".....amazing but hard work"

My story of Working win came after an incident at work caused me so much stress and anxiety that I had a major panic attack in work. This led to me being unable to speak for a time and I was signed off work for 4 weeks. I would meet with my manager for wellness meetings and be unable to explain what was going on in my head and found I could no longer enter my workplace without having a panic attack. My GP was very understanding and prescribed anti-depressants to see if that would help me.

After nearly 3 months off work, I knew I wasn’t coping and I was struck to reach out to the people the doctor was recommending could help. After being truthful with my GP about this, he informed me of the working win trial. This allowed me to get help as someone would contact me and all I had to do was turn up to an appointment.

My journey through Working Win has been amazing but hard work. My coach Sally helped me to reassess what was causing my anxiety and if my job was right for me. She also became the person I was accountable too, as I felt I had to have something to show each time we had a meeting. This support and guidance gave me the confidence to explore different ideas and my future. I was invited to a series of group sessions led by another coach Jenny and was inspired by the people I met. The bravery and honesty of how they talked about their mental health helped me to open up too.

I was asked by a friend if I would help with a program working with teenagers who had been excluded from mainstream education and was setting up an alternative provision, after a few weeks I attended a fundamental course on coaching and knew this was the job I wanted to pursue, to help others to speak about their struggles. I talked this through with Sally and she helped me to see how I could do this. We talked through every "why I can't do this" to confirm that I could do it and was focused on making it work.

Six months on and I have completed my Coaching diploma and just set up my own coaching business which allows me to use the help given to me by working win to help others and even work with my old employers to provide help for staff. I have continued to work with the alternative provision, which is looking to employ me as a consultant to coach teenagers coming into the program to help them settle in better and discuss their needs. I was also approached by Sheffield virtual school to help with their in-school support for children in care, this has gone extremely well and I am looking forwards to this growing in the next year.

Without the support of my work coach throughout the 6 months I would have struggled so much to turn my life around and the lives of the people I work with. Sally gave me the help and support, but always made me do the work so that I was supporting my self and working out my own problems