‘We experience meaningful growth and success
when our voices, visions, feelings, choices and decisions
feel in balance.’  – Yvo

 

Meet CFW Success

With joyful pride I introduce some of my Courageous From Within clients.

I hope their reflections reassure, inspire and encourage you.

Because you too can give yourself more

• time & attention
• purpose & direction
• love & joy
• clarity & satisfaction
• choice & growth
• honesty & freedom

Yvo

 

‘Communication – the human connection,
is the key to personal and career success’
Paul J Meyer

 

 

 Some CFW client reflections 

 

Sage

It is obvious to me that Yvo’s calling in life is being a coach.

She is a naturally empathetic person and this shows through her unwavering support of those who need it, like I do.

Yvo’s coaching came at the time I needed it the most.
I was in my early 20s and awaiting psychotherapy. I had been on a waiting list for over 3.5 years!

I was self harming, used substances, felt suicidal, used highest doses of antidepressants.

I felt overwhelmed with life, my multiple persona, gender identity, complex PTDS and random erratic mood swings.
I was exhausted and not coping. I felt I was just surviving, but not living.

I urgently needed someone to talk too, but my depression and autism felt like huge walls.

And then I met Yvo and each Friday, we would coach, go for a walk, sit in nature, get a coffee. She is the most wonderful listener and motivator.

More than 5 years later, I’m so grateful that she is still a constant support in my life and I hope to know this amazing woman for many more years to come.

With her help, I have been able to keep holding on.

I am beginning to see and experience where I want to be pre and post therapies.

I left an unhealthy and bullying work place and am now back at uni.
I feel I can reshape my life and myself.

Her coaching cannot be faulted. I recommend Yvo to anybody who needs help. She is wonderful 🖤🖤.

 

Grace 

When I contacted you, I could not pay for your help but you talked with me anyway and stayed in touch.

I really appreciate knowing that you are there for me and I hope you know that you have helped many others just as you have helped me, by being present in the background of my life and especially before, during and after my GCSE exams.

 

Lara

It is very easy to talk to Yvo, to feel relaxed, looked after and comfortable whilst sharing personal troubles.

During my first meeting, I felt nervous and started with not knowing what I was going to talk about, but within 5 minutes I felt I had been talking to a friend which made it so much easier.

Yvo does not judge or imply things. She is so gentle and polite and friendly, understanding and calm.
She really makes me feel safe.

Her questions helped me to create successful strategies to remove anxiety and stress-triggers at work, at home and when out.

Now I am able to self manage my moments of anger, depression, self-harm, anxiety and feeling suicidal.
I trust my strategies and I use them every day. And each time we meet I create more and feel stronger.

I have never felt so relaxed, positive and honest. Even fiercely confident! I am not hiding any more.
I feel so proud of myself:))

I talk to my friends and family about how amazing I feel, how different I think now and how much better I can say what I feel and need to say. Non stop celebrations:)))

I could not have done this without Yvo’s support.

And Yvo, thank you for letting me be a part of your website. It will be so helpful to others who feel the same.

It has been amazing all that has happened and 12 months seemed to fly by. I believe that this is only because of the person you are.

Now, when I am faced with a decision or a challenge, I know I will find solutions and answers.

Coaching with you is the best thing I’ve done for myself!

I am so pleased to have found you, you have saved me from a very deep and dark hole.

You have helped me become me.

 

 

 

Walter

I am thanking you for your Life-Coaching, Yvo.

You, your presence and way of working is like a light that has left a lasting impression on me.

Your guidance and questioning inspires and challenges at the same time.

On reflection, I realise how our coaching has impacted my whole life.
My life has started to feel honest and many things now feel possible.
Following our conversations, I allow myself more time for myself within my back-to-back work schedule.

Living with more self care and honesty, has made me feel more comfortable with my life, family, clients and the running of my consultancy business as a whole.

The way you have supported me has also made me more comfortable with moments of feeling vulnerable.

