About Catherine Lloyd

I pride myself in being an ordinary person who has had similar ups and downs in life to thousands of other people. The changes in career, the heart wrenching difficulties with relationships, bringing up children, managing bereavement of loved ones and pets and the constant juggling of work life balance. What I have learnt along the way is to keep going, persist, enjoy and cherish what is good. Learn how to improve what isn’t going so well by talking and taking advice from people who do; to keep working on the things that are troubling me to get sustainable results. Over time I have also realised that being able to forgive and be flexible without undermining my own needs and goals are an important quality to possess. Most importantly, however, to keep a grounded check on my strengths, what I like doing, where are I can develop my weaknesses are vital to a happier life.

“it is not the strongest of species that survive
nor the most intelligent
but the ones most responsive to change.”
Charles Darwin
We all have times in our lives when our confidence is tested to its limits? These can come from many areas of our lives:
• Relationships
• Changes in our work life
• Family life
• Friends
• Holidays
• Needs and desires
• Separation
• Conflict
Our reaction to this can be:
• Adopting feelings of anxiety
• Being overwhelmed
• Closed in, shut off, and stifled.
• Loss of identity
This is not healthy for us as creative and curious human beings. So if you don’t want this then what do you want?
“if you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have got”
Henry Ford
To overcome these low levels of confidence, you need to have your windows and doors opened, allowing light and fresh air in to enable you to breathe more easily.
Have a listen to what you can hear and look at what you can see.
When you look out what can you see?
What are other people doing that you would like to do?
It is only when we can see more clearly we focus on a way forward to perform and be the best that you can be.
You must be wondering how much worry, anxiety and frustration you are going to allow yourself to suffer.
First, reflect on the following questions:
Where are you now? What is life like for you?
How do you want your life to be?
What do you want to change in your life?
If you could change one thing, what would it be?
If you want something different you don’t necessarily have to make big daunting changes to your life. Little changes can have an effective ripple effect on the rest of your life.

I am passionate about helping individuals and groups to develop; to become stronger and manage the challenges they face with courage and positivity. As your personal strength coach I will support you whilst you untangle the complexities of life. Help you build your dreams and aspirations and be confident to reach for them.
Make the change and reap the rewards by booking your complimentary 30 minute introductory coaching session on;

What is Coaching?
We all come from different backgrounds and cultures, with a different: childhood history
• Religion
• Personality
• Needs and desires.
Therefore, you are the expert in your life so as your life coaching I will not be telling you what changes and actions to make in your life.
However, as your personal strength coach I will help you find your own answers:
• Help you get a better understanding of your past and present.
• Help you be more positive by recognising your strengths and skills.
• Help you develop your own decisions.
This will give you the permission to take control. Empower you to strive and excel in your life your work and your leisure time, giving you more confidence to reach your dreams.
Change can be very daunting because it will push you out of our comfort zone. You might feel uncertain about the effect the change is going to have on you: how you will feel, how it will affect other people in your life and where it might lead. Coaching will help you understand these thoughts and give you a clearer picture of exactly what you want to achieve. Then you can take action and start moving nearer to your goal.
’Make 2013 The Year For YOU!!’

To help you improve your inner confidence and personal wellbeing for 2013, sign up for my NEW e-workbook.
For just £5.99, you can follow the simple exercises and read my tips on ’Improving Your Confidence And Wellbeing’ and see what changes you can make in 2013!.
To order this new E-Workbook, go to my website on www.cathlloyd.co.uk
‘Let The Sunshine In’
This is a creative exercise I use with all my clients. Why not kick start your positivity and begin boosting your confidence by giving this simple exercise a go.
Take a sheet of paper and draw a sun in the middle, with the rays going out to the edges of the paper. Within the sun draw a picture of yourself, or you could use a photograph that depicts your positivity or even write the words ‘Let The Sunshine In’. Each day think about what has gone well for you and write the best one along the ray. Use some coloured pencils to colour in each ray as you go and watch as the days go by what great things have been happening for you and then celebrate them.
Here is what clients have said about their coaching experience.
’Cath’s sessions helped me to stay motivated with my goals and kept me progressing with tasks that I would otherwise be procrastinating over. I’ve had a lot of support from Cath. Her positive attitude and belief that I can achieve my goals allowed me to build self confidence around these goals. She really listened to me and often surprised me with interesting questions and exercises. She also helped me to map out what was important for me at the time when I was struggling with my priorities. I’m still using this to see which areas of my life need more attention. While being coached by Cath I managed to accomplish quite a significant goal - finish my coaching diploma - so that was a big success. Without her help it would have taken me much longer to accomplish. I’ve liked her pace and attention to detail. I would recommend Cath to anyone who would want to stay motivated on achieving their goals.’
Amala Grzelbalska
‘Coaching for Life’ was a once a week programme run by Cath Lloyd, to help us realise the bigger picture. By taking other peoples opinions and views into consideration and to think more positively. Although we are prisoners, whilst in the group we were seen as individuals rather than offenders which made us feel at total ease, so we can have open and frank discussions. The following quotations are what the group have said about the sessions they have attended;
“It has helped me understand how to see what achievements are realistic to me.”
“I am learning how to overcome obstacles and fears.”
“It has given me greater confidence and will have an improved desire to try new things.”
“I have a more positive way of thinking.”
“I am learning how to improve my listening skills.”
“I am learning to ask questions that will help others to help themselves and look for their own answers.”

