Nova Coaching Services

Following 20+ years of experience in substance misuse, I am now extending the reach of my support, expertise and experience, to offer life coaching sessions, face to face or via video and telephone calls, I am flexible in my working hours to fit in with the time available for you and your busy life.
I offer a variety of options around coaching: Life Coaching, Career Coaching, Sober Coaching and Laughter Coaching. I am skilled in guiding you to open the door to opportunities you thought were out of your reach. I believe that you have the potential to achieve all that you set out to achieve. I am offering a range of packages and during our initial free session we will agree the level of support and the package best suited to your needs at that time.
For further information please message me for an informal chat.
LIFE & CAREER COACHING
One to one coaching supporting you to address areas of your life that you currently feel stuck in. Enabling you to rediscover your strengths and abilities and move forward through goal setting, addressing unwanted behaviours and overcoming emotional barriers. I believe that you hold all the answers but that you may just need some gentle nudging and some new skills to release the answers in order to fulfil your potential.
SOBER COACHING
A specific Sober Coaching service, to support you in managing your drug and or alcohol use, tailored to your individual needs. I offer a free initial consultation to discuss your specific needs and to explore with you the type of service and support you need. I will support individuals and family groups, providing a holistic approach to recovery. All support is carried out in a safe and confidential way, working together to set and achieve goals. I provide support and escort to rehabilitation and medical appointments and provide ongoing support for sustained recovery.
LAUGHTER YOGA
Laughter Yoga was developed in 1995 by Dr Madan Kataria, a doctor from Mumbai, who was looking for ways to reduce the stress of living in such a densely populated city. Dr Kataria started a laughter club to assess whether the saying that laughter is the best medicine was in fact true. Whilst observing how people laughed, he discovered that even if people were not finding things funny, they would laugh if others were laughing. This same principle has been observed and used in situational comedy with the use of canned laughter –telling the viewer when to laugh. Dr Kataria went on to develop laughing exercises and combined these with breathing techniques that he had learned from traditional yoga. And Laughter Yoga was born.
When I say that I am holding laughter yoga sessions people respond in one of three ways:
1. They recoil at the thought of having to get into poses on a mat
2. They inform me of their expertise in yoga, and tell me how long they are able to salute the sun.
3. They laugh
Ultimately the first two laugh also, and when they do, I say “see its working already”.
So, it would seem that I need to dispel some myths on what Laughter Yoga entails……
We have heard how and where laughter yoga began, Dr Kataria is still out there being the laughter guru that he is, travelling the globe bringing laughter to so many. In fact, there are now over 8000 laughter clubs in 65 countries, that’s a lot of happy people.
One of the amazing things about Laughter yoga is that anyone can do it, it does not matter how old or young, the level of fitness or mobility. There is no need for any specialist equipment, you don’t even have to have a sense of humour to be able to take part. There are not many activities that everyone can take part in, and that actually have health benefits.
What are those health benefits? There is the feelgood factor, lifting the mood, reducing stress and depression as endorphins and serotonin levels are increased. The act of laughter can increase lung capacity as it enhances the delivery of oxygen to all parts of the body, which in turn improves the supply of blood to the internal organs. Laughing has so many benefits for both physical and mental health, and it also benefits us in a social way. Laughing with other people acts to establish positive bonds reducing the feeling of isolation and loneliness.
It is true that our brains are not able to tell the difference between real and fake laughter, those happy feelgood chemicals are released in our brains regardless. However, I am yet to encounter anyone that hasn’t succumbed to genuine laughter whilst attending a laughter yoga session.
What should you expect from a laughter yoga session? You should expect to leave feeling happy and as if you have had a full body workout. You will experience laughter, maybe not how you have become accustomed to it but how you once laughed as a child. There will be a lot of odd sounds from me, from others and from you. There will be stretching of mind and body, because in laughter yoga the laughter is not just from your mind but from your body also. There will be clapping, there will be chanting and quite a bit of gibberish, and a lot will be outside of comfort zones, but the laughter yoga session is a safe place where you can let go of your inhibitions for a short while. A small price to pay for the benefits gained.