London
1 Harley Street, London W1G 9QDBy Cavendish Square, a short walk from Oxford Circus and Bond Street.
Coaching for professionals · London · Birmingham · Online
Coaching for professionals
For accountants, consultants, architects, engineers and other qualified professionals whose high standards built a career and now take more than they give back. Private one-to-one coaching at 1 Harley Street, in Edgbaston or online, around client work and deadlines.
What professionals bring to coaching
Professional work rewards precision, caution and long hours, and the training to get there takes years. The people who book a call from these fields describe the same handful of problems, whatever their discipline.
Standards that have started to cost you
The care that made you good at the job now has you rechecking work at midnight that was finished at six. Coaching helps you keep the quality your clients pay for while dropping the hours of checking it has started to demand.
Promoted for expertise, now managing people
You were the strongest technical performer, and now your days go on reviews, appraisals and other people’s mistakes.
Winning work feels like selling yourself
Senior roles bring targets for new business, networking and pitching, which many careful people find uncomfortable.
Always on for clients
Messages answered on holiday, evenings lost to one more revision and a phone that never leaves the table.
Doubt in front of senior people
Holding your ground when a client, a director or a partner challenges your advice in the room.
A career chosen a long time ago
Qualifying took most of your twenties, and you now wonder whether it is still the work you want for the next twenty years.
How I work with professionals
Professionals tend to arrive with a clear account of the problem and a long list of things they have already tried. I start with the rules underneath it: the belief that any error is a disaster, that asking for help looks weak, or that a day only counts if every task is closed. Once you can see the rule, you can decide whether it still deserves to run your week.
From there the work is practical. You choose one small experiment for the coming week, such as sending a report after one review instead of three or leaving the office at a set time twice, and you report back on what happened compared with what you feared. The consequences usually turn out far smaller than the worry predicted.
I use NLP techniques where they help you respond differently to the moments that set off the old habit, and hypnotherapy is available for stress or sleep if you want it. NLP is widely used in coaching, though the research evidence for it is mixed, so I use it as one tool among several.
If perfectionism is the main issue, the guide to perfectionism explains where it comes from, and work-life balance coaching covers the hours side in more detail.
What a session looks like
Sessions open with the experiment from last time and what you learned from it. Then you pick the issue costing you most this week and work through it in detail, ending with a specific action and a date to try it. Between sessions you can email or text me, which helps when a deadline or a tricky client meeting arrives mid-week.
How to stop being a perfectionist
In this one-minute video I set out how coaching works with perfectionism: finding the belief that keeps raising the bar, then building habits that let you finish work at a standard you can live with. It is the same approach I use with clients in session.
Captions are available on YouTube.
Discretion around client work
Many professionals work in small firms or tight sectors where everyone knows everyone. Coaching here is arranged so that nobody at work needs to hear about it.
- Confidential. Your firm, your partners and your clients have no part in it. You book and pay directly, and nothing from sessions is shared with an employer.
- Around chargeable time. Weekday sessions between 9:00 and 18:30, or a weekend slot on request, and a booking can move when a deadline lands.
- In person or online. Come to 1 Harley Street or Edgbaston, or join on Zoom, FaceTime or phone from a quiet room at the office or at home.
- Between sessions. A short email or text before a hard meeting keeps the work going between appointments.
If your field has its own page, coaching for lawyers, coaching for doctors or coaching for finance professionals may be closer to your situation. For overwork itself, see work-life balance.
What changes for professionals
Work finished at a sensible standard
You learn to judge when a piece of work is good enough for its purpose, and to send it. Quality holds, and the evenings spent polishing details nobody will read start to come back.
Delegation you can live with
Handing work to junior colleagues stops feeling like a risk to your reputation. You give clearer briefs, review once and accept that their version may differ from yours without being wrong.
Calmer when your advice is challenged
Pushback from a client or a senior colleague becomes something you can answer on the spot, with your reasoning intact, instead of replaying it on the drive home.
A clearer view of the career
Whether you stay, specialise, move firm or leave the profession, you make the choice deliberately, with the facts in front of you, after years of drifting.
Typical patterns
These are common patterns, not individual client stories. Details always differ, and nothing about any client is shared.
The newly promoted manager
Strong technically, recently given a team and struggling to stop doing the work themselves. Sessions on briefing, letting go and giving feedback.
The reliable senior professional
The person everyone calls when something is urgent, now exhausted and resentful about it. Sessions on boundaries, saying no and protecting time.
The mid-career doubter
Qualified, respected and quietly unsure about staying in the profession. Sessions on values, options and a practical way to try out a change.
Coaching for professionals in London, Birmingham and online
Birmingham
Quadrant Court, Calthorpe Road, Edgbaston B15Close to Five Ways, a short taxi ride from New Street.
Online
Zoom, FaceTime or phone, anywhere in the UK or abroad, with the same structure as sessions in the room.
Format and fees
Every session lasts 90 minutes, weekly or fortnightly. People who bill by the hour like to see the cost in advance, so my fees are published below. You book and pay directly, with no contract beyond the package you choose.
Free call
30 minutes
By phone, before you commit to anything.
Discovery session
£165
One 90-minute introductory session, with no obligation to continue.
Five, eight or twelve sessions
£975 to £1,980
Every session 90 minutes, with support between sessions.
Payment plans
By agreement
Spread the cost of a package. The same fees apply online.
What clients say
Reviews published on this site, word for word.
I highly recommend Stuart. 10/10 experience. Right from the beginning he made me feel so comfortable and he seemed to genuinely care about what I had to say.
Having already had talking therapy previously I found Stuart’s approach fresh and efficient.
Qualifications
- Advanced Master Practitioner of NLP (DNLP)
- Master Practitioner of NLP (MPNLP)
- Psychotherapist (MNACHP)
- Master Hypnotist (DMH)
- EMDR Practitioner
- PSY-TAP Practitioner
- ADHD-CCSP
- Enhanced DBS
Questions professionals ask about coaching
Which professions do you coach?
Anyone in qualified or advisory work: accountants, consultants, architects, engineers, surveyors, actuaries and others. Lawyers, doctors and people in finance have their own pages, because their working lives raise slightly different issues. The method is the same for all of them.
Can coaching help with perfectionism?
Yes, when it is the everyday kind that costs time and sleep. Coaching works on the beliefs that keep raising the bar and on small changes in how you finish work. If it comes with severe anxiety, low mood or obsessive thoughts, speak to your GP as well.
Will my employer find out?
Only if you choose to tell them. You arrange and pay for sessions yourself, and I don’t contact your firm, your manager or HR. What you say stays confidential unless there is a serious risk to your safety or someone else’s.
How many sessions do professionals usually book?
A focused issue such as delegating to a new team often suits a five-session package. Longer-standing patterns around perfectionism, overwork or a career decision usually need eight or twelve. On the free 30-minute call I’ll tell you which I think fits.
Can I have sessions during the working day?
Yes. You can book an online session over lunch or at the start of the day and join from a meeting room or your car. In-person sessions at Harley Street and Edgbaston run on weekdays, and weekend appointments are possible on request.
Start with a free 30-minute call
You describe the problem. I tell you whether coaching is the right tool and how I’d approach it. If it isn’t, I’ll tell you that too. No obligation, and I reply within 24 hours.
- You send the formName, number and a line or two about what’s going on.
- I reply within 24 hoursBy phone or email, whichever you prefer, to book a time.
- A free 30-minute callYou decide afterwards. No obligation, no follow-up pressure.
Still deciding?
“I highly recommend Stuart. 10/10 experience. Right from the beginning he made me feel so comfortable and he seemed to genuinely care about what I had to say.”