I've loved dancing from as young as I can remember AND I've always been a big fan of a really good conversation. I have an almost razor sharp focus to get to the ‘heart’ of a person, to find out what really matters most and delight in finding ways to get them there.
When I learned and studied Nia and started teaching classes, it felt like the start of something really important, as though I'd more intentionally started walking the path of what would form part of my life's most important work. It was the missing link in a way, the pathway out of my head and into my body. It came to me at a time when I needed it most. I was in a place of suffering, as a new mum to a sensitive wee soul, in a country other than my own, in a new community and needing to get my head around how life was going to unfold. Dance grounded me to the earth and to my physical body, it also presented me to a ready-made community. Years on and it’s been a huge catalyst for bringing me to this space I feel so comfortable in now, that space goes by the name of spirit, intuition, soul, god, centre, inner self, truth etc. It’s not important the label used to describe this space, it's important that that space is known.
I've loved dancing for as long as I can remember
Within the early stages of my Nia journey I met Dr Sarah Madigan, who has become a lifetime friend, mentor and MASSIVE inspiration to me. We completed the Nia white belt training together and it became the start of a healing journey not only for ourselves but it rippled out into our families, friendship circles and our communities. At that time Sarah was on maternity leave from being a clinical psychologist with the NHS. Nia was the medicine that helped her to deal with a deep personal loss.
When not getting your old job back results in the start of a joy movement
Despite her plans Sarah never returned to the NHS and what unfolded was the start of a joy movement. Meeting Sarah was another part of the beautiful puzzle of life that would present a pathway for many to unlock their own personal joy. Sarah’s mission is to ‘support people to see the joy right under their noses’. Dr Sarah Madigan caught wind of this thing called ‘Transformational Coaching’. She went on to train as a transformational coach with the Volcanos in America - feeling immensely drawn to their ‘vibe’. It was the perfect way to integrate her love of supporting people with ‘big things’ and with a rich focus on what is possible. For Sarah it was a pathway to move away and beyond grief and instead focus on ‘what DO you want to move towards’ vs ‘what happened or what are you moving away from’, so putting more attention on a desired outcome. Transformational coaching was (and is) light, joyful and full of hope, vs the heaviness that often came with being a Clinical Psychologist within the engine that is the NHS (National Health Service).
Once we’d completed our Nia training we decided to co-teach and started a business called ‘FreerWithNia’. We ran a couple of classes per week, we’d co-teach, take turns and cover each other when it was needed. It was a brilliant arrangement AND took loads of time for very little financial return; one time we made £6 each from a class AND we thought we’d cracked it in life (not factoring in transport, travel time and money spent in cafes, financially we were generally down!)! We often reminisce over how glorious those days were. It seemed practical, it meant we could be back up for each other amidst the demands of life, and also provide inspiration, accountability, laughs and celebrate everyone and everything on a weekly basis; those days were rich and special and gave us more than money could ever buy.
The start of Transformational Coaching in a BIG WAY & undertaking years and years of course on the Joy bus
Over the next 3 years I worked with Sarah in 3 of the courses she created and ran. Relationship Magic (which focussed on making the relationship with oneself the best one of all), Spectacular School (where myself and 20 others trained as transformational coaches) then Limitless (where alongside 4 others I spent a year diving into what it meant to be a Limitless version in both my personal and business worlds, getting clear about the impact I want to have in the world and tapping into that ‘limitlessness’ energy within myself and the world). I also attended a fair few bigger group and community events Sarah ran, these times were beautiful opportunities to safely walk the talk of what I was learning and take the medicine away and into my own spaces and community.
And there began the official start of my journey of formally conducting great/powerful/boundaried and fierce coaching conversations. It quickly became another string in my bow and felt like another important part of my life's journey.