And a huge change has been that I have started to take away making assumptions.

Assumptions were for me an unconscious barrier to being true to myself.

Thank you for your natural ability to empathise and encourage whilst empowering me to make further progress to reaching my goals and potential.

 

Michael

After being signposted to Yvo by a fellow colleague who had highly recommended her, I decided to try a session to see if it worked for me.

I’ve always been dubious of therapy having had (expensive!) experiences previously, which I felt hadn’t benefitted me.

However after just a few sessions, I can say that Yvo has a gift.

She has a natural ability in helping me forward. She clearly is doing this too for many others.

I never feel judged, but always respected.

Yvo is empathetically tuned in with my needs and feelings.

Feeling a real connection with Yvo first surprised me, as I did not think that meeting online could feel personal and intense.

I have a very successful, but stressful career and have been through a divorce and recent bereavement. Having given myself time with Yvo has made me know and feel that there is hope on my horizon.

Yvo is a great, friendly and dedicated person.

I shall be recommending her as a Life-Coach to anyone who ever tells me they are struggling.

 

Marta

Yvo is amazing! She is an incredible coach :))

She is a very skilled listener, attentive, empathic, not opinionated and understanding.

She knows very well when to ask questions and which questions to ask to arrive at the root of the issue.

Our coaching thinking times can be hard, but always positive.

With Yvo I discovered lots of tools that helped me with the process.

She will also help you to investigate the changes you want to make in your life, career and work.
And she helps you to set yourself realistic achievable goals.

Her practice is gentle and soft, but with clear and instant guidance.

I loved that Yvo speaks Spanish because sometimes when I could not find the right word in English, we would find our way together in Spanish. This made me feel even more welcome and reassured.

I always leave the coaching sessions smiling, because I feel proud about the steps and the new awarenesses I gain.

We talked about a lot of things like my youth, money worries, loneliness and anxiety.

Since my coaching, my confidence has soared. I even moved from a small village to a city!

I feel more optimistic about my future. You can too :))

 

Karen

I want to thank you again for the profound session, Yvo.

I did feel a little uncomfortable and embarrassed with the space and focus on me as I am not used to this, but your well-remembered and astute reflections of what arose for me were very supportive and empowering.

I almost felt I was seeing and accessing another part of my being, allowing for a profound experience.

I also really appreciated your picking up on the importance of honour for me.
You shared your visceral sense of the image of a sword within me. That was powerfully important, because it had past connections for me.

I felt not only seen by you, but also by myself.

Thank you for the fabulous sessions, holding and reflection.

I also greatly appreciate the time afterwards sitting outside to linger in, before ‘coming back’.

 

Meryl

Yvo is a very perspective and observant lady.

She is an excellent listener and gives me time to talk and think without making me feel rushed or as if I am taking too long.

She asks questions which take me further into understanding myself and to solutions.

In fact, when we first coached, I found out things about myself that had never come up in my counselling!
This was a real shock, but a good one because it opened my eyes and showed me a whole new perspective. I will not forget this.

Since my husband passed away, I had been feeling much less confident.

During the coaching conversations, I wanted to focus on health and weight loss, but as I spoke and was given questions to follow my thinking, I discovered fears inside which had been stopping me from open and better communication with my children.

Yvo’s guidance helped me to realise that I want to be more honest when I speak, especially with sharing my thoughts.

This was a momentous moment for me.

 

Natalie

I honestly don’t know where to start :)) Except if you’re struggling for direction, encouragement and help with general living, then speak to Yvo.

She has lifted my confidence and brought a spark back to my life that was badly missing following recent and continuing life and health battles.

Yvo is a compassionate and empathetic soul who helps to see the light through the darkness.

She will help you to gain perspective, see choices, prioritise and make decisions, whilst getting to know yourself on a much deeper level.

She has also been amazing at connecting and supporting my husband and three children; we all have neurodivergent needs and are a family with autism, ADHD and Asperge’s.

