Why me?
Coaching is a broad field. Many good coaches are doing valuable work. What I offer is specific.
The training
I trained as a veterinarian and spent over two decades working inside regulated professional systems: first in clinical practice, later in public service, specifically food safety and animal welfare regulation.
I know what it is to carry judgment and integrity as part of the job description, not as an abstract side value.
The naming
I completed a Master's in One Health at the University of Edinburgh, which gave me the language for what I'd already been living: systems thinking, wicked problems, a way of naming a world I'd been working in without the words for it.
But the language came second. The capability came first.
Capability isn't the same as permission
I had the first for a long time. I had to build the second.
The craft
I went on to train formally as a coach, with further accreditation in team coaching and a qualification in training design and delivery. I brought the same rigour I carried through two decades of regulated practice to that training too.
The foundation
My professional background isn't a credential sitting alongside the coaching. It's the foundation the coaching is built on. When I work with you, I'm not learning your world from the outside. I've lived a version of it myself.
That's what I offer.
Not a framework borrowed from generic leadership theory, but coaching built on evidence and twenty years of watching, up close, what complexity actually does to the people carrying it.
Who I am.
Who am I without the white coat?
For most of my career, being a vet wasn't a job. It was who I was. So when I started building something else alongside it, that one word turned out to be holding more of me up than I'd realised. Some days, doing something new still feels unfamiliar. It's also the most alive I've felt in years. What's the worst that can happen? Give it a lash.
What drew me to the work?
It was the science that drew me to veterinary practice in the first place. What kept me there was the people, so many different kinds of people, from every walk of life. I loved the animals too; that's nearly a given if you're a vet, but the people side of it surprised me. Public service asked the same of me, just dressed differently; the people were still the point.
What do I do when nobody's asking anything of me?
Unsurprisingly, my time outside of work is spent with dogs and horses. I make things too — including a secret door I built into the bookcase in my own office, which is exactly as satisfying to use as it sounds.
Who am I closer to home?
Away from all of that, I'm a mother and a friend people can rely on. But beyond the responsibility, I love a bit of craic too, whether that's time with friends or live music. When there's space left over, I spend it making things or on the garden swing with a book, coffee in hand (or a G&T if the day's earned it).
Why this exists.
For twenty years, one question kept surfacing through my career, first in clinical practice, then in public service, and later in research for an MSc in One Health, where my dissertation examined the ethically challenging situations Irish vets face and the toll they take.
Just because we can, should we?
I was already doing this work before I had a name for it.
I was still asking that question when my partner died suddenly, without warning. The insight was already there. What it changed was the path. This experience forced a hard, clear look at what I was doing and what I actually wanted instead. It was the kind of look I could have put off indefinitely. It was also the kind I never knew I needed, until I was doing it, and could finally see.
I rebuilt, practically and professionally.
What came out of it
What came out of that process is Crafting the After: the space I looked for and couldn't find. For anyone asking the same question, anyone who's reached the point where how they've always worked no longer holds up, Crafting the After offers the space to work out what comes next.
MVB, University College Dublin
MSc One Health, University of Edinburgh
Postgraduate Foundation in Emergency and Critical Care, University of Sydney
CertAVP Veterinary Dermatology, University of Liverpool
Professional Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring, Kingstown College
Professional Diploma in Team Coaching, Kingstown College
In Her Head: Women's Brain Health and Neurobiology, The Neuroscience Academy
Train the Trainer Certification, QQI
Universal Design Principles for Learning
Alongside this formal training, I've worked as a guest lecturer and workshop facilitator across universities and professional organisations.