Meet Lara
As a child, when I wasn’t rollerskating, cartwheeling, reading or running around outside, I was always asking ‘why?’ Whilst this nerdy curiosity has been a thread throughout my career, I love it most when applying it to human behaviour; I’m fascinated by why we do what we do, what shapes who we are, and what we might need to thrive.
It was this curiosity and love for human connection that brought me to coaching, but my story really starts with the sea…
I grew up on an island so the sea is in my blood. My dad was in the merchant navy and we were lucky enough to travel with him on three of his voyages. By the time I was 12, we’d circumnavigated the world three times as a family on a massive container ship, met people from many different countries and cultures, and learnt that, no matter where we are from, there is more that connects us than divides us. We crossed the Southern Ocean in huge storms, were locked into a cabin to keep us safe in pirate waters (fun as a kid, probably not fun for mum and dad), saw albatross, humpback and blue whales out in the middle of the ocean, far away from tourist boats. This introduced me to the natural world in a big way, and to this day I’m still passionate about protecting it. Being far away from land meant we also had a lot of time to create our own entertainment, so aside from the adventuring, my sister and I had time to build random lego structures, make pyramids out of beer cans, dance to bad 80s pop videos and play a lot of darts and Streetfighter with the crew. Being at sea made me view this planet as a vast, rich and connected place, full of wonder, and I couldn’t wait for further adventures that nourished my sense of exploration and curiosity.
On returning to ‘normal life’ and mainstream education, things took a bit of a turn. I couldn’t understand why we were learning in such a rigid, target driven way and was dumbfounded by the lack of space for creativity and different ways of learning.
I felt like an outsider and was bullied for wanting to do things a bit differently. At the same time, out of nowhere, my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and the world that had started off so full suddenly became an isolating place. So I did what everyone else seemed to be doing, kept my head down, stopped doing creative stuff and just got on with it. At university, I wanted to study English, until someone asked me – ‘what’s the point of an English degree’. Having no real sense of direction or what I wanted at the time, I thought that I had better do something that sounded like a job and so switched to law instead, which was probably about as far away from awe, creativity and exploration that I could get.
Still it wasn’t all bad, I qualified as a medical lawyer, learnt from brilliant colleagues, and loved speaking to clinicians about anatomy and physiology and the clinical specifics of each case. It appealed to my curious and investigative nature, and after reading heaps and heaps of medical records, meant I became really interested in how our life paths, both those chosen and given to us, shape what we do and who we become.
From medical law, I moved into the world of Olympic/Paralympic sport, working on athlete welfare cases, a path which culminated in working for the Ireland Rugby team at the 2015 World Cup. This insight into the high performance world further shaped my interest in how working with individual characteristics, celebrating difference and helping individuals be the best they can be, contributes to the wider success of the team.
Yet law was still law, and I was still predominantly boxed in an office. After 10 years of trying to work out what I wanted to do, squeezing interesting things into any spare moments in the day, I was exhausted and had had enough. So I quit law and decided to go back to where I started – with the sole aim of exploring the interests I had as a kid:
I lived, worked and travelled in NZ for a year and a half, studied English Literature in Florence and Oxford, worked on community projects and ran a charity marathon in Uganda, learnt to freedive with dolphins in the Bahamas and Mexico, went back to regular hip hop dance classes and then went off to train full-time in circus, aerial and acrobatic arts at 38 years old.
This space to reconnect with myself, enabled me to see that it was my interests in psychology, career and personal development that I wanted to take further. From there, I retrained, lead on Creative Career Strategy and the Staff Wellbeing Programme at Oxford University, working with students, researchers and alumni on a 1-2-1 basis to support them in exploring their own career adventures and improving their wellbeing. I became a Founding Member of Escape the City and The Portfolio Collective, two start-ups that disrupt the way we think about careers, and was nominated as one of the first Squiggly Careers Advocates by Helen Tupper and Sarah of Squiggly Careers fame. I was also able to reconnect with my love for nature in the business world – working with start-ups and SMEs who want to balance profit and purpose by becoming B Corps. As a triathlon, swim and Trauma-Informed Surf Therapy & Blue Health coach, I helped others connect with the ocean and explore how it can be one of our greatest teachers. It was a hugely inspiring and rewarding time.
All of this has lead me to where I am now. Fulfilled in a portfolio career that combines 1-2-1 coaching, the development of people strategies in the arts and sport, and space to swim, surf, dance and create. It’s been deliberately set up to allow for exploration, creativity and wonder.
I’d love to chat to you about coaching, and how it might help you, so if this floats your boat, do get in touch.
I’ll stop with the water metaphors now…
I've coached high performers, creatives, sustainability professionals, lawyers, career changers, academics, Olympians and professional sportspeople. I donate 1% of my business income to the planet.
I'm for you if:
You’re feeling lost and overwhelmed in life and work and are seeking support to help you get some clarity on next steps.
You want to make some changes but don’t know where to start.
You want to follow the threads of your interests and see where they take you in a sustainable way.