Core, Cheadle Hulme (2026)

03/09/2026

A little autumn journal prompt for you 🍂

As autumn begins, what are you ready to make more room for, and what might you be ready to leave behind?

And a reminder that journaling doesn’t have to mean pages and pages of beautifully written thoughts. It can be scribbled notes, a few words, a doodle or a bit of art. It could even be one word that comes to mind and then quietly percolates for a while.

The point isn’t to come up with a brilliant answer. It’s simply to give yourself a little space to notice what’s there.

See what comes up.

02/09/2026

There’s a slight contradiction in calling Rest & Ready a workshop when I’m also telling you that you don’t have to achieve anything while you’re there!

So I thought I’d explain a little more about where the idea came from.

Before coaching, I spent over 20 years working as an actor and facilitator and relaxation was often part of getting ready. Before rehearsing or performing we’d breathe, move gently, release tension from the body and take some time to settle. It wasn’t time away from the preparation. It was part of it.

I think we can forget that in everyday life. We’re very good at preparing by planning, organising, thinking ahead and getting things done. Rest can easily become the thing we’ll get to once everything else is sorted.

Rest & Ready is a chance to do things a little differently.

The 90 minutes will still be held and guided by me, with gentle breathing, movement, relaxation and opportunities to reflect. You can join in as much or as little as feels useful. There’s nothing you need to achieve, learn or fix and you don’t need to leave with a plan.

You’re very welcome to just come and have 90 minutes.

Link in bio x

01/09/2026

Their feelings can bring up feelings in us too.

Especially at this time of year. They come home and someone’s left them out, they hate their new teacher, lunch was awful, they don’t want to go back tomorrow… and suddenly we’re feeling it right alongside them.

We might feel anxious, angry on their behalf or worried that this is the beginning of something bigger. We might want to reassure them, ask ALL the questions, fix it or make the feeling disappear as quickly as possible.

Because we care. It’s so hard to watch your child struggle.

If we can notice some of what’s happening in us, it can give us a little more choice about what we do next. Do they need me to help? Do they want me to listen? Is this something that needs action or do we need to give it a bit of time?

Awareness restores choice. For them and for us.

And a big caveat because I think it matters: we’re not always going to manage this. We’re human too. Sometimes their stuff will trigger our stuff. Sometimes we’ll react rather than respond. We’ll ask too many questions, jump into fixing mode, get frustrated or say something we wish we’d phrased differently.

Please don’t make being perfectly regulated another parenting standard to beat yourself up with.

Our kids need us because we love them, know them and are there to help them make sense of things when they need us. And when we don’t get it quite right…we can notice that too. We can go back, reconnect and try again.

Perhaps that’s part of what we’re showing them too. We don’t have to handle every feeling perfectly. We can notice what happened and choose what we do next.

And if your young person could benefit from a little more space to work through what’s coming up for them, I offer 1:1 coaching for teens aged 12–18. You’re always welcome to drop me a message and have a chat.

31/08/2026

I’ve been thinking a lot about doing less recently.

I wrote about being lazy-curious the other week and I’ve also been noticing my own temptation to throw loads of energy at things when I want to get something moving. Do more, try harder, make another plan, fill another space. There’s such a strong message around us that progress should look like action and productivity and that if we want to be ready for what’s next, we’d better get ourselves moving.

But I’m increasingly interested in what happens when we don’t.

What happens when we rest BEFORE we’re exhausted? When we leave some space unfilled? When we stop treating rest as something we’ve earned because we’ve finally done enough?

That thinking is where Rest + Ready has come from.

On Thursday 24th September, I’m inviting a small group of women to spend 90 minutes putting down the doing.

We’ll use sound, guided meditation and full-body relaxation techniques I’ve carried with me from my years as an actor, when learning to release tension, work with the breath and prepare the body was all part of getting ready. There’ll be optional journalling too, with some gentle prompts to give you space to notice what you might want from the season ahead.

But you’re not coming to learn how to be “better” at resting. You don’t need to set a goal, make a plan or have a breakthrough.

You can just be there.

Maybe readiness doesn’t always need more energy thrown at it. Maybe sometimes the most useful thing we can do before whatever comes next is give ourselves permission to stop for a while.

REST & READY
A workshop without the work

Thursday 24th September | 7–8.30pm
DENISE | HAIR | YOGA | HEADSPA | WELLBEING | STOCKPORT | MCR , Cheadle Hulme
£25 per person

Put down the doing.
Come as you are.
Leave with whatever you need.

Booking is now open via the link in my bio.

30/08/2026

Notice first. Step in later.

