Frequently Asked Questions

I found the process of coaching to be immensely helpful in understanding how I can use my skills and knowledge more effectively in different situations. It has improved my ability to move between strategic and tactical thinking much more easily and be more effective as a medical leader and Board member. Having a space to think out loud and discuss approaches with someone skillful who is encouraging and completely non judgemental was very useful and I have really benefited from my sessions.

Fiona helped me to focus my thoughts about the transition of life as a very busy clinician to that of retirement. The sessions appropriately challenged me to look at my future and unlocked ideas of what really is important for me to enjoy life in years to come.

I would whole-heartedly recommend Fiona as a careers coach. I have benefited enormously from my sessions with her, developing a new strand to my career and even taking the first steps into medical leadership- something I would never have dreamed of before; especially as I was seriously contemplating whether leaving general practice was what lay ahead for me. I was uncertain about the financial outlay initially and a little uneasy about how it would feel discussing things via Skype but I feel so lucky to have been able to undertake my sessions in this way (not being local to Fiona) as I would have missed out on life changing advice and guidance if I hadn't. The cost has been more than worth it and I have gained insight, been challenged in a very positive way and been supported for what feels like the first time in my career to choose/create an exciting future which fulfills my value system and which I am passionate about. Fiona is a very skilled coach and I believe whatever stage of your career you're at you would find her an empathic, professional and inspiring influence on your future.

Working with Fiona has transformed my life. When we first met, I was unhappy, struggled to deal with challenges, and not even sure whether to continue in medicine. Some months later, I know much more about myself that I thought possible, I have discovered new ways of thinking, am much more focused, and with a clear way forward. I feel enthusiastic and positive about the future, ready to seize opportunities, and focus on my core values. Thank you!

Beginning my DPH career during a pandemic has been both exciting and challenging. Having Fiona's coaching support has given me space to think strategically which has been hard to come by whilst the team and the Authority as a whole have been running in response mode. Fiona's coaching has given me the right balance of support and challenge and through her questioning I have developed different perspectives on issues I have been facing and been able to take different approaches in the workplace to achieve progress. Fiona structures the sessions and her feedback well to develop continuity in the coaching process and maintain progress between sessions. Thank you Fiona.

I arrived at the beginning of my coaching journey lacking direction and struggling to find way to move forward to find a fulfilling career. Through the direction, guidance and coaching of 6 sessions with Fiona I arrive in a place much more positive, having identified a set of values which has informed a clear plan I am confident will support my move towards the type of career I crave. I would recommend Fiona highly for her positive, caring and professional approach to coaching in helping me to this point.

I have worked with Fiona for the last 6 months in career counselling. As a GP of 20 years I was burnt out and struggling to reconcile my professional identify with my current role. From the outset , and with high skill and meaningful empathy Fiona helped me gain insights and skills in self care, re-appraisal of my core values. Fiona worked diligently and compassionately with me, such that I am now confident I have clarity, positivity and empowerment which I can readily access and apply to my career decision making. I would not hesitate to recommend Fiona to anyone who may feel they are experiencing something similar and who may be struggling to see how they can move forwards.    

The career coaching I received from Fiona was excellent. As a senior clinician I wanted to explore the process of moving into a new role. The sessions were structured and very supportive right from the start. I feel excited about the future and have clarity about my next steps into a new career. I would thoroughly recommend any other doctor considering a change in career to contact Fiona and gain the valuable insight that I achieved.

I was hesitant about seeking out help in deciding my future, and tried to resolve the issues myself, without success. Fiona has been supportive but challenging, and really helped me understand why I do my job, and the sessions have allowed me to develop and become more confident in myself, as a leader.

I had got to the point where I was too scared to hope that my working life could improve. I had run out of empathy and energy and felt that, unless something fundamental changed, I would have to leave my job. It's early days but Fiona helped me re-remember my work passions and reconnect to the personal values that have always driven me. I now have a plan, resources I can tap into, and I feel safe enough to have allowed some hope to creep back in.

What I really liked when working with Fiona was that she has adopted a very kind and gentle approach, so not an aggressive one, but at the same time without asking her client to make discounts on their goals. I thought initially that she would suggest I tone down my ambition/ goals in favor of my self care, family relationships etc, but I was very pleased to see that she was teaching me ways of how to look after myself and my family relationships etc so that I could achieve my goals. That was valuable. In addition, through the work we did together and the tools she has shared with me, I have been able to adopt a step by step process of tackling my tendency to procrastinate and to respond only to deadlines, in a way that helps me make steady progress.