I keep recommending her to anyone I meet who needs help with anything and everything.

 

Christopher

I am so glad we made contact almost 6 years ago now!

Since our first conversation, you have been an incredible support for me.
You have helped me cope much better with my physical health challenges and especially with the stresses in my life.

I still can’t stop thanking you for also spending 2 Sundays coaching whilst we lightened my huge paperwork backlog in my office. Truly brilliant.

Very much looking forward to getting more ticked off from my to do list.
Stopping with work scares me, so I guess retirement might be a next topic…

 

Tania and Zack

I can’t thank you enough for taking care of Zach over the months before his exams.

His grades had dropped and he was put down a group in some of his subjects.
His confidence was below low and he had no enthusiasm to study.

Once he started his sessions with you he started studying again, even at home alone.
He became motivated and started taking charge.

His confidence grew very quickly and when he went into his exams, he feeling ready.

We celebrated when Zach passed all his GCSE exams above what had been predicted!

Thank you so much for your encouragement and support for Zach!
It has been such a massive help to him and also to me and I know it will impact his next steps towards his future :))

 

Anonymous

Everything is not good. My partner is controlling. I feel ashamed and embarrassed.

I would love to meet but feel scared to, because he would not understand. He would allow it.

I realise now that he is manipulative. He is narcissistic and jealous and intimidates me.

Thank you, because when we talk I can speak without fear and I feel free to say what is inside me.

I am grateful you are able to speak in German too as my English has become rusty.

It was a bit scary to start changing and to start speaking, but I know that with your help and more time I will feel stronger.

I finally believe and that I am not crazy and I am excited to be building my trust in myself.

Maybe one day I leave him and return to live with my parents, but working on myself is what I need now.

It really helps me to speak with you.

 

Lyn

How do I begin? All I know is that when I am sharing time with Yvo, I can be honest and open.
She enables me to share my thoughts in a safe place, without any worry of wishing I hadn’t shared.

Thinking of an image, I’d say Yvo’s coaching is like opening a book wide open.

In the middle of the book is where your thoughts are and you can read it out loud without even really realising you are.
Then you feel the words because your words have had time to be lifted off the book and be looked at in detail.
Then they are gently written back onto the page of the book in a more readable way to help me continue reading the rest of the book, which has my thoughts, feelings and actions following.

I have talked about relationships and through the conversations I have understood the need for honesty and sometimes acceptance of when to the friend I can be to others, and when I can’t.

Just from being with Yvo, I am now braver and speak out.

She has helped me become comfortable with how I feel within my parental relationships with my 4 children and with their extended relationships. And this has enabled me to understand myself and also me as their mum.

Yvo does not give answers or says how I should do something.
She just opens my mind to think, see and ask myself questions and that is how I come to my own answers and decisions.

Yvo is always looking for my best.
She is a joy to be with and work with and after our conversations I feel uplifted and free.
I have been feeling much more confident, more settled, happy and relieved since meeting with Yvo.

She has helped me through sickness that comes with age.
I have learnt a lot about ageing and the menopause and how both affect my body and my mind. I am grateful I can share my learnings with my daughters and my son.

More recently after being with Yvo, I had a ‘light’ turned on in my head from a simple sentence that came up:
I am better off asking my friends and family questions, instead of presuming I know the answers.

Anyways, Yvo is a beautiful person and I consider her a beautiful friend as well as my life coach which I often forget when we are talking together.
Yvo makes my life better!

 

Euan

When you go through the trauma and experiences that no one should have to experience when they are young, there tends to be a lot of negative emotions and thoughts flying through your mind.

This sometimes turns into feeling numb and alone which made me want to end it all.

I was very depressed.
I was cutting my body and attempting again and again to end my life.