The long term benefit of this course will help us to help ourselves but also to help others. To look at life in a more positive light rather than only seeing the negative, to learn specific benefits to us and others and improve thinking skills to make changes as well as teach making changes to others. As prisoners we can use these skills to support not only other prisoners but also our families and friends, to make different choices, have a better picture to see how these choices affect others; our friends, family, neighbours besides ourselves.,
Coaching for Life Programme at HM Prisons
Whilst in prison I have been attending the Coaching for Life with Cath. When I was angry I would do stupid things by getting into fights and not thinking about the consequences, which meant I was on a Violent Reduction Plan. Cath gave me an exercise to complete that made me think about what I was and was not in control of. When looking at what I felt I was not in control of, Cath asked me a variety of questions to find out what made me feel that way and the consequence of these actions. I was then asked to think about different ways that might help me control my anger.
I have now used my system of controlling my anger several times. With Cath’s coaching skills and support I have now realised the consequences of not being able to control my anger, have been able to stay out of fights, been taken off the Violent Reduction Plan and have had my application for Open Jail passed. I am now waiting to continue my sentence in open conditions and feel confident about my new skills.
22 year old male
I recently completed the Effective Thinking course with Cath. I decided to take part because I realised that bad decision making resulted in me spending a large proportion of my life in prison and believe a large percentage of prisoners’ aid themselves into this position. I took the course in order to rectify that and reinforce some important principles of decision making which I seemed to have forgotten.
I have learnt that thinking of the consequences and the effect my potential decisions may have will lead to a better outcome. I have also learnt that prioritising, planning and using different strategies will serve me well from now on. Setting goals and targets, being non-judgemental were also important issues we discussed and have taken on board. Conditioning myself to think and behave a certain way, living life on life’s terms and pacing myself to achieve realistic goals in realistic timescales without sacrificing core values are important skills I have gained to use in my life.
45 Year old Male
"Cath has helped me to “focus on certain areas of my life. I have been struggling to come to terms with recently.”
Michael 45 years of age, Electrical Engineer
“Cath helped me manage the stress levels through positive affirmations, that work! And that had an impact on my happiness levels, health and other important aspects of my life. This enabled me to move quickly to evaluate situations/choices based on what really mattered and she helped me eliminate unnecessary ’pictures/images’. Cath touched my heart and made my souls smile with her encouragement."
Nella 46 years of age, Unemployed
“She has helped me to set goals and targets and to ask myself what I really wanted from my work life, so I could compare current and future opportunities, enabling me to make a final decision best suited to me.”
Rob 40 years of age, Instructional Officer
“I was aware that retirement would be a big change and had planned what I would like to do. I was apprehensive about how my plans would work out. Working with Cath, I was encouraged to decide what I really wanted to do and step by step achieve my goals.”
Dave 60 years of age, Retired

My training, work experience and any achievement

I came into coaching after 20 years of teaching in the adult education sector. Originally in ceramics, then into offender learning with general art and design and finally into teaching social and life skills courses - Parent Craft, Family Relationships and Healthy Living.
As an art and design teacher, a lot of my time was spent listening and talking with my learners about their families, relationships, careers. their aspirations and dreams. Having the opportunity to work with people on their personal development has been a natural progression. To help them celebrate their strengths, recognise their weaknesses, supporting and motivating them to begin to turn their weaknesses and barriers around through goal setting and planning.
Combining my teaching with strength coaching has given me a fascinating and privileged insight into how individuals travel their journey of life. It has also given me the opportunity to see how choices affect these journeys and to work with individuals and couples to look at positive changes that can be made to develop confidence and self-esteem. To make changes to their lives to fulfil their dreams and aspirations. My interests revolve around people; what they think, feel and what they do with these thoughts and feelings. I care about how individuals live their lives and want to support them to become happier and more successful.
I undertook my life coaching training with The Coaching Academy and NLP with Toby and Kate. I am a great believer in reflective training to improve and develop my skills continually by working with a wide variety of people and situations.

Further Information

Finding the package that best suites you and your needs can be difficult so here is a brief outline.

• Free ½ hour telephone taster session. This is an ideal way to start finding out how coaching can benefit you and your needs.
• Coaching package of 6 hours either by phone (preferably land line) or Skype. This would also include 6 short e-mail check-ins at £240, taken over a 6 month period.
• Face to face package. The cost to be discussed and would depend on the location.
• Group package. This cost would depend on the location, the length of the session and the amount of sessions required. It is an ideal way of gaining the benefits of coaching but at a lower cost as it can be spread evenly between the group members. The group members can also support each other between sessions especially if they have similar issues they wish to address.
For your security and peace of mind all payments can be via Pay Pal.
Coaching is a very individual affair. If these packages are not quite what you are looking for please do get in contact so we can discuss something more suitable.