I’ve always been that person that has to share either what I’m thinking and/or what needs to be said but isn’t being. That gear niggles away at me like a mosquito bite and the itch got stronger and stronger the more I did this work. Training as a coach and deepening into my truth gave me permission to speak up even when it felt like I really didn’t want to say something. The truth, my truth would burst forward from my soul and out into the world. I came up with this belief years ago, regardless of if you think it, feel it or say it the energy surrounding it is the same so why not be clear with everyone and use this body, this language and the tools of communication to ‘say the flipping thing’ that needs to be said. I know when I'm overthinking/agnonizing over something and not saying it out loud, the energy between myself and the other person/people or thing is weird. I’m so committed to having less of the weird, it's heavy, it’s intense and it's a waste of everyones energy.
What even was I, a dance teacher or a transformational coach?
For the best part of 3 years, dancing and coaching operated alongside each other. Was I a dance teacher or a transformational coach? Yes, I was (and am) both. It was difficult for people to know that I was a coach because my presence online and out in the world was mostly centered around dancing. Anyone undertaking Coaching with me knew of my movement offerings but the reverse wasn’t always evident. I started to pay attention to what was happening in and around me.
I ALWAYS use movement in coaching sessions; and especially when online, considering how much we sit nowadays with the ease of working at a desk. It's not negotiable of mine and massively supports me to feel more ‘embodied’. Through movement a space is created where both myself and the coachee shake off energies that are sitting on the surface (imagine an annoying interaction that may have happened that day, the busyness of a morning, stiffness in the body, too many things to do), things that may hold us down or back from having a great conversation. Movement is a brilliant way to move through this.
I’ve had it fed back to me over the years that folk always felt better and ‘therapised’ at the end of one of my dance classes; and yet still I wasn’t able to see the connection that I was offering BOTH dancing and coaching at the same time. It wasn’t until the Spring of 2024 where I had reflected back to me by some clients and in particular a former coachee Jase the Ace (who inspires the living daylights out of me) and participants at my classes that I'm a dancing coach not necessarily someone who instructs people on dance moves and moving freely (even though I do) but that while dancing I'm coaching through the microphone and into peoples Silent Disco headsets AT THE SAME FLIPPING TIME!!!. I'd never pieced it together like this before, it was the secret sauce to tying these two loves together as a ‘complete offering’. It started to feel so clear and made so much sense. By guiding people into their bodies and to unpack some of the unhelpful thoughts, feelings and attachments (I always use the invitation ‘shake like a dog’) and to arrive into a state of something really quite special, into presence, into the now - is everything. Dancing is a really powerful, fun and liberating way to get out of one's head and into the body. In that zone I get to ask powerful questions and invite people to reflect on common themes that come up in coaching conversations.
common themes and examples from sessions
From the end of a Mindful Disco; a ‘brand spanking newcomer’ commented in the finishing sharing circle ‘I just wish I had you in my ear all the time, I was really able to deepen into my body and to get out of my head and I don't think I've ever felt that, it's actually quite difficult to explain but something huge feels different’.
Another participant at my weekly Nia class has said ‘I don't know how you do it but you do it every time, it happens during every class, I feel more connected to the person I’m meant to be after every single time I dance with you and it happens sooner and sooner every time’.
During on particular one-to-one coaching session with a 12-month client, the coachee commented ‘I massively value the importance put on movement and how it seemed to be the perfect combination of ingredients to enable me to arrive at that part of me that feels authentic and true, that isn’t defined by society, that's not impacted by conditioning, that has no past and no future, feels no pain or suffering, the part of me that just is. I can't imagine how I would ever have gotten into that place so quickly had it not been for the combination of the movement and coaching we do together’ (this isn’t word for word, but this was the gist of what they shared).
Feeling the twitch of experiencing the blended bron buzz?
If you're starting to feel the ‘twitch’ of wanting to experience how this blended Bron buzz looks and feel’s I invite you to book a free 45 minute discovery call with me to explore if there’s work we need to be doing together.
If you're not ready to make the leap, consider attending one of my movement classes or coming along to a more intensive and gorgeous in-person events.
Thank you from my heart to yours for being here, I see you and I love you.
x Bron
P.S. Allow yourself to pretend this is me writing to you right here right now and this is how it always looks when I crack out a blog post! For full transparency, this is one of the glorious professional pics I had taken recently in Edinburgh by Anastasia Fasta. Gotta splash these bad boys around where I can ;)
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