Hi, I’m Maria!

I am a coach and mentor for teenagers. I help them build a positive mindset and become happy and successful adults. I help them to own their future, to be ready to take on the challenges that will face them in times ahead as well as making sense of the ones they are dealing with now. I focus on education, relationships and positive interactions with social media.

Why I do what I do: My story

I’ve hesitated over sharing this online, as my story like everyone’s, is personal. The reason I decided to share was because it is at the core of what I do. It is my ‘Why’. So here’s my story.

When I was 16 my mum died of cancer. 11 weeks later, just 7 days after her 15th birthday, my little sister died of cancer also. It goes without saying that this was an extremely difficult time in my life, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.

We grew up in an emotionally privileged home and I am grateful for that everyday.

When we were told that their cancer was terminal I still didn’t quite believe ‘it’ would happen. I still believed that by some miracle they would survive. When they didn’t I was in shock for a long time. I didn’t receive any counselling because I didn’t think I needed it. Coaching was something I had never heard of. I went back to school, took my A Levels and went to University. Looking back I know I was telling myself I was fine. But I wasn’t. Deep down I was keeping myself small, not letting myself believe that magical things could happen to me. I had hoped before and look how that had turned out.

Through working with my coach and digging very deep and journalling almost every day, I now know that this seminal moment in my life has affected almost every decision I have made since. I went into a job that I knew was safe and that I would be good at, but I knew I wanted to do more. But how could I? I can’t dream big. Right? The big magic doesn’t happen for me.

After a lot of work that is still ongoing, I am allowing myself to believe it can happen. I have been too scared to play big but not anymore. You see, I have realised that I HAVE been brave in my life. I was brave to allow myself to fall in love with my husband and have unwavering faith in our marriage. I have been brave enough to be a mother (3 times!). I have been brave enough to leave a job I was very good at because it just wasn’t what I know I needed to do. It wasn’t the thing that fired me up.

So there you have it. That’s my why in all it’s messy, complicated glory.

I cannot allow teenagers, whatever their story, to keep themselves small. I cannot allow them to believe the cultural noise that they are not enough, that adulthood is scary. I cannot allow them to believe that success is measured only by exam results. I cannot allow them to put all their trust into these limiting beliefs.

Since 2000 I have been working with teenagers to build their confidence, life skills and ambition.

MY BACKGROUND

I have worked with teenagers since I was 19 when I spent my summers teaching English at local language schools. I always took a week, sometimes two to volunteer for Over the Wall, a charity running summer camps for children with cancer and other serious illnesses. This was when I first became aware of the strength and resilience of young people.

I graduated with an English degree from the University of York and then qualified to teach secondary school.

I spent the next 13 years teaching English, Media and Communications in secondary schools in London and Dorset.   I am passionate about teaching and about helping students fulfil their academic potential.   But more than their grades I loved seeing the tremendous benefit of one to one coaching and creating the space for students to work their way through the barriers to their own development and to build their own confidence. It taught me that their successes came down to their mindset.

Communications is a passion of mine and in 2018 I also qualified as a Social Media Manager.   I love social media and I believe in the positive impact it has on people. I also know the obvious, and perhaps the less obvious, risks of spending hours on smartphones everyday. I am now  researching how the advent of the smartphone and social media affects teenagers and the impact it is having on their health, self-confidence, wellbeing and education.

I am a coach and mentor for teenagers.  I use my many years’ of teaching experience and my social media management skills to help teenagers build a positive mindset to navigate through the worlds of education, social media and the internet.  My goal is to help teenagers own their future by overcoming the challenges they face today and being ready for the ones they face tomorrow.