Therapist by Design, Leader by Accident

Hi! I’m Laura, and I am a psychologist working with clients in private practice. I also have close to 10 years of experience in leading large international teams. Those two roles don’t often go together, so how did I get to be where I am and how does that benefit my clients?

I didn’t become a therapist by accident. There were always signs that being a therapist might be a good fit for who I am. But taking on a manager position was not at all part of the plan and happened completely out of the blue. So what happened there? It makes a lot more sense if you know a little about me and the values that are important to me.

Supporting others, making them feel better, and helping groups of people to get along has been important to me for as long as I can remember and I learned early that listening to others and seeing things from their perspective is often the key to resolving problems or conflict. Over time, this innate desire for harmony developed and evolved, and as an adult I value collaboration, empathy, honesty, and integrity. For me, these are not just nice concepts, they are values that I live by, that guide my actions, and that have been tested on a few occasions and pushed me towards becoming the coach and therapist that I am today.

It turns out that they are also qualities that make good leaders and if they are paired with good organisation and project-related skills you might end up with a decent manager. My manager in one of my jobs spotted this and when a position for a second manager opened up she asked me to apply. Of course I got scared and said ‘no’. But the person who got the job didn’t stay long and when my manager asked me again I sent in my application to get her off my back – and I got the job! I had no experience as a manager at all, how was I going to lead a team of people that were my colleagues and friends only yesterday?

I was very lucky to have a great manager who taught me a lot. Her support and my focus on collaboration, empathy, and support allowed me to establish strong working relationships and helped me to become a good manager and bring team members from all over Europe and later Asia together as a highly motivated and well-organised remote team. I started with little leadership experience but my values and my communication skills as a psychologist allowed me to develop and grow, and to build a cohesive team. So what does this have to do with my work as a coach and therapist?

My experience grew, as did my team, and I got better at being an effective manager and leader. I realised that I had learned very valuable skills that went completely untapped with most of the therapy clients that I saw in my private practice. But every now and then I would work with clients who came to me with issues related to work, stress, and low confidence in their leadership abilities. These clients benefited from the additional expertise I could offer as an experienced manager and team leader. Not all clients who struggle with those problems need therapy though, so I decided to expand my practice to include Life and Business Coaching so I could really focus on those areas where my skills as a psychologist and as an experienced manager and leader overlap – the ‘genius zone’ where I can bring the best of my experience from both worlds together to serve my clients.