A Coaching Journey — Early Years Practitioner
A Coaching Journey — Early Years Practitioner
An anonymised case study from The Nurtured Leader
When J first came to coaching she described herself as disorganised, stuck in a cycle of procrastination, and lacking confidence in how she articulated her thinking, both to herself and to the people around her. She was a dedicated, caring early years practitioner who loved her work with young children, but something was getting in the way. She knew she was noticing things, making connections, thinking deeply, she just couldn't always find the words for it, or trust that what she was seeing and feeling was valid.
We worked together over eleven sessions across two coaching cycles. What unfolded was not a straightforward journey from problem to solution. It was slower, deeper, and more honest than that.
What she brought
In the early sessions, J described a physical feeling she called the circle feeling — a sensation of overwhelm that arrived without warning, sat in her stomach, and stayed. She couldn't always identify what triggered it. She knew she was in it before she could name it, and she couldn't get out of it until after it had passed.
She also brought a strong inner critic. She compared herself to colleagues she perceived as more experienced. She felt pressure to journal, to record, to document, and when she couldn't do it in the way she thought she should, the guilt arrived alongside the overwhelm. Drawing helped, but even drawing became something she felt she had to do rather than wanted to.
Her goal, as she named it herself in our first session, was to feel more organised, more confident, and less stuck.
What shifted
The changes came slowly and in her own way, which, it turned out, was exactly the point.
The circle feeling didn't disappear. But it moved. Over time she noticed it had shifted from her stomach to her chest, that it was no longer triggered by arriving at work in the morning, and that it didn't last as long as it used to. She named those three changes herself, unprompted, and said they felt huge. They were.
Drawing found its natural place, not as an obligation but as a tool she reaches for when she needs it. A fidget toy arrived organically mid-journey and became an in-the-moment regulation tool she now carries with her. A red, amber and green framework emerged from our work together and she used it to begin understanding her own regulation patterns, not as something imposed, but as something she built herself and could trust.
She also received an ADHD diagnosis during the coaching period. This gave language to something she had always known about herself, that her thinking moves in spirals, lots of ideas and connections happening at once, difficult to explain linearly. Rather than seeing this as a deficit, she began learning to work with her brain rather than against it.
What she said
In a reflection she wrote toward the end of our work together, J found words for something she had been reaching toward throughout:
"I think one of the biggest changes I've noticed is in the way I see my own thought process. I'm beginning to understand that the way I think isn't something I need to hide or constantly correct. There are strengths in it too — the connections I make, the ideas I have, noticing things, and looking at things differently."
She also wrote something that has stayed with me:
"I'm still learning what works for each of them [the children], but I'm also learning what works for me. I think that has been an important part of my development as a practitioner. I don't have to have the perfect answer immediately. I can observe, try something, reflect, adapt and try again. In many ways, that is exactly what we ask of children, and I'm beginning to recognise that I can give myself that same space."
Where she is now
J describes herself as having fun again. She is more present with the children, more able to adapt in the moment, and beginning (at 35, in her own words) to be braver at being herself.
The spiral of her thinking hasn't gone. She no longer wants it to. She is learning to trust where it takes her.
The work is ongoing. The journey was never about arriving somewhere fixed, it was about understanding herself well enough to keep moving forward, in her own way, at her own pace.
This case study is shared with the full knowledge and permission of the client, who has asked that it be used as The Nurtured Leader. Details have been anonymised.
