How I came to believe that teaching careers don’t have to be all or nothing
Meet Louise
Hi, I’m Louise Valsinger. I’m a wife, mum to two brilliant children (and two very enthusiastic dogs), and I’ve spent most of my professional life working as a teacher. Today, I still teach alongside running my coaching and styling businesses.
For many years I worked full time in education. I cared deeply about what I did. I was committed, responsible and all in. My career mattered to me then and it still does.
Life, however, had other plans.
In 2014 my husband and I experienced the stillbirth of our first son, Louis. Nothing prepares you for that kind of loss. It changes how you see your future and what matters within it.
When our daughter Mariella arrived the following year, she brought light back into our lives. Then in 2016 our son Albie was born prematurely and later diagnosed with a rare genetic condition. Once again, life became uncertain and demanding in ways I couldn’t control.
Through all of this I continued working full time. I showed up. I functioned. I coped. But somewhere along the way I began to question whether being capable of carrying everything meant I had to keep carrying it in exactly the same way.
Over time, I started making changes. I trained as an image consultant and built a styling business alongside teaching. I reduced my teaching hours, eventually moving from full time to two days a week, and later trained as a coach.
I wasn’t trying to escape teaching. I was creating a working life that gave me more flexibility, more variety and more room for the rest of my life.
I still teach. I still care deeply about the profession. But I no longer believe the only options are to carry on exactly as you are or walk away completely.
That experience shapes the work I do with experienced teachers today. I understand how complicated it can feel when you still care about teaching, you know you’re good at what you do, but you’re exhausted by what it takes to keep doing it in the same way. You might not want to leave teaching at all. You just know you can’t imagine carrying on like this for another ten years.
Sometimes that means reducing your hours. Sometimes it means exploring something alongside teaching or considering a different role. Sometimes it starts with simply giving yourself permission to ask, “What do I want the next stage of my working life to look like?”.
I won’t have all the answers. But I do understand the terrain.
“The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.” Fabienne Fredrickson
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“The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.” Fabienne Fredrickson —
How Coaching with me works
Coaching with me gives you dedicated time and space to step away from the day-to-day demands of teaching and properly think about what you want from the next stage of your working life. Because when so much of your energy is going into simply getting through the working week, it can be incredibly difficult to find the headspace to think about what could be different.
You don’t need to arrive with a plan. You might already be considering reducing your hours, exploring a different role or building something alongside teaching. Or you might simply know that you’re exhausted, something needs to change and you don’t want the next five or ten years to look exactly like they do now.
Together, we’ll explore what’s working, what you’d like to change and what possibilities are available to you. I’ll ask questions that help you think differently, challenge assumptions that may be keeping you stuck and help you turn your ideas into realistic next steps.
My approach is warm and supportive, but I’ll also challenge you when it’s helpful. Coaching is at the heart of how I work, but where I have relevant experience or knowledge that could be useful, we can agree to bring in an element of mentoring too.
The aim isn’t to persuade you to leave teaching or completely reinvent your life. It’s to help you work out what a more sustainable working life looks like for you, and give you the confidence to start creating it.
Sometimes the biggest shift is simply realising that your choices are wider than stay exactly as you are or leave completely. There is a lot of possibility in between.
You don’t have to change everything to change something.
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You don’t have to change everything to change something. -
My Story – How I Got Into Coaching
A few years after Albie was born, while I was still teaching full time and juggling family life, I went for a walk with a friend. During that walk she suggested I do something just for me and book a colour analysis.
It sounded like a small thing. It wasn’t.
That experience reminded me how long it had been since I’d done something purely because I wanted to. It sparked an interest that eventually led me to train with House of Colour and start building a styling business alongside teaching.
For the first time in years, my career wasn’t just one thing.
I discovered how much I enjoyed learning something new, building something of my own and using different parts of myself alongside being a teacher. Eventually I reduced my teaching hours, giving me more space for my business and the rest of my life.
But the part of my styling work I found myself increasingly drawn to was the conversation. I loved listening to people, understanding what was getting in their way and seeing what happened when they began to believe that something different might actually be possible.
Teaching had already given me years of experience listening, questioning and supporting people to grow. My background in psychology had given me a fascination with behaviour and change. Training as a coach felt like a natural next step.
What I hadn’t realised when I booked that first colour analysis was that I was beginning to change the shape of my own career.
I didn’t leave teaching. I built something alongside it, reduced my hours over time and created a working life with more variety, flexibility and choice.
That experience now sits at the heart of my coaching. I know what it’s like to still care about teaching while wanting something else too, and I know that changing your working life doesn’t have to mean walking away from everything you’ve already built.
For me, coaching wasn’t a departure from my teaching career. It was an evolution of it.
What you can expect from me…..
Coaching is personal, and finding someone you feel comfortable talking openly with really matters. My style is warm, down-to-earth and supportive, but I’m not here simply to agree with everything you say. I’ll listen, ask questions, challenge you when it’s helpful and help you turn your thinking into something you can actually do.
Warmth without judgement
You need to be able to say what you’re really thinking, including the things you might not feel comfortable saying at school, at work or even to the people closest to you.
Our sessions are a confidential, supportive space where you can talk honestly without worrying about being judged or having to justify how you feel. You don’t need to have everything figured out or arrive with the “right” answers. You can simply start where you are.
Challenge when you need it
Support doesn’t always mean agreeing with you.
Sometimes the beliefs and assumptions we’ve carried for years are exactly the things keeping us stuck. I’ll ask questions that help you look at situations differently, notice assumptions that may be narrowing the choices you can see and challenge your thinking when I think it could help you move forward.
I’ll always do that with warmth and respect. The aim isn’t to push you towards a particular decision, but to help you see your choices more clearly and make decisions that are right for you.
Practical progress
Coaching gives you space to think and reflect, but I also want our conversations to lead somewhere.
We’ll take the ideas, possibilities and decisions that come out of our sessions and turn them into realistic next steps. That might mean having a conversation you’ve been avoiding, finding out what reducing your hours could actually look like, researching an idea, testing something new or simply making one small change before our next session.
You don’t need to transform your whole life overnight. Small, considered steps can create significant change over time, and I’ll be there to support you as you take them.