“Sarah’s style of coaching, being heart-led, is exactly that. She is honest to the core and genuinely cares. I could tell from our first session that she shares many of the same values as me and truly wants to help people make sustainable changes in their lives.”
~ Leanna Murray
From health to human behaviour.For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by people.
That curiosity first showed up as an interest in health, movement and wellbeing. It led me to complete a Bachelor of Physical Education and later become certified as a Health and Wellness Coach, believing that helping people live healthier lives was where I wanted to make my difference.
But the longer I worked with people, the more I realised something.
Most people already knew what they should be doing.
They knew exercise would help.
They knew sleep mattered.
They knew how they wanted to show up in their relationships, their work and their lives.
Yet knowing wasn't the problem.
So I found myself becoming less interested in what people were doing, and increasingly curious about why.
Why two people can experience the same event yet make completely different meaning from it.
Why we repeat patterns we know aren't serving us.
Why we can desperately want to change, yet still find ourselves pulled back into familiar ways of thinking and behaving.
That curiosity has shaped the coach I am today.
My work is grounded in evidence and informed by science, but it also recognises that people are wonderfully complex. Our beliefs, experiences, relationships, values and identities all influence the choices we make.
That's why I don't believe in one-size-fits-all advice.
Every person who sits in front of me brings a different story.
My role isn't to hand them another strategy or tell them who they should become.
It's to help them understand themselves more deeply, so they can make choices that genuinely fit who they are.
Because when you understand yourself, change stops feeling like a battle.
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I've always believed that people are capable of far more than they realise.
That belief isn't based on optimism. It's based on experience.
My own life has included seasons of struggle, uncertainty and loss. In my late teens and early twenties I experienced an eating disorder that taught me something I'll never forget: understanding what to do isn't always enough to create change.
Later, after six miscarriages before growing our family, I was reminded again that while we can't always choose what happens to us, we can learn how to respond.
Those experiences didn't make me a coach, but they deeply shaped the coach I became.
They taught me compassion over judgement. Curiosity over criticism.
And that lasting change rarely comes from trying harder. It comes from understanding ourselves more deeply.
Today, I live in Bannockburn, Central Otago with my husband and our three children.
Outside of coaching you'll usually find me walking/running in the hills, coffee in hand, forever arriving ten minutes early and appreciating the simple things that make life feel full.
I care deeply about science and evidence, but I also believe people are more than data points. Every person has their own story, their own experiences and their own way forward.
That's what continues to fascinate me.
And it's why I still feel incredibly privileged to do this work.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Physical Education (double major)
ICF Accredited Certified Coaching Professional
ACFEB Approved Practitioner (Eating Disorder Essentials)
Adv Cert. Nutrition
Certified Health + Wellness Coach
Cert. Psychology & Behaviour Change
Cert. Wellbeing Management
“I keep thinking about how good and genuinely happy I feel again, it’s insane. I just thought it was because we had a busy life and that’s how it was going to be going forward, I'm so glad I was wrong.”