Hi, my name is Ruthie
Hi, my name is Ruthie. I am an empowerment, leadership and communication coach, an academic, and a yogi. My professional and personal interests in communication, health and transcultural exchanges alongside my love of teaching and learning feed into my passion for supporting personal transformation and growth.
My path of transformation began around five years ago, when I started to realise that the way I was living and working was unsustainable. As a junior academic, I had been pushing too hard for too long. Results and security seemed to forever be one last push away. I was only focused on the next step of the path. First, obtaining the PhD, then publishing my book and articles while simultaneously working as a research fellow, subsequently, achieving a lectureship post, then securing a prestigious research award to work abroad for two years. On paper, professionally, I was doing and achieving “all the right things” but I felt disconnected, deeply unsure about what I was doing and the value of my contribution. It felt like the rest of life (love, joy, peace, physicality, connection, sense of purpose) was passing me by.
When I acknowledged my burnout in summer 2016, I went to a silent retreat in the south of France, where I was formally trained in meditation and disciplined self-practice. There, I took the decision to resign from my lectureship and move to Nice. I have been building a new vision for my life here ever since with the love and support of my family and friends. It is a work in progress. However, life includes far more of the things I hold important and they are much more in balance.
I began my coaching journey in January 2018, when I started a coaching programme
as a client. I was and continue to be awestruck by the personal and professional transformation that I have experienced as a result of the powerful guidance of my coach and the effectiveness of the programme that I signed up for. In autumn 2018, I began training with One of many, the company whose programme I had followed. I am now a certified One of many coach with clients in the UK, France and Switzerland. I am evidence of the transformative power of the tools and approach that I use. These focus on body knowledge and non-verbal as well as verbal communication to transform our day-to-day experience and fulfil our potential and purpose.
Other things to know about me
Alongside coaching I am an academic with a PhD in French Studies, I have worked in both the UK (University of Leeds; Cardiff University) and in France (Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Université de Nice, Sciences Po Menton, International University of Monaco, IPAG Business School). My PhD examined guilt and shame in memories of the Nazi Occupation of France. The book produced from the thesis was published in 2013.
I am a fluent French speaker and love sharing my fascination for French culture. I am blessed to live in Nice on the Côte d’azur on the Mediterranean coastline. I hike regularly in the Maritime Alps and, in the summertime, I cycle to the local vineyards in the hills above the city, where I interpret for the international clients of one of the vineyard owners. I currently teach courses in Communication and English at International University of Monaco, at Sciences Po Menton and IPAG Business School, Nice.
I also conduct research in the field of Disability Studies. From 2014-2016, I led a Paris-based research project funded by the European Research Commission on Social Understandings of Deaf People in Contemporary Cinema at the Social Sciences Institute for Advanced Research. The book related to this project will be published in 2020.
A long-time yoga practitioner, I began teaching myself Iyengar yoga in 2001. Since then, I have learned a variety of yoga styles – iyengar, vinyassa flow, ashtanga, kundalini – in different cities and countries. I have a home practice that I follow around 5 times a week. In 2016, I did a 5-day silent retreat at l’Espace de silence in Nîmes in West Provence. As a result, I now practice meditation regularly.
In the summertime, I offer guided tours on foot and bicycle of the markets, food, and cultural sites and stories of Nice. I cycle guests into the hills above the city to visit a local winemaker and taste the award-winning wine sold there and to visit the beautiful Mediterranean beach in the exclusive former fishing village of Villefranche-sur-mer.