About me, Joette Thomas

It is truly a privilege to be able to make a dream I hatched in my 20’s, more than 35 years ago, a reality. To host spaces in which women can tune into themselves more deeply, that they might align their lives with what they truly care about and let that deep knowing guide their choices and actions in the world.

In 2024, as I finally bring this into being, it feels like the world needs it more than ever. A space for women in which they can reconnect with all that they are. Most importantly, for themselves. And, through more fully living a life that is aligned to what they care about, bringing their most resourced selves to their families, friends, communities, wider society and our troubled planet.

In 2023, in my mid-50s, I decided it was time to ‘close the loop’ and return to working with women exclusively, as I did in my 20’s. Finally realising this vision at this stage of life means bringing an additional 35 years of personal and professional life experience including thousands of hours spent coaching and facilitating groups and more than a thousand hours of additional training that are now in my ‘toolkit’.

I have been working with women since the early 1990s, when I completed my post-grad in Psychology and Women’s Studies in the USA and worked in a women’s therapy centre in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I have lived in Edinburgh since 1994, where I have raised two daughters as a lone parent and had my own business since 2003 -when I realised being a working parent with no family support network meant I had to have control of my diary. I couldn’t have imagined how what seemed an impossible challenge would unfold over 20+ years as an incredible opportunity.

As a consultant, my work has primarily been in charities and public services like the NHS, including many years working in and alongside domestic abuse, rape crisis, mental health and other support organisations. I am a widely experienced and trauma-informed accompanier.

‘Womenswork.life’ is my ‘final’ business. As well as becoming a sole trader in 2003, in 2012 I was a co-founder of www.animateconsulting.co.uk, where I continue to do some work in organisations because it still gives me joy, and means I can create this new business with more flexibility around price as it isn’t my sole income.

I am excited that Women’s Work is a place to bring my whole self - no need to leave any parts of who I truly am ‘at home’. On that note, I live with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). 80% of people living with auto-immune conditions are women, and I look forward to creating spaces for us to come together and explore what it can mean to live our best lives, even with these parts of ourselves that it can be so hard to accept and integrate.

Having become an ICF certified coach in 2004, I have gone on to coach 300+ people, and undertaken continuous CPD in the intervening decades. In 2024 I have completed additional qualifications in Systemic Constellations https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/coaching-tools-approaches-podcast-series-constellations, Neuroscience of Transformation and Embodied Transformation skills for coaches https://www.coachesrising.com/.

I am so excited to begin this next phase of my journey. I trust that by ‘shining my light’ I will meet hundreds or even thousands of amazing, diverse, women who are wanting to brighten the beam of their own lights in the world. Women wanting to find a place to slow down, restore, refocus and re-energize themselves and one another.