Vinita Joseph
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Vinita combines skills gained from being a family lawyer with the qualities developed through her mindfulness practice in this award-winning coaching scheme.
“Vinita’s method is unique in that the sessions are tailored around how one works best. This holistic method immediately puts you at ease and unlocks hidden potential.”
– Silvana Tapia Tapia – Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
Book a free initial consultation
My Story
After a twenty-year career as a family solicitor, I took a leap and decided to pursue a long-held ambition to become a writer. I applied for an MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths. One thing led to another and, over time, I left the law, obtained a doctorate in Creative Writing, qualified to teach in Higher Education and became an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.
Alongside my career, I’ve maintained a passionate interest in personal development: as a solicitor, I qualified as a mediator to help separating couples address their emotional issues as well as the legal and practical ones; as a PhD candidate, I became accredited as a coach when I identified a gap in the support provided to PhD students and academics. In 2016, my academic coaching scheme won a Barbara Morris Prize for teaching innovation at the University of Kent.
My experience, both as a lawyer and a mindfulness practitioner, means that I bring a unique combination of qualities and skills to my coaching. I can offer strategies and targeted interventions as well as provide a gentle, supportive space for insights to emerge, depending on what a client most needs.
I specialise in coaching academics and creatives. See services offered below for further details.
What is coaching?
I embarked on my coaching course in 2012 without a full understanding of what coaching involved. I imagined I would learn tips on setting priorities and avoiding procrastination and so on. Instead, I found the training – two sets of three full days with a month of coaching practice in the middle – to be rigorous, underpinned by strong ethical values as well as challenging on a personal level.
Many of the participants on my course went through major life changes: there were marriages, resignations, promotions and house moves. It was a revelation to me to discover that you do not need to mine someone’s childhood to effect real and meaningful change.
Coaching is a confidential and supportive conversation designed to help people achieve personal and professional goals. It is solutions orientated and focuses on the present (where are you now?) and the future (where would you like to be?). As such, coaching differs from counselling or therapy.
Time management, life/work balance, fear of failure/success and perfectionism are some of the issues addressed during the sessions with my clients, but anything that helps or hinders the achievement of goals is open for discussion.
My academic clients have, for example, set goals around health problems, relationship dilemmas, exercise and diets as well as the kind of things one might expect, such as deadlines, presenting conference papers and attending submission reviews and applying for tenure.
I am particularly experienced in helping people complete long projects such as monographs and PhD theses as well as dealing with rejection and re-submission; the ability to develop resilience is key to both.
I was accredited as a coach in 2012 by RD 1st through Culture at Work (ILM level 7 equivalence)
Member – Association for Coaching
Testimonials
"Just a note to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support in finishing the book. I submitted it on Wednesday evening! Thank you for helping me make this happen. I am astounded that I actually managed to get it in before the deadline. But even more importantly than that, you have helped me to see what matters, and that what I have to say matters. "
Dr Sinéad Ring
Assistant Professor in Law, Maynooth University.
"I've now been working with Vinita as a writing coach for two years, and it has been a wonderfully productive process. Like so many others who work at universities, I struggle to juggle multiple administrative, teaching, and writing tasks, and end up working always to the most pressing deadline. Vinita has been coaching me to think about ways to keep the writing in view, and helping me work into my days both longer and shorter term strategies for prioritizing tasks and getting them done - before things get out of control. Both empathetic and honest, Vinita is excellent at both listening, and also knowing how to intervene to produce insights about particular patterns, and how to change them. I am very grateful to Vinita for the much needed help."
Alejandro Paz
Associate Professor of Anthropology - University of Toronto
"I have known Vinita Joseph for 20 years, as a good friend. She has been my most helpful adviser, both in personal and professional matters, and I often quote her advice to other friends, and to colleagues. When I ask her opinion about issues that are causing me stress her guidance is clear and impartial. She is never judgmental and makes one feel better and less confused. One of her memorable questions when telling her about a seemingly insoluble problem or a dispute is 'What do you want to get out of it?' it brings ones own sense of justice back in mind. Vinita Joseph helps one to move on from blocked life-situations in a way that feels friendly and supportive."
