How it all began

I have been a doctor for more than 25 years and spent most of that time exploring counter-culture ways to be a doctor and as successfully undergone several career transitions extending from clinical work in hospitals and general practice to the non-clinical worlds of research, writing and communications, consulting and coaching.

In 2013 I was in a senior role in a public health organisation and just struggling with the office politic. So, I hired an executive coach which had arisen as a popular activity in the business world (we are 25 years behind in medicine) and the rest is history really. 

I loved being coached and realised there was a whole other powerful way of helping people. I wished I’d had that type of support earlier in my career to help develop confidence, deal with my own imposter syndrome and deal with complexity. And so the idea of becoming a coach was born. 

I have been living, breathing, learning and doing coaching since 2013. Since starting Coach GP in 2018 I have coached doctors from a broad range of medical backgrounds (including specialists, GPs, doctors in training, and doctors working in metropolitan and rural settings). I also coach other professionals and the general public in similar issues. 

Traditional medicine is based around healing illness by correcting what is not-functioning properly, broken or sick. This is a really useful thing – I’m glad there are doctors who do this. Coaching on the other hand is focused on strengthening what is already working well to develop capacity and allows for creating possibilities and opening potentialities. 

My medical background, diverse working history and extensive study of coaching psychology gives me great depth as a coach and I am uniquely placed to bring behavioural science to the unique challenges professionals face in complex clinical environments.

I’m committed to ongoing professional development including clinical supervision and align with the Australian Medical Association Code of Ethics and the International Coach Federation Code of Ethics

 

Qualifications

Tertiary qualifications

  • MSc (Coach Psych), Sydney University
  • Grad Cert Coaching & Counselling, Deakin University (2015)
  • Grad Cert Public Health, UNSW (2007)
  • MBBS (Honours), UNSW (1993); BSc (Medicine), UNSW (1993)

Other coach training

  • Contextual Coaching (2016)
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (2015)
  • HealthChange® Methodology Basics and Decision Framework (2014)