Create what comes next
My Story
For over 20 years, I built my career in Human Resources, partnering with people and leaders as they navigated complex situations, made difficult decisions and explored new possibilities.
What I valued most was working with such a diverse range of people: listening, understanding different perspectives, challenging thinking and supporting individuals in recognising their own potential. Equally valuable was what I learned from the experiences, opinions and perspectives people shared with me.
But my path to becoming a coach wasn't shaped by my professional experience alone. My own life experiences played an equally important part..
Hi, I'm Emma.
I'm the founder of evolve.Her, a coaching practice dedicated to partnering with women navigating significant change, challenge or disruption.
Finding my own next chapter
My interest in understanding people and what drives us began long before I considered coaching professionally.
I've always been curious about how people think, make decisions and respond to the world around them. In many ways, that curiosity is what drew me to a career in HR.
Throughout my career, that interest remained. After moving to the Netherlands, I became increasingly interested in coaching and the different ways it could support people in their personal and professional lives.
But I had a successful, secure and well-paid career. Stepping away from that wasn't something I felt ready to do. And although coaching had been in the back of my mind for years, I hadn't yet identified the particular group of people I wanted to support.
During my health challenges, I felt an increasingly strong pull towards creating a life that was more aligned with who I was becoming and what I wanted for my future.
One thing I had always valued in my HR career was the opportunity to support people's growth and development. But it took time, reflection and experimentation to understand how I wanted to take that passion forward.
What I did know was that coaching was the direction I wanted to pursue.
It brought together so much of what had always interested me: understanding people, exploring different perspectives and supporting others in recognising their potential.
But making that change wasn't simply a matter of deciding what I wanted.
Walking away from the career and security I'd spent decades building meant confronting uncertainty and taking a risk without knowing exactly where it would lead.
Over time, through professional training, reflection and exploration, I began to understand who I most wanted to work with: women navigating significant change, challenge or disruption who find themselves at a crossroads, questioning where they are and what comes next.
I recognised aspects of my own experiences in those moments of uncertainty and felt this was where I could make a meaningful contribution.
And that's how evolve.Her began to take shape.
When life changes your own perspective
I've experienced first-hand how profoundly life can change, sometimes in ways we could never have anticipated.
Over a relatively short period, I navigated burnout, the loss of my father to cancer, my own breast cancer diagnosis and the lasting effects of treatment, including an early, chemically induced menopause.
These experiences challenged much of what I had previously taken for granted, including my goals, my sense of identity and what I wanted from life.
There wasn't a single moment when everything suddenly became clear.
Instead, I found myself questioning what mattered, what I wanted to carry forward and what I wanted life to look like in the future.
My experiences didn't give me all the answers. They gave me a deeper appreciation of how complex change can be, particularly when circumstances beyond our control have shifted our lives and we're still making sense of what that means for us.
My approach to coaching
I trained with Erickson Coaching International, completing its Essentials and Advanced coach training programmes, grounded in a solution-focused approach and aligned with the International Coaching Federation's professional coaching competencies.
I believe meaningful change begins when we create space to think differently, give ourselves permission to explore what's possible and are willing to take action towards what we want to create.
What I value most about coaching is witnessing those moments when someone sees something differently, makes a new connection or recognises a possibility they hadn't previously considered.
Not because I've given them an answer, but because they've discovered something for themselves.
Coaching at evolve.Her is a partnership that encourages reflection, challenges assumptions, expands possibilities and supports you in making your own choices.
I bring my professional experience, coaching training and personal understanding of life's unpredictability.
But our work isn't about my story.
It's about yours.
What could you create?
If life has changed and you're questioning what comes next, coaching offers an opportunity to explore where you are, what matters to you and the possibilities ahead.
You don't have to know exactly what you want before we begin.
What matters is your willingness to explore, reflect and take an active role in creating what comes next.