I'm a senior manager in the NHS, but in January 2017 I was signed off with work-related stress. I had never taken more than four days off sick in my life!

 

It was a combination of grief, having lost my mum and dad within 18 months of each other, plus a period of intense bullying by my line manager, which meant I eventually (metaphorically) fell off a cliff. 

 

I believed that I should have been able to cope - I can usually do anything I put my mind to - but when life threw the heaviest rocks, I fell to pieces. 

 

It was the biggest shock to find that my mind and body just couldn’t take the stress anymore.  It took me 10 long months to recover…. Why had this happened and how had it happened to me?

 

BUT, it was my journey to recovery that I discovered the POWER of building my resilience.  Now I call it 'My Happiness Project' and I've turned it into a coaching programme and online course to help others in healthcare, avoid burnout and discover happiness. 

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My passion is to work with healthcare managers both on a personal and a professional level to build resilience. I particularly enjoy sessions on how to handle pressure, prioritising for a calm day and how best to inspire others to do a great job.  I've seen firsthand how pressure, stress and bullying can affect both your health and your performance at work, only by doing things differently do I believe you can have a different outcome.