What I’ve learned from my clients (part 2)

So, after that initial phone call, I started helping other people who came to me –all through word of mouth. It seemed that the resources I’d collected from the US and the books I’d read really did help.

But most of all my willingness to offer a space for them to talk through their situation was what helped clients most. I didn’t charge anything for some while, then just a little towards more books and resources.  The more I listened, the more I learned from every person I met.

Lesson 3: listening is key

I listened to what these people were saying: they felt unskilled, out of date, too old, scared to go back to what they had happily done before, having been out of paid work for perhaps six months or a few years. Technology was growing fast (word processing, not the internet!) and computer skills had transformed previous work roles, secretarial especially, that old stalwart for married women at the time.

Everyone felt the world was leaving them behind.

Lesson 4: you are not too old, you are not without skills

And so it was that, without realising it, listening and supporting these women back into the workplace, I saw that age was not the issue. Age (or time away from paid employment) is not the problem in finding the kind of work you love and need.

What you need – what everybody needs – are three little things:

Clarity, focus and CONFIDENCE.

But how do you get these magic ingredients if you’re confused, or feel out of touch?

Here we are, more than 25 years later, 25 years of my own learning, training (in counselling) and practising. Creating resources that really help. Designing and running groups. Working with many hundreds of clients, all through word of mouth.

There are a lot more lessons, almost too many to count now. But I keep learning.