Everything got worse. Throughout this time I was still going to school and I was going through so much and with no support. I had been on the counselling waiting list and I knew I would be there for several years more as CAMS had no spaces.
I felt no one was there until Yvo first said the words “Are you OK?”.

And she kept asking me, kept checking in.
She asked every time she saw me at school.

I could tell she genuinely cared and wanted to know how I was doing, because she would stand still, look at me and wait for me.
She asked because she knew that asking could help me to the next day.
Unfortunately school would not timetable Yvo to coach with mer then, but regardless: Yvo always made time for me during her breaktimes. I still thank her for that every single day.

Even though I am still experiencing feelings of loneliness and depression my conversations with Yvo helped me to understand myself, my inner voices, flashbacks and challenges.

My time with Yvo has taught me that I can rely on myself.

I tried to commit suicide and am still on meds. I felt desperate, unloved and hopeless.

But our talking keeps helping me to push myself to the next day and then the next.
I am taking life one moment at a time and this really helps.

Music, humour and Yvo have brought me this far today.
She is great for anyone who needs guidance or support.

With Yvo you learn about yourself.

Every single conversation you will discover something.

She has helped me to feel blissful moments of peace and calm with practising changing my perspectives, using my power of choosing what to invest my energy in and by better understanding the impact of the words I think and say.

Yvo understands boundaries and she doesn’t push to know things.

Since Yvo has coached me, I have started to think of helping others like she does when I am older and independent.
I hope you know that if you need any help from me or want to speak to me, I am also always here.

Yvo is a real guide.

I am at college now and she is still my friend and guide through my dark times.

 

Arie

As I am writing our powerful conversations into my journal, I feel so much more that I am a sincerely good, worthy and beautiful person.

I have choices.
I have options.
I can love myself unconditionally.

I can self-doubt and self-critique less.

I can trust myself.

With your help, I want to consciously keep practising this.

Carl Jung said “One who looks outside, dreams. One who looks inside, awakens”.

Thank you for helping me awaken within.

And thank you for coaching in my mother tongue.

 

Dan

 

 

I am a 50 plus year old man who has finally admitted to himself that he was in a bit of a rut (and depressed). I was feeling overwhelmed from grief, bereavement, loss and significant life, work and family changes, when I signed up to coaching with Yvo.

For full disclosure: I have undertaken coaching courses myself and my initial thought was I should be able to handle this, I should be able to coach myself, but so far, I haven’t.

So, what is different being coached by Yvo…

Firstly, she provides a non-judgmental listening ear and doesn’t criticise me (which is something I do plenty of myself). In my first coaching session I talked about everything, and I do mean everything. It was when Yvo asked me what aspect I wanted to change first, that the noise of overthinking in my head was finally quietened.

We talked about aims and goals without applying self-limits.

I make strong decisions and commitments during my coaching sessions. And Yvo checks in to see how I’m doing and feeling. No judgement and no nagging. I know she is there to support me towards achieving my goals.

After two sessions I know what to focus on and I have already started taking incremental steps to finding more enjoyment in life. I am not pretending two sessions have solved my issues, they run far deeper than that, but the change in my perspective has been dramatic, allowing optimism for the future to return.

What has also been really useful for me are the post-coaching notes that Yvo sends me. The notes are interesting to read because they remind me of the commitments I made myself and they show how I describe myself and my actions. Since I discovered that the words I use for myself are much harsher than I would use about anyone else, I have also started in depth explorations of my vocabulary and mindsets with Yvo.

My advice to anyone who is thinking about coaching with Yvo is: give it a go!

 

Patience

I am doing pretty well so far and with a lot of Aha moments.

So many beautiful things have happened since our sessions.

I am on a beautiful journey, Yvo, as hard as it is.

We visit some challenging past emotions and events but it is working.

You are an amazing woman, Yvo. Thank you for being there for me.

 

 

‘Giving yourself dedicated uninterrupted
space, time and practise
to think, speak, do and be
will make you feel at home within yourself & your life.’ – Yvo