ABOUT ME

In my previous life, I used to be a Professor of Cultural History at a British university, but I am feeling much better now. The truth is that I suffered a burnout in academia, and that I didn’t thrive in my job for a very long time. It nevertheless took me many years to dare to leave the university and to become a full-time coach and writer. I couldn’t be happier now, doing what I truly love, and helping others to make courageous changes in their lives. 

​

For years, I was known as the "exhaustion coach”. My research into burnout and modern fatigue shaped three books (Exhaustion: A History, The Art of Self-Improvement, Exhausted: An A–Z for the Weary) and featured on the BBC, in the Guardian, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Observer, the TLS, National Geographic, Psychologies, Psychology Today and many other outlets.

​

But the deeper I looked into exhaustion – my clients’, my culture’s, and my own – the more I understood something essential: Exhaustion is not just the result of external stressors or overwhelm. It is also caused by the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, our work, achievement and time.

​

People burn out not only because of excessive workloads, systemic problems, lack of appreciation or chronic stress – but also because of the harsh, outdated and toxic stories they carry inside: I am an imposter… I must be perfect… I am nothing without success… I cannot afford to spend time on anything but work… I am not good enough… I will never succeed because I lack x, y, z… These stories drain our energy, distort our identity, and limit our future.

​

We are story-telling animals. Our self-stories shape our inner and outer reality and our future. They generate our core-beliefs and automatic negative thoughts. They feed our inner critics headlines and determine our self-talk. They may destroy engagement, hope and optimism. When our self-stories are toxic, they hold us back and drain us from within. When we are stuck or burnt-out, we need to look at the narrative root causes of our exhaustion.

Changing our self-stories changes everything. This insight led me to create The Story Solution™ – a powerful and practical five-step process for identifying and transforming your unhelpful self-stories.