I learnt a lot about myself and my working patterns during my coaching course and feel that my confidence and self-awareness have improved markedly as a result. I'm aware of new techniques for improving my efficiency at work and have noticed already how I am using the methods in my daily routines. I would thoroughly recommend working with Fiona.

I have had 4 sessions with Fiona, as I had reached a block in deciding whether to continue in either my NHS General Practice or in my Clinical Director role. Fiona was an expert listener. She enabled me to articulate to myself, both what I need from my career and a plan of how to get there. I have now decided to stay in my current roles, but with some clearer goals, boundaries and a useful plan for my development. I feel more content and energised since our sessions together and would certainly have more sessions in the future.

Fiona's thoughtful sessions helped me get the most out of a very challenging year. I achieved my career goals, and also a new sense of balance and joy with my outside of work life. I'm really optimistic about new challenges, and developing further with this next stage of my career.

Fiona has enabled me to nurture myself into a confident leader who seeks new challenges and is not afraid to say no to tasks & projects that do not satisfy my core values. Anxieties have become a quiet distant murmur as they have melted away as I have become more mindful and self compassionate. A colleague recently noted that I was ‘too positive’. I now keep a journal and have started a blog and see my life as collections of joy. I would thoroughly recommend Fiona to anyone wishing to be coached to a new level in life.

As a senior Public Health Leader, I worked with Fiona just as I had taken on a new role. The opportunity to work with Fiona has been fantastic as it has allowed me the space and time to set my goals; work towards them with challenge from Fiona and see the significant progress I made over the course of the sessions.

Career coaching with Fiona has been enlightening and empowering as it has enabled me to align my values fully with a shift in career horizons. I can now comfortably acknowledge and accept contemporary career decisions and view future career options with excitement and clarity. At times, the experience was challenging requiring resilience and mental toughness to engage in reflection and analysis honestly and with an open mind. Throughout the coaching period, Fiona has been empathic, caring and diligent. Her knowledge on personal development and coaching is bountiful as is evident by her ability to draw on examples and resources to support the process. I would whole-heartedly recommend Fiona.

I felt perhaps like others "coaching" may conjure up a variety of perceptions. Having worked with Fiona, it has been a real eye opener particularly when I was faced with developing into my Clinical Director role, I think her credentials and experience added a sense of confidence to really engage and not hold back, she managed difficult discussions with empathy, sincerity and holding you to account and really getting into the places where it matters to effect change. Whole heartedly would recommend her.

I had been struggling to find my niche as a new consultant, and was aware of my career path being shaped largely by chance and by the agendas of other people. Working with Fiona helped me to clarify what my career goals are by getting to the heart of what I really care about and what makes me feel energised. I now have a vivid picture of what I want for my future self, and a clear idea of the steps I need to take to get there. I would recommend Fiona as a coach to anyone who feels lost or stuck in their career.

I think Fiona has the perfect background for the highly specialised area of medical careers advice, having had experience both clinically, within public health and management. This, combined with her intuition, commitment and warmth provided an arena in which I felt understood, and I felt like I was treated as an individual rather than the "tick a box" approach that I've experienced in careers advice previously. The depth to which Fiona helped me explore my career interests was so impressive, and she also helped me understand a lot about myself in the process. When I met Fiona I was feeling burnt out, unhappy and work and lost in the system. 18 months on, I am excited about my career again and have tangible goals; I finally feel like life is unfolding into a future I feel excited about and I am so grateful to Fiona for guiding me through a difficult patch with empathy, humour and wisdom.

I engaged in coaching after feeling that I was not meant to be working in leadership roles any more. I'd had episodes of illness, long term health problems and family difficulties meaning that I felt I had been left behind with my career. I'd had so many knockbacks and hadn't achieved my leadership goals despite lots of effort. Coaching was very valuable to make me realise that this is the right direction of travel for me in my career and not to compromise on this goal or to be put off by failure. Fiona really challenged me to act and to put my experience and knowledge into use which I successfully did. This process enabled me to re-build my confidence at a time when I was close to giving up completely.

