About Me
Hi, I'm Suzy Darke.
I’m a somatic coach and I help smart, sensitive women create brave change in their lives and businesses.
My clients are big-dreaming, tender-hearted women who care fiercely.
About others, about the work they do, about the world.
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They tend to work incredibly hard looking after everyone in their lives and find there’s not a lot of energy left for them or their dreams.
A lot of the coaching work we do together is around going more gently with yourself, clearing space for you and building the self trust and the courage to go for what you really want in life.
My story
For a long time, I was an undercover big-feeler and sensitive soul. I spent my first 30-something years trying to keep all of that squished down into a more convenient version of woman-worker-wife.
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I leaned into my perfectionist, good-student nature and pushed my way through life as best I could.
I tried not to be ‘too sensitive’. I tried (and failed) to ‘toughen up’. I ignored my need for quiet, alone time and threw away my yeses like confetti.
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And it worked (just about) for a long time.
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Until big change came along and blew me apart (as it so often does).
Motherhood was the first. All of a sudden I was swimming in feelings I could no longer ignore & faced with a job that no longer worked for me and my young family.
Menopause was the second. I was done with pretending to be anything other than me. I was ready to take up the space I needed and be kinder and more compassionate to myself.
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Those two life events were the catalyst for further brave changes…
Relocating to the other side of Cornwall
Leaving employment
Building a business from scratch
Retraining as a coach
Each has been an imperfect, very human experience. Each has shown me that gently is the best way.
My Coaching
My coaching is person-centred and I ascribe to the principle that we are all “creative, resourceful and whole”.
My role as coach is to partner you and create as safe a space as I can for you to make the change you want.
All of you is welcome.
My coaching practice is evidence-based, research-led and trauma-informed. I am ICF accredited & have regular supervision.
I trained in developmental coaching through Sas Petherick’s Self Belief Coaching Academy. And in somatic (body oriented) coaching through the Somatic School.
I chose these two coaching programmes for their academic rigour and their nuance.
I love that my practice blends the thinky, cognitive coaching tools that my clients’ smart, smart brains appreciate. AND the body-based, beyond-words somatic coaching that helps them to reconnect with their smart, smart bodies.
For more on my coaching, take a look at my Brave Change & Brave Business coaching packages.
Me
I live in beautiful Cornwall, UK with my husband and two kids. I used to be terrified of the water but now spend much of my free time in, on or by the sea.
I describe myself as a semi-sociable introvert. Because I love (deep) conversation and connection. Just not ALL the time.
I have a PhD in Italian Renaissance History, which sounds like it has very little to do with my coaching. But my thesis was about female visibility, identity, memory and maternity. Themes which still interest me deeply and echo throughout many of my coaching conversations.
I am a fledgling novelist writing my first book.
Soul
* EQUITY & EQUALITY
* HONESTY * INTEGRITY
* CREATIVITY * JOY
*COMMUNITY * CONNECTION
* LEARNING
Heart
* FAMILY * BEACH LIFE
*90s RnB
* KIND PEOPLE
* DEEP & MEANINGFULS
*FAIR-WEATHER SEA SWIMMING
Spirit
* MOTHER
* WRITER
* SWIMMER
* ARIES * HSP * INFJ
* REFLECTOR *4W5