Stuart Smith

Interestingly and without realising it, I found that I have been coaching for years albeit without any awareness or specific skill set.  I was surrounded by like-minded teenagers whom wanted to achieve and did so on various scales.  This fascinated me and although being quite introverted, as I grew older and wiser it became apparent that I revelled in seeing folk achieve and gained fulfilment in having a part in that.

I started noticing what people did to reach their goals. This was my first insight into how successful or not teams or individuals were.  I quickly became a team player when required and equally effective on my own.  In fact, working in a team environment seemed to suit me as much as working on my own.  And so looking back I would say I worked well for competition or satisfying a sense of achievement.

Subconsciously learning what I have, I found promotion and progression in my life came quickly, with many challenges and learnings on the way, some of which at the time was extremely positive or negative, yet handed me the experiences to develop myself and work with others and be who I am today.  This fitted into a successful career in the RAF Regiment, where I became obsessed with bettering myself, guiding subordinates to achieve, along with achieving personal goals I always thought out of my reach.  The military side of life has handed me a unique insight into the realities of PTSD and C-PTSD and how to coach clients through it.  My unique approach to coaching has worked for those where traditional methods have not worked for whatever reason.  It is about you the individual Afterall.

After taking an opportunity to attend an NLP course presented by Phil Quirk within the military, I learned to accept who I am and why I do what I do. Totally empowering for me and a game-changer.  The very reason I am so passionate about my coaching and why I know I am satisfying my core values.  If it wasn’t for this opportunity, I would not be in the place I am now.  Seeing that penny drop moment within somebody is an amazing feeling. I would say my biggest achievement to date is gaining my wings as Private Pilot, a lifelong dream achieved by applying what I have learned.

Since my first NLP course, my route into coaching has been steep, exciting and varied. Coaching people from wanting to change jobs to someone involved in a terrorist incident, diagnosed with severe C- PTSD.  I run several courses part-time for the Royal Air Force in Human Performance, Coaching and Mentoring and Emotional Intelligence.