Mike Guilmant-Cush
Transformative
Life Coaching
Are you ready to find clarity, build confidence, and live a life with more purpose and fulfilment?
The life you want is waiting for you.
I’ll help you create it.
... or scroll down to find out more.
About me
I'm inspired by how each of us can let go of unhelpful thinking or behaviours and unlock the life we’d like to lead.
I’m awestruck by how I see this unfold in my online coaching sessions, as my clients achieve breakthrough moments that create deep change in their lives.
"Working with Mike has been really transformational for me. His non-judgemental approach has meant I've felt free to bring any issues I've been struggling with to our weekly sessions, and I always leave armed with a host of practical solutions and feeling so motivated to enact them. My productivity has pretty much doubled and I feel so much more in control! The strategies we've worked on even helped me to secure a promotion and feel really confident to take on the new role. I've loved our sessions and would encourage anyone to give coaching a try!" BP
“Mike’s gentle challenge has given me a much deeper understanding of what my values are and how I can live more in line with them. He helped me find the solutions I need without telling me what to do. I wouldn’t have got these insights on my own. Our conversations each week helped me to be honest and creative. Huge thanks!” LO
Three values shape my coaching: kindness, integrity and curiosity. I apply these to help my clients to rediscover their authentic self, challenge their assumptions and remove obstacles to having the clarity, capability and confidence to create new possibilities and a better future.
I'm trained in humanistic, person-centred, transformative coaching. My coaching also integrates elements of:
Positive psychology
Mindfulness
Transactional analysis coaching
Cognitive behavioural coaching
Acceptance and commitment coaching
I've spent my working life creating award-winning teaching resources for government, charity and corporate clients that help young people around the world to develop the skills, qualities and ambition to be their best selves. Coaching was a natural next step on this journey, and I continue to work in education alongside my adult coaching practice.
I've created the life I want. I help my clients do the same. Now let me help you create yours.
Coaching with me
“Mike is a wonderful listener. He asks questions that help me see things from lots of different angles. It’s really changed how I think about some key issues, see what was getting in my way and work out exactly what I need to do.” RS
It’s hard to examine and change our thinking on our own. Wherever you are, I can listen.
Coaching with me is a unique and remarkable conversation based on partnership and trust. It’s a safe, creative, thinking space for you that will be unlike any other conversation you can have, helping you to:
Uncover and connect with your values
Live with greater authenticity and purpose
Define and reach important goals
Get unstuck or overcome barriers
Unlock your full potential
Create the change you want
Navigate life transitions
Thrive and flourish
I offer you a calm, open and empathetic listener. My role is to open up and hold that thinking space for you, to be fully present for you, to listen deeply and be curious about what you say, reflecting back what I hear and see without bias or judgement, to evoke and raise your awareness and understanding. I'll help you to clear a path towards the outcomes you want.
Your role is to bring your full self to our sessions, with a commitment to be open and honest, responsive to what I reflect back to you, and to be responsible for how you use what you discover. You are already an expert in your own life. I’ll help you uncover the answers you need.
Our thinking space together is a place of insight and discovery, of clarity, inspiration and an emerging sense of what’s possible - and constructive challenge when it’s needed. I’ll help you to be fully clear on what you want from each conversation, and to turn your insights into specific plans that deliver real, lasting changes.
I follow Carl Rodgers’ humanistic approach to coaching:
My clients are not patients - you’re not broken and you don’t need ‘fixing’.
I believe that people are fundamentally good and want to grow and improve.
I’m not an expert in my client’s lives or challenges - I won’t tell you what to do.
I meet my clients ‘where they are’. I don’t direct our conversations, but help clients to take an active role, set our goals for our sessions and lead our conversations.
My role is to create the conditions that unlock my clients’ growth. The most important factor is the quality of our coaching relationship and my presence as your attentive, curious, reflective listener.
How it works: Insights, invitations and intentions
“Mike’s calm presence has helped me to see what I’ve not been thinking about and put plans into place that are really working for me. I didn’t think being listened to would make a difference, but it does.” FW
Your first step is to get in touch for a free discovery call, which will last around 30 minutes. This isn’t a sales pitch. It’s a chance for us to introduce ourselves, explore what you would like to achieve through coaching, find out a bit more about how it works and what a session will be like, cover off any practical admin questions, and for us both to feel happy to work with each other to unlock possibilities and create change.
