Photo credit: Phil Askew
About me
Hello, I'm Zelah, and I help people navigate life’s curveballs.
My career began in corporate law in London, but I quickly found my passion for human rights law in Cape Town, South Africa in the mid-1990s. From there, I dedicated nearly 20 years to international development, running systemic change programmes in Sri Lanka and Bosnia and Herzegovina and living and working with people whose lives had been turned upside down by conflict. I’m now based in the UK, running my own business and collaborating with like-minded organisations.
During the last 30 years, I’ve been shaken to my very core by multiple challenges: moving countries, working across cultures and with people who have experienced severe trauma, solo-parenting my two (now grown-up) children, and accompanying loved ones through illness and death. I really understand what it’s like to be blindsided by life, sit with the deep and often uncomfortable emotions that follow, and then take one step after another as you start to piece things together again.
My expertise spans individual and team coaching, participatory facilitation, and leadership development. I thrive on supporting people and teams navigate complex change, communicate across cultures, and explore challenging topics such as grief, loss, and forgiveness.
I’m an ICF-Accredited Professional Certified Coach, a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach® (CPCC), and an Executive Coach. I also hold certifications as an Organisational and Relationship Systems @Work Coach, Climate Change Coach, and Grief Tender. My experience includes working with participatory facilitation methodologies such as Open Space, World Café, and Appreciative Inquiry.
As well as coaching my own clients, I work as an associate for a number of organisations:
𖦹 Bird – providing resilience coaching for not-for-profit leaders and their teams
𖦹 Bridge - executive coaching and facilitating high performing team learning journeys
𖦹 Climate Change Coaches - coaching and facilitating events for green transition professionals
𖦹 Ivy House - executive coaching and facilitating leadership and talent development programmes for corporates.
And when I’m not working… I love spending time with my friends and family, singing, swimming and having fun adventuring in wild places.
For additional information about my career and some more testimonials, please check out LinkedIn.
Get in touch now to explore how we can work together.
“Zelah’s coaching facilitated personal growth, healing and new insights and much of the knowledge I gained then still guides me today. She knows just the right questions to ask which allow you to uncover your own unique strengths, talents and gifts, and to truly realize your own potential. Zelah does this by supporting you to become more you, to shine brighter - not by trying to change you into someone else.”
“My wife Sally and I have worked together running our own business for 15 years. Working with Zelah was an amazing experience. It helped us to untangle ourselves from some of the unhelpful habits we had got trapped in, to see each others value more clearly and to take hold of the idea that our business is for us, that we can make it what ever we want it to be. In practical terms our business is now more fun, more free, there is more work coming in because we have a more unique identity and we are happier and more ourselves. It’s been fantastic.”