Partners & Associates

Sharon Charlton-Thomson

If you feel ready to work at depth, Sharon may be the coach for you. Sharon is a Coach/Therapist and has worn both hats for 25 years. She helps clients who want to explore and reshape their leadership ready to meet the challenges of today’s transforming world.

She believes every one of us has an inherent core of wellbeing and strengths, a place where our deepest values and beliefs reside. This core can be transformed into leadership presence, authenticity and vitality but as many of us know that same core is often obscured, at least in parts. Sharon helps excavate the best self that lives at this core.

We all have ways of attempting to realise our best selves and the difficulties in maintaining that shape. Often because of unprocessed history, yet ‘what happened to us’ is not ‘who we are’ or ‘who we long to become’. We are a forever unfolding process of becoming more of ourselves throughout our lives and working at depth can truly support this process by helping us to disorganise old ways of being through awareness and insight and reshape a new, more authentic self. In today’s world we are called on to respond in ever meaningful and impactful ways in our leadership and it is through such depth of awareness that we are able to take truer responsibility.

Sharon offers deeper contemplative coaching spaces that remain practical and fun. She is highly relational and works one to one and with groups.

It was two amazing women who crossed my path – and have remained true inspirations – who paved my own way into coaching. One was a planner at a London agency I worked at in the late 90s. She was into Jungian analysis and would share her therapy sessions with me – it opened my eyes into my inner weather and how influenced we are by it. The second influence was a lady I worked with for a year on a quid pro quo scheme – I had left advertising and the BIG job and helped her build her coaching brand. It was the best training I have ever had!

My own coaching style is based on all-things relational – the relationship between coach and coachee, what shows up there, the relationship we hold with ourselves and the other. My clients can expect a deep dive with fun and warmth, best described as mindful and pragmatic. Great questions that never fail to make the client dig that little bit deeper are ‘what needs your highest attention’, ‘what does your team/organisation/planet most need you to learn right now?’ and ‘what lets you know that you’re fundamentally OK?’.

My clients say lots of lovely things about me, but one of the best has to be: ‘this is like no other coaching I’ve ever had. It has changed my life!’.

My guilty pleasure has to be any programmes about houses, such as A Place in the Sun, Grand Designs, and Location Location Location. I love walking and hiking, eating any salad as long as it comes with fries (hot and cold food together), and I practice regular meditation and breath work.

I support a number of causes, including the Alzheimer’s society – I try to do at least one fundraiser event for the charity every year in my dad’s memory. Last year it was the Jurassic Coastal Path charity challenge. I also support women in the workplace, gender equality, and working parents and families. I’m a trustee of a national adoption agency, something very close to my heart. Nothing is more important than the health of our future generations.

Certifications and qualifications

  • MA in Executive Coaching Oxford Brookes
  • MBTi Practitioner
  • Diploma Emotional Intelligence and Group Therapy
  • MSc Family & Systemic Psychotherapy
  • Master Practitioner NLP Practitioner Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy
  • MA in Mindfulness Based Psychotherapy
  • Accredited Couples psychotherapist
  • UKCP Accredited psychotherapist
  • EMCC accredited Coach

Our Coaches

Our diverse team is united by the values that underpin positive psychology. We’ve worked alongside each other for many years, drawing on a wealth of industry experience, skills, compassion and strength.

Together, we are committed to coaching leaders to realise their full potential. In the first instance, you will have an initial matching call with our Founder and CEO Fiona Parashar, who will determine you coaching needs – and the right coach for you.

Fiona Parashar

Fiona set up Leadership Coaching in 2000, driven to use her corporate experience and academic background to make a positive difference to leaders, executives and women in business. Here, she shares her coaching journey, her favourite type of client, and even a few of her guilty pleasures...

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Sue Hartley

A child is walking along a beach. She sees a star fish washed up on the shore, picks it up, throws it back into the sea and says “I made a difference to that one”.
Making a positive difference, albeit on an individual basis, is what inspired Sue to become a coach. Here, she shares more about her work and approach…

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Dr. Lucy Ryan

Twenty-five years ago, when she was still acting and singing, Lucy suffered from acute stage fright. A coach saved her, guiding her through the fear. It left her intrigued to learn more and marked the start of a long journey into coaching that still inspires her today

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Mia Kennedy

How did Mia become a coach? After being promoted into a big important job and receiving coaching, she thought – ‘man, this is helpful’. And then – ‘this is the job I was made to do’. Here, she shares how her career change has impacted her life – and the lives of her clients.

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Jackee Holder

An interaction with a brilliant coach in her early career was what set Jackee Holder on her journey to becoming a coach. The mix of questions, and the quality of her listening and presence took her breath away. She realised she wanted to be that person for others. Here, she shares her own coaching path

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Ruth Rochelle

“She doesn’t judge or tell you what the answer should be, but she opens up your mind to the range of possibilities”. This wonderful feedback gives just a glimpse into Ruth’s coaching style. Here, she shares what got her into coaching, and her favourite client to work with.

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Sandra Visser

Sandra worked as one of my closest associates for about a decade before moving to Boulder, Colorado. Now she travels back a few times a year to deliver the Coaching Intensive training with me. She also offers Vision Days for the lucky few who can catch her whilst she is in the UK.

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Jim Godfrey

“There’s no point beating about the bush!” This informal but direct approach pretty much sums up Jim’s’s style of coaching. And it’s a tack appreciated by clients who want to shake things up. Here, he shares what he loves about coaching…

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