I coach online and I’ll send you a link for our sessions, which will normally last 60 minutes.
A coaching session has three main elements:
First, we’ll explore what you would like to discuss. I’ll help you to be fully clear about what change you would like to see, and to identify how you’ll know we’ve had a successful session.
The middle of each session will be a free-ranging conversation led by you that explores your reality and uncovers new insights, options and possibilities. It’s up to you where we start and where you go. My role is to be fully present and to listen deeply. I’ll ask questions that help you unpack what you’re currently thinking about, and offer back what I’m noticing and any patterns or contrasts that emerge.
Every insight is an invitation: to reflect, to move forward, to change. I'll help you see what invitations our discussion offers you. But I’ll always let you choose how you respond and integrate them into your thinking, and where we go next.
I’ll check in from time to time to remind you of our goals for the session, to make sure we’re on track or whether we need to revisit what’s most important for you to explore.
Coaching sessions create insight, clarity and possibilities, but these need to be put into practice. The final part of our sessions will be to focus your intentions: to reflect back on what you’ve discovered and to create a clear action plan backed up with the commitment, resources and accountability you need to create the change you want.
Neuroaffirmative coaching
“Coaching with Mike has helped me to see that the things that have been stopping me are not what I thought they were. I’ve had some real ‘lightbulb moments’! He’s changed how I think and that’s helped me see much better ways to get the results I want. Coaching works!” EH
I’m late diagnosed with both ADHD and Autism. They both offer me helpful qualities I bring to my coaching!
As part of my practice I work with clients living with their own neurodivergence to help them discover their own way to thrive.
I adhere to the science: neurodivergence is a genetic, neurodevelopmental condition that in the past is likely to have had an evolutionary purpose. For my clients (and myself) I don't view neurodivergence as a disorder, but a difference that on the one hand can bring many strengths but on the other, may also become a disability as the result of social barriers and attitudes (the social model of disability).
However, while I strongly advocate for a more inclusive society that acknowledges, accepts, appreciates and adapts for neurodivergence, I also strongly believe in my clients' own ability to create positive changes to help them flourish. My coaching is focused on supporting each client to identify, understand and address their specific needs or challenges, including self-advocacy, to help you make the most of your unique way of being and experiencing the world.
Like with my other coaching clients, I’m not an expert in your life, or in neurodivergence. I’m led by you and I’ll help you find your own solutions and possibilities.
Booking
To book, please use the contact form below.
A discovery call is free. A block of three 60-minute coaching sessions is £270.
FAQs
Who do you coach?
Anyone over 18 who seeks positive changes or wishes to uncover new possibilities.
How many sessions will I need?
Coaching will usually involve between 3 and 9 sessions.
How often do we need to meet?
Weekly coaching works well because it allows time to put ideas into practice while maintaining momentum. But I also coach some clients once a fortnight once we have made initial progress.
How much is it?
My booking section provides current fees.
How is coaching different to therapy?
Coaching is about possibilities: it explores the present in order to create a different and better future, while therapy is about resolution: it unpacks and resolves the past in order to create a better present. In practice, there’s a little overlap: coaching might explore the origins of unhelpful belief systems and learned behaviours, for example, but only in order to open up new possibilities. Coaching helps you to understand how your current beliefs, values and feelings shape your responses and actions, to reframe your thinking and create a more fulfilling or successful future.
I won’t be able to help you to unpack and resolve any past issues or traumas. I will let you know if our conversations suggest that therapy might be the better choice for you (although clients usually can recognise this themselves), but I am unable to recommend a therapist.
How is coaching different to mentoring?
Mentoring assumes that the mentor has wisdom or experience they can pass down to the mentee. In contrast, coaching assumes that each of us is able to find our own solutions when supported in a safe, creative thinking space. My experience with clients is that this is true! Coaching is client-led and non-advisory, and you are the expert in your own life. I won't tell you what to do.
What happens in between coaching sessions?
That’s when you put into practice the action plan we agreed to create the change you want. I may also suggest some exercises or reflection tasks that might be helpful. These are optional, not homework.
How do we agree to stop coaching sessions?
In our discovery call we’ll agree how many sessions to start with. I’ll check in with you to see how we are doing and whether you feel that more or fewer sessions would be better. You can bring our coaching sessions to an end whenever you wish, but do please read the terms and conditions in the coaching agreement I will ask you to read and sign before we begin.