Thank you for your assistance in coaching me through job transitions, facilitating my ability to reflect and “giving” me permission to congratulate myself! Recent months have been challenging for doctors worldwide, especially for  those who are  face to face with vulnerable patients. The response to COVID -19 has been a steep learning curve for me but also, post reflection, an important time to consolidate a vision for my journey going forward. You have helped me to look at challenges from a different perspective and this has been much appreciated.

Fiona is a fantastic coach. She challenges me and has enabled me to make major changes both in my work and personal life. Through her sessions I have set-up and am running my own Medico-legal business that is being inundated with new work – I would not have moved at this pace and achieved this prior to my coaching sessions.

I had never considered coaching before. After three sessions the benefits are crystal clear. Fiona’s coaching style has really suited me: a perfect mixture of affirmation and challenge. Being coached by Fiona has helped to give me clarity about my own strengths - and helped me shape career choices moving forward.

I started working with Fiona when I realised that the way I worked was not going to be sustainable in the long term. Working together helped me realise that my biggest weakness was not in my professional ability but in my failure to care for my own wellbeing and to maintain a healthy work life balance. Fiona shared enough of herself for me to feel that I was working with a ‘real’ human being, not just with empathy, but with relevant life experiences of her own – but always maintaining appropriate boundaries such that it remained ‘my’ session. I now have a far more healthy view of the place that work has in my life, and whilst I see myself as a ‘work in progress’, when things to start to slip I continue to refer back to the strategies I learned when working with Fiona.

Working with Fiona has helped me to stop, take stock and critically assess my career. The exercises undertaken with Fiona have reinforced my need to work in an environment that align to my values. Looking back over my career, including how I managed through some difficult times, helped me to realise what strengths I have, and what choices I have moving forward.

I have found coaching a very useful use of time in trying to negotiate and plan the numerous commitments and opportunities that modern day general practice throws up. It has helped set realistic targets and plans to maintain my work life balance.

Honestly I was dubious before the process started. Once I went through it I learnt so much about what I really wanted in life and how to go about it. Fiona gave me the confidence to do this. She allowed me to take control of my future and gave me the tools to make the changes in my life to give me clarity.

Investing in coaching was one of the best decisions I have ever made and I recommend Fiona without hesitation. In just five months it has made a huge difference to my life:  I feel more centred and resilient, applying for a Consultant job no longer feels overwhelming, and I have made significant progress towards creating a portfolio career. The actions from each session kept me motivated and added a level of accountability.  Given how disempowered I felt before coaching, they also gave me permission to try out new behaviours in a safe environment.  Most importantly, I now have a range of tools and techniques that will help me grow into the best version of myself and I’m grateful.

I went into coaching with a real lack of clarity over how to progress in my career and feeling very unsure if I would want to continue to work as a Doctor. Through skilful guidance, Fiona has really helped me understand my personality type and identify my needs. This was something I had totally failed to consider before. I now recognise what makes me feel energised and what I need to have a happy, fulfilling professional life. Coaching with Fiona has helped me realise that I do enjoy being a Doctor but I may need to make some "tweaks" to my path. I now have the confidence to undertake this!

Fiona helped me during a critical decision stage of my career. After I made a difficult decision to explore an alternative career, after 14 years in medicine. Fiona helped me evaluate my values and strengths and reevaluate my career aspirations. This involved helpful and informative exercises, followed by in-depth discussion. All along Fiona was considerate, supportive and encouraging. She asked key questions that enabled me to make confident career decisions. She also provided support and guidance whilst applying for a new role and around the interview process. She helped me bring an awareness of my core values into my decision making process regarding this new role. I was always impressed by Fiona's high level of professionalism, kind and considerate nature. I found her to be very respectful, trustworthy and easy to talk to. We did our sessions over Skype which worked very well and was convenient.  3 months later I am now working outside the NHS in a new career and I am happy with my decision and where I now am. Fiona's coaching services were an important and helpful part of confidently making this career transition.

I came to Fiona at a critical time in my life and career, with a ‘dream’ that seemed an awful long way away. Fiona calmly and professionally made me realise that the dream could be a reality with careful consideration of what was right for me, she also gave me the courage to leave the job I was in and move into the right place. I am now “living the dream”. Thank you Fiona.

