Heya!
I’m Stephanie.
You can call me Steph.

Stephanie-2022
I’m driven by helping people like you get unstuck. I’m here when you’re ready to step out of tick-tock and live life on your terms. (Provided it’s lawful — I don’t do criminal stuff!)

I know what it’s like to subjugate your own desires after struggling in an unsuccessful marriage for 13 years. Most of that time I spent trying to squeeze myself into a tiny casket of what I thought my husband desired in a wife. But, I lost the fun-loving, joke-telling, trick-playing, weird and wonderful Steph. She disappeared inside a shell of fear and trying-to-please.

Stephanie-2022

But don’t worry — I’m back now — so look out!

I didn’t reinvent myself, I just reconnected with the me I’d pushed down, strangled, silenced and isolated. And, once I’d rehabilitated the authentic me, I vowed I’d put my growth and development first. It hasn’t always been easy, because I’m a people person and love to help others whenever I can. But I’ve learnt that if I don’t put myself first, I eventually become unavailable to others.
Tired of trying to cram her sparkly star-shaped self into society’s beige square holes, she chose to embrace her ridiculous awesomeness, and shine like the supernova she was meant to be. Unknown

Do you relate to that quote? If it speaks to you, maybe you should speak to me? We could meet somewhere. You’ll recognise me from my photos, but maybe you could wear a crazy hat or carry a red rose or something, so I’ll know it’s you. Or we could meet on Zoom.

NLP Training

I read a book about NLP about 100 years ago (slight exaggeration!). I found it fascinating, but better still, when I applied some of what I learned I got immediate and positive results. I was hooked! NLP is a continually developing field, so although it’s been around since the mid-seventies, it remains leading-edge.

It provides insights into how you think and how you behave, and it incorporates ways to change any thinking processes or behaviours that aren’t working the way you’d prefer.

NLP will help you reconnect with your true, authentic self.

As a trainer with a private coaching practice, you know I’ll teach you skills that actually work, not merely theory that you’ll struggle to find useful. I’ll do it with a glint in my eye, a playful sense of humour and a story or two up my sleeve (figuratively not literally!)

Joseph Hartzenburg
Counselling and Supervision

The most valuable part of the training for me is being able to do the stuff that I have been reading about for so long. And those classroom demos and exercises were so invaluable. I love hands-on learning and there was lots of it. And the beauty of that learning is that I can now do it. It’s the trick that’s transformed me from an interested amateur into a practitioner. I got exactly what I was looking for and more!

Since 2000 I’ve trained and certified hundreds of NLP Practitioners, Master Practitioners and Coaches. I’m an NLP Master Trainer -International Association of NLP Institutes (Germany) and NLP Master Coach Trainer – International Coaching Institutes (Germany) and a Fellow Member trainer – IANLP (Switzerland). My training courses are recognised internationally by the organisations below.

International NLP logos

It’s brilliant! It provides invaluable skills that can be used in your own self development, to assist others and is equally as applicable for a business environment. It is a new level of awareness, a whole new landscape of information and some wonderful techniques to ensure your life is the way you want it to be. Best of all, it’s a fun journey to take.

Tony Hillson
Founder and CEO
Good Service Coach

Resilience and flexibility

I’ve learnt how to rebound from setbacks and use that knowledge to move forward. Once I’ve finished freaking out over the latest catastrophe in my life, I take a deep breath and begin exploring it. The freaking out part is optional — that’s just my process! But I can teach you resiliency and flexibility too.

Fun fact: My favourite TV show of all time is Star Trek (The Next Generation). I love how beings from all over the galaxy co-existed on the Starship USS Enterprise and valued each other’s differences. I would have been great in the role of Deanna Troi — ship’s counsellor.

Steph with client

“Not quite the USS Enterprise — but I can dream!”

Bonus: getting ‘beamed’ to anywhere in the universe without the tedious hassle of 21st-century transport.

My offbeat sense of humour…

… comes from growing up in the West Midlands area of the UK, with an English mother and a Jamaican father. Humour was a way of fitting in to impossible societal expectations.

Humour is so important that I bring it to everything I do. When you can laugh at a problem, it’s less of a problem.

I admire comedians for their courage and ability to install the seeds of change by making people laugh at taboo subjects. In an alternate reality, I would be a stand-up comedian — with telepathic abilities. A comedian who travels the cosmos — like Deanna Troi!

There are only five years between my three siblings and I, so we needed a sense of humour just to get along with each other! Mom and Dad constantly demanded that we ‘play nicely’ together — and there’d be plenty of laughter and excitement. As the excitement escalated, the laughter would turn to tears — at which point we would try to kill one another!

Mom or Dad would have to step in and break up the fight. We love each other now though — honestly!

Everyone at Barmouth

Mom and Dad instilled in us strong values, just one of which was showing initiative — what mom called ‘get up and go.’ By eighteen I’d got up and gone! By the age of twenty-two, I’d lived and worked in three different countries. The ‘get up and go’ thing frequently gets me into trouble. (Stories for another time, perhaps). It means I’m pretty much unemployable! So, good job I have my own company.

Things can always be improved

This belief is both a blessing and a curse. I’m forever exploring ways to live increasingly purposeful and fulfilling lives; neuro-science, metaphysics, NLP and the diverse aspects of human psychology all conspire to keep me up late at night, researching.

Steph with Ragz and Shaggy

 And I have an innate compulsion to share what I’ve learned; in my training, coaching, or  blog posts.

The curse is that I’m continually updating and rewriting training manuals and coaching materials. And, yes, when I’m writing, I do often have, Shaggy, my Quaker parrot, sitting on my shoulder or wandering around the desk getting into mischief. And Ragz, my Tibetan Terrier will be at my feet, under the desk. They seem to think they help.

Flip charts then have to be redone, to match the manual. Yes, I actually use flip charts. Have you tried sticking a slide onto the wall to refer to later?

Coaching

I coach internationally via zoom (or face-to-face if you want to visit me in Raglan) and I’d be honoured to help you achieve your goals and dreams.

Tracey Hancock
Coach

She’s worked with and coached 100’s (if not 1000’s) of people so she’s got a finely tuned radar that detects when you’re playing small and limiting yourself!

Author of 5 books and hundreds of articles

As well as my published print book, Goal Setting: 7 Principles to Achieve Remarkable Success, I’ve authored four eBooks; Presentations That Rock, REAL People Skills, The NLP Eye Accessing Cues and How to Change Your Mind. They are all imbued with my signature sense of humour and deep understanding of human nature.

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I’ve lived most of my adult life in New Zealand, and I’m now based in the small coastal town of Raglan.