I know this ground, because I’ve walked it myself.

A few years ago, my life came apart almost all at once. My long marriage ended. My mother died suddenly. My body changed through menopause. My grown up children left, and the family home that had held all of it was sold. And all of this unfolded across and beyond the pandemic, when the whole world felt uncertain and there was nowhere ordinary to turn for steadiness. 

I remember the feeling of not knowing who I was without the roles that had defined me — the wife, daughter, the mother whose children still needed her, the keeper of that home. So much of a woman’s identity is built quietly, in years of work and care that rarely get named. When those things change at once, it can feel as though your whole foundation has gone. 

What I learned is that you don’t rebuild by rushing back to who you were. You rebuild by letting the old chapter close honestly, recovering your energy from everything that has drained it, and slowly authoring something new — on your own terms. I came through it not as a smaller version of myself, but as more myself than I had been in years. 

That experience, alongside my training as an accredited coach and my doctoral research is what I bring to every woman I work with. My research explored women's work, duty, and energy: the duty, service and energy that women are raised to give to others. Yet also, what sustains us, what depletes us, and how women have traditionally negotiated the demands made on their time and strength.

My research is the most useful thing I have ever studied, because it explained my own life to me — and it explains the lives of the women I work with now. It’s why I see every midlife transition as, at heart, a story waiting to be re-authored, and why my coaching brings real depth and insight along with practical, grounded support. You won’t just feel a little better for an hour; together we change the story you live by. I won’t pretend I have a magic formula that makes the hard feelings disappear. But I can walk beside you, hold the map when you can’t see the path, and help you find your way to a life that fits the woman you could become.

If any of this resonates, the best place to begin is a free thirty-minute conversation. You can email me at louise@louise-may.co.uk or use the button below: