I was born in Australia, where I continue to live in the beautiful city of Melbourne with my five wonderful children, who are aged from seven to twenty, and our hilarious collection of pets. 

I published my first personal development eBook, Organized for Life, in 2006, which led to writing articles for this website, and seeking out new ways to first save myself, then contribute to greater sanity amongst the rest of humankind.

I began writing mostly about the topic of my eBook, i.e. organization, and my approach naturally tended towards the emotional and mindset factors affecting our ability to be organized.  I chose organization as my first topic to write about because I was keenly aware of how much better being organized made me feel and could also make others feel.

The feedback I got from readers clarified and reinforced the mission and purpose I had been developing.  I knew it was about personal development, mindset, and all that stuff I've always loved to read about.

Looking for ways to take what I had started further led to me enrolling in a Life Coaching course in 2010, and I started doing one to one coaching sessions with people by phone and Skype all over the world.

I love what I do.

Apart from coaching and writing, my time is spent studying, reading, attending trainings, cooking, doing housework, buying groceries, driving children around and generally being climbed upon, joining in the odd XBox and WII game, (but only the dancing ones and Guitar Hero), telling them I don't know how to do their maths homework and being forced to listen to terrible pop music.  I'm your typlical busy single mother.

Why the funny surname? 

I can explain, and will, to whomever will listen.

Interests

I enjoy music, (a lot!), reading, writing of course, hanging out with friends and extended family, movies, TV, singing, keeping pets, cooking, eating out, a very very small spot of gardening, art, dancing, comedy, history, psychology, home aesthetics, personal development and I'm very fond of beer and pizza.  I look forward to travelling one day, and still hope to learn to play the piano and have a better relationship with my guitar.

Skills

I can touch type, make decent lasagne and wiggle my ears.  I have pulled things out and put things in my computer with my own bare hands (forget what now).  I can get knots out of fine hair and sew ribbons on ballet slippers.  I can cook a roast dinner for 14 people.  

Certifications

Certificate IV in Life Coaching

Extended DISC Accredited Consultant and Trainer

Certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Certified Master Practitioner of Hypnotherapy

Certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of Deep State Re-Patterning

The subject matter of my writing

Psychology and personal improvement, understanding how to get control over the aberrations of one's own mind, are things I've always been fascinated with.  I'm interested in reading anything which might contribute to a better understanding and mastery of myself, and I believe that freedom and happiness are within our control by learning how our minds work. 

I think that in talking about my own efforts to understand and apply concepts and ideas, I will find ways of expressing them which may make them more accessible to more people.  After all, I'm not alone in wanting to gain more control over my own life.

Personality

With what I now know about behavioural profiling through my study of Extended DISC and Neuro Linguistic Programming, it seems irrelevant to mention that I was born on the cusp of Aries and Pisces in the year of the Horse or that Jungian or Myers Briggs tests tend to vary from ENFJ to ESTJ.  I now understand where my desire for accuracy, my natural empathy, and my tendency to experience the world both through feelings and through analysing facts more than visually come from, and even the way I experience music.  

What I previously described here as personality traits, I now see as code for strategies, fears and limiting beliefs.  As I work on examining my values system, focussing on my strengths and finding more resourceful strategies for meeting my needs, I feel my identity, who I am, is much less restricted.  In coaching, we ask ourselves who we need to be to do what we need to do to have what we want to have.

Resume

I began my working life as a tea lady/kitchenhand at 14, then went on to work in a shoe factory, sandwich bars, retail, publishing, car insurance, waitressing and bar tending, workers compensation insurance, as a restaurateur, and in call centres.  I did my Higher School Certificate (year 12) at night school at 19.  There were three attempts to get started on an arts degree, and an attempt to complete a sound engineering course in my teens.  Then I started writing in 2006, and here I am with my own personal development business. 

Values

I value honesty, openness and good manners.  I believe in not judging people, in the power of forgiveness, and in taking responsibility for oneself.  I believe in keeping an open mind. 

I value family very highly, and feel very fortunate to have a large one of my own, which is what I always wanted.  I look forward to lots and lots of grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on. 

I'm fastidious about communication, accuracy, getting things right, that sort of thing.

A full re-examination of my values is in progress, thanks to the work of Anthony Robbins, which will mean a big re-work of this section.

....

But enough about me, tell me about yourself - what do you think of me?  Yes, that's a joke.  (I'm quoting Bette Midler).  Don't go emailing me, unless you have something very insightful, and well, complimentary to say.  About me.