My Story: How I Became a Coach

I'm celebrating making so many new connections!

So I thought I would introduce myself and tell you a little bit about what I do, and why I do it.

My name is Christine El Issa. I’m a qualified social worker currently in my 20th year (yikes!) as a helping professional. I’m also a women’s life coach working with busy mothers trying to juggle that elusive work/life balance in the midst of other challenges, such as children with additional needs, toxic family dynamics, survivors of childhood abuse or domestic violence, foster carers and adopters.

I’ve chosen this focus because I feel it’s the place where my social work skills and coaching become perfectly aligned. So here’s a little of my backstory which led me to today:

I moved from my home state of Pennsylvania, USA to London in 2009. I was working as a social worker and had been recruited by a Local Authority in London to join their child protection team. At that point in my life, I had been working in my field for 7 years and was already experiencing burnout which was leading to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Much of this had to do with working in a family therapy setting with parents who had undiagnosed personality disorders. They were extremely difficult to work with and they were not ideal clients for our therapy model, so our success rates plummeted. It was really discouraging. I got some professional help and it really made a difference.

I had become disconnected from my friends, many of whom were moving into new stages of life with marriage and children and there I was, single and alone and nearly 30 years old. I felt I had very little prospects and that maybe it was time to consider relocating to another part of the country. So whilst widening my job search, I was hired by a London Borough and took the steps to move my life to a new country. Oddly enough, it was just after my 30th birthday.

I spent some time in child protection and was mindful that it would not be long before it burned me out. So I intended for that particular role to be temporary. In the meantime, I was making new friends from all over the world and enjoying the fast-paced single life in London. I was also able to change over to a different team with the same employer, where I began my journey into adoption social work.

In that time, I met my husband and we had a beautiful daughter together. Both of us are immigrants and we have no family here in the UK, so those first few years were quite isolating as we did not really have a local support network. That thankfully shifted when my daughter started school, and she and I were both able to make some fantastic friends.

I was able to reduce my hours to part time and was even off work for a full year whilst looking for a part-time post. It was that year, in 2017, that so much had changed in the world and I started really thinking about what I wanted to do in life. I realised that I did not actually want to remain in social work any longer than necessary, but I also didn’t know what I would do instead. I started doing some research and discovered the joys of coaching. I took some introductory online classes and later made a bigger investment to train with One of Many.® This involved a year-long training with expert and peer support where I was able to enhance my skills and find my footing in a new area, resulting in a coaching certification which my cohort completed in the midst of that global pandemic we’re still dealing with. Now I’m working to acquire enough coaching hours to be able to apply for my ICF (International Coaching Federation) accreditation. Coaching is a strange industry in that qualifications and accreditations are available, but it is not regulated and these are not a requirement. It’s strange in that anyone can call themselves a ‘coach,’ but experience and training varies greatly.

So many of you that I have connected with over the recent months are fellow coaches, social workers and other helping professionals. I see the pressure that women, mothers in particular, are under and how the pandemic has exacerbated the challenges of maintaining good mental health. So my mission is to equip as many women as possible with practical tools that make a genuine difference in their lives. I know what it’s like to feel burnout, to be shouting at my daughter when I lose patience with her, to have wavering confidence and to want to show up in life differently.

I empower busy mothers to manage being pulled in too many directions and together they learn to value themselves deeply so that they achieve more balance and joy in their day-to-day lives.

A huge part of my ‘why’ is my daughter. I am dedicated to loving and caring for her differently than how my parents raised me, because my emotional needs were often not met in childhood. I want to see her thriving and forming strong, positive relationships with others…and with herself. So I have to lead by example and take good care of myself.

I’m passionate about empowering women, because once upon a time, I lived a very disempowered, defeated life. My confidence was low, my support network was virtually non-existent, and I generally did not have a lot of love for myself. I’m now fully convinced that by making our self-care a priority, we can achieve great things. It can be difficult to shift out of old patterns, and to feel powerless in the midst of overwhelm. That’s where I come in as a coach: to stand beside you and cheer you on as you prioritise what you want out of life and begin living intentionally.

I offer free 30-minute consultations to help you look at where you’re at, what’s holding you back and some steps you can take to move forward. If this is something that you would love some support with, DM me and we’ll set an appointment!

Love,

Christine El Issa

Photo credits: Vito Natale, Chantel Desnoyers, Lachlan Gowen, Fred Moon, Jacob Morch and m.