I have worked with Fiona for just less than 3 years, during a complex merger of multiple GP practices, significant changes in my family life and the start of a very challenging leadership role. With Fiona’s help I’ve survived these changes, am clearer about my values, can take better care of myself and have managed to create a professional role, leadership position and working pattern that feels right for me. I feel that the Fiona’s coaching has helped me succeed in delivering a series of difficult projects that would not have been possible without her skilled, validating and supportive mentorship.

I came to Fiona with so many thoughts and ideas, which she carefully help me dissect and re-craft; in doing so I have gained much more clarity about my career goals. Fiona has a fantastic manner with an obvious wealth of experience that makes the experience enjoyable (if a little unnerving at first!) I would totally recommend her. I appreciate coaching is expensive, but I challenge anyone to find a bought item that can add so much value.. invest in yourself!

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Fiona. She has challenged me, she has made me think, she has worked me hard and together we have created a working and viable blueprint for the next stage of my life and career.

I found the sessions with Fiona very valuable. I had been struggling with a portfolio career and saying yes to all opportunities that came my way. I also felt guilty that I was not fully committed to GP work. Fiona helped me understand the way forward and improved my confidence and my belief in my right to choose a career I wanted. Fiona was flexible with timings and really listened to my position. I would absolutely recommend her.

Working with Fiona has provided me with the headspace, and challenge, to reflect and refocus my energy where its needed in order to be most effective. By doing so I've been able to achieve my aim of a much healthier work life balance.

Fiona's coaching has helped me to make changes in my working life with confidence, and provided clarity about the next stage of my career. Her supportive but challenging approach has been much appreciated. I started the process with some reservation, but would now recommend to any doctor feeling dissatisfied in their career.

Coaching with Fiona has been supportive, challenging, thought provoking and empowering.  It has helped me to develop skills to look at my current work situation, reflect, and given me tools to make changes- with the aim of letting go of one trapeze and catching another.

I've developed greater clarity on my career vision, what I want from a job and how to take the next steps in my career development journey. These sessions have given me time and space to reflect on my career to date, my skills and development needs and have made it easier to make decisions about career direction and jobs I can take to help me get there. I have since been appointed to a new role that meets many of my aims. As part of our sessions we also did some very useful work around systems leadership and how to work in complexity which has helped me on my journey to becoming a stronger leader. Fiona has a supportive style and provided just the right amount of challenge, helping me to clearly identify my aims and to recognise my strengths and areas for development. I've gained a huge amount in a short space of time and would definitely recommend to others in similar senior leadership positions.

Fiona helped me work through a difficult period at work when pressures on my organisation were at their highest. She encouraged me to challenge my own work patterns allowing me to prioritise some of my needs without compromising the work I delivered. Through my sessions with Fiona I was able to recognise the impact of the work environment I had created and take simple steps to improve it. She supported me to hold constructive conversations in order to enable me to grow professionally.

You are a transformational coach who has enabled me to significantly improve my performance and wellbeing. I enjoyed working with you because you were both assertive and compassionate and enabled me to achieve my specific goals. I would recommend your services to anyone in a professional role because for me, the experience I had as your coachee went way beyond my expectations and has had such a positive impact on my stated outcomes.

I had a clear goal identified for what I wanted to achieve from coaching. Fiona talked me through the goals and helped me to identify the key areas I needed to focus on to achieve these. Over the course of the first few sessions we were able to focus on specific areas of improvement which led to a successful application and interview for a DPH post.

I would recommend Fiona Day as a career coach. At a crossroads in my career decisions both emotionally and through changes in circumstance I have been able, with her help, to gain clarity on what gives me satisfaction in my working life and what my overall priorities are in future plans. The meetings were carried out virtually but I still felt a comfortable working relationship could be established. The rest now is down to me! Thank you.

I have enjoyed working with Fiona massively over the last few months. I had not had career coaching before and did not know what to expect. She has expertly taken me on a journey with appropriate support and challenge to a career choice/ aspiration that I am now very comfortable with. I would heartily recommend senior medical colleagues who have concerns about career choices use Fiona's services to help them with their decision making process.

The process of working with Fiona to define my career goals and the strategy to achieve those goals has been really helpful. She used a combination of short written exercises and coaching sessions to help me direct my thinking. Over the several month process I have been able to develop a much clearer picture of my skill strengths and how I can apply them to my advantage as well as having a strategy for continuing to develop my ongoing career direction.