Dr Dilys Daws
Adult Psychotherapist - Hon Consultant Child Psychotherapist
The testimonials below are anonymous to protect client confidentiality. They are direct quotes from feedback provided for a coaching scheme I devised and ran for the Schools of English and Law at the University of Kent and which was awarded a Barbara Morris Prize for teaching innovation in 2016.
"I have found the coaching process immensely helpful in understanding my own mental and behavioural patterns, which often interfere with my work efficiency and pace. I feel I am now more capable of identifying how these patterns emerge and become obstacles, which in turn helps me imagine adequate solutions. …My coach is very approachable and professional. I feel she can relate to my problems, which encourages me to be honest about my struggles, as I do not feel judged or misunderstood."
PhD Candidate
School of Law - University of Kent
"I was able to talk about PhD-life relationship during coaching sessions and I found it liberating[…] She is result-oriented, which helps me organise my priorities to be able to finish the work at hand."
PhD Candidate
School of English - University of Kent
"The effect of the coaching on my research work has been that I am more likely to be concrete in mapping out time for tasks. We have discussed everything from micro (write to these students) to macro (aim for two hours of work in the mornings) – and their specificity, plus adding time frames to them, have worked very well."
Academic
School of Engliish - University of Kent
"The coach’s calm, non-judgemental approach and focus on practicalities were particularly helpful.
The coaching helped me to focus my thinking, plan a realistic timetable for my research, set goals and identify interim steps needed to be taken to achieve them and overcome the block of commencing writing.
Vinita is an excellent listener, has a good knowledge of the working environment of Higher Education and its various pressures, and offers supportive and constructive advice."
Academic
School of Engliish - University of Kent
"Both empathetic and honest, Vinita
is excellent at both listening, and also knowing how to intervene to
produce insights about particular patterns, and how to change them."
Alejandro Paz - Associate Professor of Anthropology
- University of Toronto
"My coach is very approachable and professional. I feel she can relate to my problems, which encourages me to be honest about my struggles, as I do not feel judged or misunderstood."
PhD candidate
School of Law - University of Kent
"Kim's services as a business coach have been invaluable in helping me to understand how to better approach my work and personal life."
Liz James
Coaching Client
"I was able to talk about PhD-life relationship during coaching sessions and I found it liberating…She is result-oriented, which helps me organise my priorities to be able to finish the work at hand."
PhD Candidate
School of English - University of Kent
"I have found the coaching process immensely helpful in understanding my own mental and behavioural patterns, which often interfere with my work efficiency and pace. I feel I am now more capable of identifying how these patterns emerge and become obstacles, which in turn helps me imagine adequate solutions."
PhD candidate
School of Law - University of Kent
"Kim's services as a business coach have been invaluable in helping me to understand how to better approach my work and personal life."
Liz James
Coaching Client
Charging structure
PhD students
(and anyone earning less than £25,000 per annum)
£50per session
- Zoom coaching (50 mins)
- Phone coaching (50 mins)
- In person by arrangement
Academics and Creatives and Others
(those with an income over £25,000 per annum)
£65per session
- Zoom coaching (50 mins)
- Phone coaching (50 mins)
- In person by arrangement
Bespoke packages
Please contact me to discuss
£on request
- Multiple sessions
- E-mail support between sessions
- Accountability follow throughs
"Did a 180 degree turnaround on my work output which generally made everything better – less stress, more confidence."
PhD Candidate
University of Kent
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Schedule a Consultation
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Free Consultation
A complimentary thirty minute session (by Zoom) provides the opportunity to discuss your goals, and see how we can work together.
Flexible Schedule
Life can be busy so I'll do all I can to fit in with your schedule. I work with people all over the world and in different time zones via Zoom.
Confidential
Your privacy is important so a confidentiality agreement is signed at the outset. Click button below for Privacy Notice