one where they commit to doing things they care passionately about.
I offer tailored, corporate coaching to support successful charismatic and confident leaders. The coaching supports participants to build a richer skill-set and greater confidence, enabling career progression and succession planning within the organisation.
Emerging leaders will gain increased awareness and a greater understanding of how to communicate successfully across diverse cultures and departments. This in turn leads to more energy and enthusiasm to take the necessary steps to increase their effectiveness as a role model, influencer and expert within their environment.
I also offer team coaching, facilitate workshops, and interventions over a longer period of time, to support people to work together as a more effective and powerful collective decision-making body. This includes supporting team dynamics and a common purpose.