I entered coaching with dread as my issue was looming retirement and no planning. I wanted a coach who was a doctor and who would explore work life balance not leadership strategies and the goals of youth. The worst and best part was the knowledge that I would be challenged each month on progress. It prevented me from failing to progress. What was most useful was learning to put aside all or nothing thinking. My plans for retirement are much more stepwise. I also have had chance to sense check. So retire and come back with combination of weekday time out and blocks of stone for bigger projects have become my strategy for future. One word of warning if your goals are nebulous like retirement consider spacing dialogue 6-8w apart. At my age (58) real life gets in way and 6-8 weeks is more realistic.

After resigning from NHS practice and before I started working with Fiona I felt overwhelmed with decisions on where to take my career. I knew I wanted to continue to develop my medical skills and use them to explore options outside of clinical practice. I also had the hugely daunting task of using a new appraisal platform which required hours worth of data imputing which I kept putting off. With Fiona's gentle but challenging guidance I was able to set comprehensive weekly goals and reward myself for completed tasks, even if it was watching trashy tv! Fiona supported me to set my pace to achieve these goals using validated coaching techniques. I would highly recommend coaching to anyone either at a crossroads in their career or who needs further challenge to climb that ladder. There are many professional coaches out there but Fiona celebrates your achievements with you which makes you believe you can continue to succeed in whatever you choose.

Fiona is an excellent listener, insightful, easy to talk to about challenging subjects, encouraging and empathetic. The tools and resources provided are very helpful to enable change. The coaching programme helped me manage challenges/complex situations, build personal resilience and confidence and competence in my leadership roles. Fiona was instrumental in helping me make some decisions which are likely to be career defining. I would highly recommend Fiona Day Consulting to other public health/medical colleagues looking for coaching and in leadership or developing leadership roles.

I must admit that I was quite sceptical when I first approached you. I’ve always been quite pragmatic and really wasn’t sure how you could help me. I was amazed by how much help your first session was, and after just 2 sessions I am exactly where I want to be. It may be that this would have happened anyway, over time, but with your help I made things actively happen rather than just drift in to them. Thanks to your help, I understand myself better and I know what I want. Finally, you also helped in very practical ways, covering all the tiniest details. It would never have occurred to me to work out how much I needed / wanted to earn each month, and yet knowing this is so important as it allows me to work out just how much I need to actually work. You also helped me to work out for myself what I wanted, and how best to achieve them. I would definitely recommend you to anyone who feels that they are not quite where they want to be career-wise, or are having difficulties at work.

I found that the value of this process was in challenging me to justify my self-perceptions and particularly my negative or self-limiting feelings about myself. I have gained from my coaching experience a renewed confidence in what I do well, and the ability to give myself credit for things where previously I didn’t fully allow myself to do so. My coaching experience has helped me define and affirm my values and principles and know what’s really important to me professionally which has brought a clearer plan of how I want to develop and grow in my career.

I throughly enjoyed working with Fiona, and would recommend her highly. She encouraged and helped me think about the elements I wanted in my working life and how to achieve them. This helped me make some adjustments to the now to make my current work life more manageable and enjoyable whilst I worked on moving onto the next steps. I have now been successful in securing a new exciting role more in-tuned with my personality and aspirations. I feel excited about the future. Thank you so much!

Fiona has been kind, insightful and non judgemental throughout our sessions. She has provided a framework for me to consider my career in a positive light. With this structure I feel I am capable of approaching future decisions with the resolution and clarity required to make the right choice for me.

I have known for a long time that I wanted to broaden my horizons and in particular, work more strategically, looking to national work opportunities. However I wasn't sure quite what form this would take or how to achieve it. Time spent exploring these issues with Fiona was fundamental in really helping me to understand what I wanted to achieve professionally - both in the short and long term - and how I could go about fulfilling these goals in practical and realistic ways. I feel in a different place now and really do consider that I have ALL the skills, opportunities and ability to achieve my best. I thoroughly recommend that anyone asking the same questions, access coaching time with Fiona - you won't look back!

Working with Fiona has given me an excellent framework to begin my leadership journey. We focussed on specific challenges based on my own experiences and produced workable solutions which I could test in practice. This gave me confidence to take on more difficult problems. The leadership 360 exercise was immensely useful in highlighting areas for development.