When I was a young girl, I had so many dreams and aspirations. By the age of 10, I knew exactly what my goals were. I wanted to be:
- A world famous singer
- A air hostess
- A hairdresser
To make sure they were to come true, I would sing at every opportunity given at school, do my friends hair and dream about flying in the sky looking beautiful in my air hostess uniform. My dream was my driver, my purpose.
Suddenly one day as I was daydreaming I heard a baby crying, my mother shouted, “Claris wake up, the baby is awake”. I was 16 and had a baby!
Having a baby so young did not stop any of my ambitions. In fact, I qualified as a hairdresser at 18 and had joined a world-famous gospel choir at 25. I was absolutely determined to make my dreams, my reality.
But after many years of happiness so young, it was almost overnight that it all changed. The phone was ringing, I picked it up and said “Hello”. I heard “He’s dead, your partner has died”.
During the 4 years that followed I suffered from depression, panic attacks and I was gripped by fear. However, nobody knew because I smiled throughout. I wanted to stay strong for my 2 sons and did not want anybody to worry about me.
During my last coaching session, I was asked… “So Claris, how do you feel now?” I answered, “I finally feel FREE!”
My experience of being coached gave me the space to pour out my emotions and everything that was going around in my head was finally released. My personal coaching journey has given me the ability to remove barriers that had been there for years and I am now helping others to get to the beautiful land of freedom too.