About Tatha
Hi, I’m Sandra!
I’m passionate about helping people flourish and grow while positively affecting the world around them.
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
— Jane Goodall
A unique approach to personal development
Whereas a lot of conventional coaching focuses on the individual Self, I work with the ‘ecological self’ - a broad, expansive sense of self, related not only to other humans but also to our home, the living earth, and the nonhuman others that co-inhabit it.
Our coaching begins from an understanding that we are part of every system we see, hear, and touch, and that our perceptions, and the emotions that arise from them, both affect and result from our interactions with others.
As humans, we are living and leading in a world of growing complexity where finding appropriate responses to our challenges call for new ways of making sense of ourselves, our relationships and the wider environment.
Through immersing and discovering your whole self (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) in the present we unfold how you can bring your Self into full alignment with your choices around how you live, work and relate to others.
We do this by integrating various coaching and developmental approaches with experiences in outdoor settings designed to give you an embodied sense of your ecological presence in an inter-connected natural world.
Expertly guided experiences in natural environments are known to stimulate thought, invite reflection and can support you to build a real and intimate connection with yourself and the world around you.
My Story
For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to make a difference. To overcome struggle. To find new solutions. To positively affect every project or challenge that I take on.
I feel lucky. I am well educated, experienced and accomplished.
Yet throughout my life, I have tortured myself, constantly believing that I needed to do or be more, in order to ‘succeed’ at life and stave off my worst fears.
I achieved the typical markers of ‘success’, that a lot of us recognise: salary, promotions, cars, holidays, property, settling down etc.
But much of the time I oscillated between constant overdrive and exhaustion, trying to meet the expectations of others and fit into a society to fulfil my role as a good daughter/ partner/ sister/ employee/ friend, while striving to deal with mounting complexity in life and work.
Some years ago, I found myself sitting on a mountain summit. As I took in the vast wilderness around me, I was struck by a realisation: everything in nature functions, interplays and metamorphosises perfectly.
What, except me?
Here I was, trapped in a “play-not-to-lose at life” game. Trying to figure out the un-figure-out-able. What if I was doing okay, simply growing and evolving - someone I could always be proud of?
It was a turning point. That realisation changed everything for me.
Instead of struggling with the external world, I purposefully set about learning how to change and grow my internal world to meet it.
And I did.
Awakening to my Ecological Self
One thing I love to do is walk
Breathing in the natural landscape has always grounded and inspired me, bringing back me into right relationship with the world whenever I lost my way. It has also taught me compassion, appreciation, gratitude.
It has taught me that we are much more than our brains. It has taught me to tune-in and to feel my body sensations. Softening my barriers of self-protection. To come back to a nearer sense of who I really am in relation to everything and everyone. And to know that we are always making a difference, in ways we will never know or understand.
I care passionately about our planet - our home - and the ways we humans inhabit the very system that gives us life. Humans have so much to learn about co-habiting and co-creating if we are ever to live on this earth together, peacefully and sustainably.
All of this knowledge and passion feeds into my work. Whilst it’s not mandatory, I love nothing more than to work with my clients in an outdoor context so they can:
delve deeper into their meaning making, to give light to what’s most important for them
expand or shift their worldview, to be able to relate more creatively to themselves and what matters
cultivate more empowering response patterns as they engage with their challenges and opportunities
release themselves in order to create deep and lasting, inner and outer change.
Career in Brief
My earlier career was in marketing, mostly spent in international spirits and retail. In 2001 I left the corporate world and a senior leadership role, to set up an outdoor team building business.
We had a grand vision of creating a better world of work where people could thrive. We believed this could be made possible through guiding leaders into transformative experiences in nature.
We were naïve, but we were on to something. This led me to train formally as a coach and facilitator, and then on to specialising in Ieader and team development.
With a growing conviction that humans could benefit from rediscovering and growing their connection with the land that gives them life, I set up Walking Coach in 2010 to support coaches and helping professionals in developing their outdoor based practice.
Years later, my thinking has evolved and given rise to Tatha, supporting purpose-led leaders and changemakers to discover and enjoy bringing their utmost best to their work and their relationships, to the world.
Walk with me as we create new footprints. Together.
To check out my career history and qualifications go to my profile on LinkedIn.