The first week back can bring all sorts of wobbles, and as parents it’s very tempting to jump straight in and try to make things better.

Sometimes though, giving them a little time to work out how they feel, what they need and what they might do next can be really valuable. We’re still there, just perhaps not quite as quickly as our instincts might tell us to be!

If your teen could do with some extra support building their confidence and finding their own way through things, I offer 1:1 coaching for young people aged 12–18. Drop me a message if you’d like to know more.

29/08/2026

At the end of most coaching sessions, I ask my clients what they’re taking away with them.

A client said this to me recently and I thought it was such a brilliant way of describing what coaching can do.

“Before the session it was like I had radio static, with everything fizzing around. After the session I felt like I’d tuned in and it was all clearer.”

Because you don’t need someone to give you the answer. You’ve probably got lots of the answers in there already. They’re just competing with all the thoughts, possibilities, worries, opinions and stuff that’s fizzing around at the same time.

A coaching session gives you space to hear yourself think. I’m there to listen, ask questions, notice things with you and sometimes gently challenge what you’re telling yourself. And gradually, you can start to tune into what actually matters to you.

I loved this description because it made something that can be quite difficult to explain feel really simple.

Less static. A little more clarity.

28/08/2026

Back to school is nearly here and there can be a lot going on underneath the practical stuff of new shoes, timetables and remembering what time everyone needs to leave the house! 🤪

For some young people it’s exciting. For others there might be nerves about friendships, a new school, where they’ll sit at lunch, increased academic pressure or just getting used to a different routine again. And probably, for plenty of them, it’s a mixture of all of it.

They don’t need to be in crisis for some extra support to be useful. Coaching gives young people their own space to think out loud, understand what they need and build practical tools for navigating the situations that matter to them.

I work 1:1 with young people aged 12–18 around confidence, friendships, boundaries, communication, school pressure and the general business of growing up.

If you’ve got a young person heading back to school and think having someone in their corner could help, drop me a message and we can have a chat about whether coaching might be right for them.

Gemma x

27/08/2026

We’re very good at getting ready by doing more. More lists, more organising, more planning, more “right, let’s get back to it.” 💪

September seems to bring that feeling with it. Summer ends, routines kick back in and there can be a real urge to get ourselves sorted and launch straight into the next thing.

But I’ve been thinking a lot about rest recently (it’s work in progress for me!) and particularly about the fact that we often wait until we really need it before we take it. When we’re frazzled, depleted or already running on fumes.

What if we changed that?

What if rest became part of how we prepare? Something we choose BEFORE we’re exhausted. A chance to stop, notice where we’re at and give our bodies and brains a bit of space before asking them to carry us into whatever comes next.

It’s an idea I really believe in and I’m creating something around it for September. No improving yourself. No big goals. No pressure to come away transformed.

Just a little less doing and a little more being.

REST + READY 🧘
COMING SOON. 👀

26/08/2026

I’m lazy-curious.

Lazy gets a pretty bad rep, doesn’t it? And I’ve realised I use the word about myself quite a lot. God, I’ve been so lazy today. I really need to stop being lazy. I could have got so much more done.

But I’m starting to wonder what I actually mean when I say it.

Was I lazy? Or was I resting? Did I do nothing or did I just not do more? Did I avoid something I genuinely needed to do or am I giving myself a hard time because I didn’t go above and beyond?

Because I think my definition of lazy might be a little… ambitious 😂

So I’m getting lazy-curious. When that word pops into my head, I’m trying to notice what standard I’m measuring myself against and whether I actually agree with it.

Maybe sometimes I am being lazy. And maybe that’s allowed too.

Anyone else lazy-curious? 👀

I’d keep them fairly broad with a few more specific ones mixed in:

25/08/2026

A little thought on arrogance, modesty and confidence today…

Sometimes it’s worth noticing what’s behind the things we say about ourselves. Are we trying to put ourselves above someone else? Playing ourselves down and hoping they’ll give us the boost instead? Or simply acknowledging something we know to be true?

There’s something really freeing about being able to recognise your own strengths without comparison and without needing someone else to confirm them for you.

Have a little notice this week. What happens when you allow yourself to own what you’re good at?

And if that feels harder than it sounds, that’s exactly the kind of thing we can explore through coaching. Drop me a message if you’d like to chat.

For a mix of broader reach + more targeted coaching/confidence terms, I’d go with:

Core

03/09/2026

02/09/2026

01/09/2026

31/08/2026

30/08/2026

29/08/2026

28/08/2026

27/08/2026

26/08/2026

25/08/2026

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