Who am I?
I’m an Associate Professor at University College London and an ICF-trained coach. I’ve worked in higher education for over 15 years, teaching and researching the cultures of medieval England, France, and Scandinavia. I also have an Advanced Diploma in Integrative Coaching and have taken additional training in Wellbeing and Stress Management, Career and Executive Coaching, Mental Health First Aid, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Like many, I discovered coaching at a time of transition in my own life. In the autumn of 2017 my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. In an hour-long Skype call we discussed what this would mean for her and for our family. At the end of the call she asked if I had any news, and I did: I was pregnant. The strange synchronicity of that moment – when we shared two pieces of such different and yet life-changing news – is one that has stayed with me and which I continue to reflect on as the years go by.
Over the next three years I saw my daughter grow into the funny, inquisitive little person she is today. At the same time, I watched my mother undergo multiple operations and rounds of chemotherapy, as she wrestled with what it meant to live in a body that was unexpectedly shutting down. Caring for one person at the beginning of life and another at the end was alternatively wonderful and heart-breaking. It was an experience that forced me to reevaluate my priorities, my work-life balance, and my identity as a partner, sibling, child, and parent. This made me realise how little time I had spent reflecting on my own values and direction in life, which is how I encountered coaching.
Coaching often involves discussing difficult situations and emotions, but for me, the joy of coaching is that it is fundamentally hopeful in outlook. It acknowledges the difficulties we face in life, but asks us to make space for them, to accept them rather than push them away.
What inspires me?
I am fascinated by the stories people tell as they navigate life’s challenges. This is a theme that runs through my coaching, my personal life, and my academic work. As a medievalist, I am especially interested in how memory, emotion, and trauma are portrayed in literature. My forthcoming book, Conflict, Conquest, and Loss: Traumas of 1066 in England, Normandy and Scandinavia examines the strategies medieval authors employed to work through the aftershock of that momentous year. It explores the interactions between history and memory over multiple generations in an effort to better understand the mental and emotional lives of medieval people. Find out more about my work in this short video, produced in collaboration with UCL’s European institute.
I also enjoy using medieval texts outside the university setting. As ‘The Mindful Medievalist’, I teach on the popular meditation app Insight Timer. There, I use medieval literature to explore themes such as transience, gratitude, and the natural world. My aim is to help fellow meditators slow down and invite the richness of the past into the present moment.
You can also learn more about my academic work by listening to radio programmes I have contributed to, such as BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time and The Long View: Brexit Special