Jacqui Doyle is a ICF Life Coach and Grief Coach. Jacqui lost two children very suddenly in 2006 and 2007, and she uses her experience with grief to help others.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
My name is Jacqui Doyle, I am 48 and Live in Devon. I married my husband Paddy in 2002, after we had our son Jake in May 2001. We went on to have two more children, Louie who was born in Jan 2005 and Libby who was born in Jan 2006. Unfortunately, both of them passed away when they were 15 months and 2.5 years due an undisclosed condition. This was obviously so devastating and we went on to constantly worry for Jake’s health. Not long after I started to suffer panic attacks. In 2009 we moved back to the UK but to Manchester this time as Paddy’s business was based there. While here we met an amazing doctor at the Children’s hospital who really supported us and was on hand whenever we were worried about Jake and we had regular meet ups with him discussing jakes health. Not much could be done at the time as there was still not enough known why this had happened. While we lived here we went on to adopt our daughter. We then moved back to Hertfordshire which is where we both grew up. It was shortly after this that I trained to be a yoga teacher, Yoga has been my life line and has helped me with my mental health on so many levels and it is my go-to tool for my panic attacks. And then a few years later we adopted again, another little girl.
During lockdown I trained as a menopause Yoga teacher as I love the way yoga has helped me on my menopause journey so it was great to learn more about that and how I can help the women in my yoga classes. I then also went on to sign up to do my ICF accredited Coach training. This is what completely changed my life, I felt I had finally found my thing. I grew so much during my training, my confidence grew, my self-belief grew, I started to step outside my comfort zone and the more I did that the more I realised that was what I had to do to grow. I have absolutely loved the journey of becoming a coach and seeing the change it has had on me. Once I started to coach women, I started looking into what to specialise in, it naturally all fell into place, I then went on to train as a grief coach.
In August 2021 we moved to Devon, we now live here with our two daughters and Jake is at university.
I am running my second weekend Yoga & Coaching Retreat in January and I have run many day retreats which I love doing, I know I never would have had the confidence to go ahead and book these retreats before my coaching journey. I have also opened a small Yoga Studio in my town and I teach yoga and coach my clients online from there.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
No, I have always struggled to find what I want to do and have tried many things, from administrator, PA, Beauty Therapist, to Shop Owner and then I finally found Yoga which I love and have been teaching now for many years. I then went on to train as a ICF Life Coach and a Grief Coach which is my passion.
Have you faced any challenges along the way?
Self-belief is a work in progress. I try not to overthink things, I have an idea and then I just put it out there before I can talk myself out of it. It seems to help. I suppose my biggest challenge is work/family balance, I love my work, but when you work for yourself it can be addictive, so I am really working on that balance so I don’t bring it home and I get that quality time with my family as well. I don’t think there is an answer for this, it is just working progress and a matter of checking in with yourself regularly.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
My children, they are all such amazing human beings and I feel very lucky to have them by my side, and they and my husband support what I am doing which means a lot.
What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success?
My passion to try to help others who struggle with confidence, self-belief and their grief journey. I think when you have travelled that path and have seen what a difference it makes to you and your life when you make the changes and find the strength to move forward you want to share with everyone.
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
I have had both purely coaching client, a mix of coaching and mentoring and also just mentoring clients. I really enjoy it all – any way I can help someone else and see good results is what I want at the end of the day, whether that is through seeing someone move forward to start to rebuild their life after grief or if it is helping someone with self-belief and confidence or big changes in their life, it is all so rewarding and makes me realise how important this work is.
If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Parity, what would it be?
I really hope through my coaching I will empower women to have the confidence to go on and follow their passions, live life to the full and believe in themselves to go on and do whatever they choose.
I have run a lot of Menopause Yoga Day Retreats and it is always amazing to spend the day with these women and seeing women supporting women and them leave at the end of the day full of new information to help them on their menopause journey, feeling empowered, it’s the best feeling.
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self what would it be?
Don’t be scared if it excites you go for it, don’t let anyone put self-doubt in your mind and believe in yourself.
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
I hope to go on to help as many women as possible, using yoga and coaching, whether that be transformational coaching or grief coaching and I plan to run grief coaching retreats as well as my other retreats in the future.
