We all know that real change doesn’t just happen overnight; it takes commitment, effort and determination, with often times the real work starting from the inside-out.
Niamh Hannan, who is a Chartered Psychologist with the Psychological Society of Ireland, with a special interest in Positive Psychology and Mindfulness, helps companies and individuals on a daily basis.
Ms Hannan previously worked as a therapist for 20 years and held a private practice before drawing a line under that chapter of her life and moving into coaching.
The Greystones resident’s career change came just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
“Covid just cancelled all my work, anything that had been there and I did was gone,” she recalled. “And there was a little bit of a void for a while, until I got clear on what I wanted to do, and I started working online and looked into digital marketing and all that good stuff.”
Speaking more about her new career path, Niamh said it’s been a big learning curve for her, especially learning the business side of things.
She said: “It’s been a big learning curve, since it’s a very different way of doing business. Whereas before, I suppose as somebody who’s always been interested in personal development and professional development, I’ve been doing self-development really for like, probably 25 years. Whereas the last two years, it’s been a big learning on the business side of things.”
Describing just what she does in her role, Ms Hannan explained: “I work B2B, I work with organisations to support the wellbeing of their workforce, but also with their leaders, really to support building emotional intelligence, and resilience.
“If leaders are in a good place, that impacts on the whole workforce. So I love to work with leaders, because that has a whole ripple effect.
Your work is not just impacting one person, you’re impacting the whole team.”
“The other side of work that I do then is I work with women in leadership, and I offer one to one coaching, and I have group programmes,” she added.
Last year Niamh ran a retreat programme that proved so successful she brought it back for this year, just last month.
During the retreat participants focus on self-leadership which integrates really into self-care, their plan for their well being and how to be at their best and as well as looking past their strengths.
WicklowNews.Net asked Niamh for her advice if any of our readers need guidance and support, which she answered by saying: “I think it always helps to talk to somebody and get some perspective because we believe our own thoughts.
“So we all have our own story that we tell ourselves. And depending on our experiences in life, you know, when our story can be very influenced by negative things that have happened in our life.
“It’s dangerous to believe that negative inner voice, so it can really help to have somebody else’s sounding board and a safe space to work out how to move forward, how to build self-belief, how to let go, you know, manage that stress and distress tolerance, as well as building confidence. But if we stay doing the same things, as we’ve always done, then you’re not going to grow.”
With Niamh’s work now online, it enables her to work all over the world, with a variety of companies and people.
Ms Hannan is apart of the Network Ireland Wicklow branch, and recently won the Solo Businesswoman category at their 2022 awards.
Speaking about joining the Network, Niamh said: “I always liked the feeling of the Network and what and what I liked about it was the cooperation rather than competition. It was people all supporting each other who had no sense of competing with each other even if you’re in the same area.
“I actually do think women are good at cooperating or sharing information and helping each other along the path, because, you know, in the workplace as leaders, I’m well aware that my niche is women and that as you go up the ladder groups get smaller and smaller.
“So it’s really important, we’re not on equal pay, there’s still a lot of obstacles for women in the workplace. So I think it’s really important that women do help each other.”
::For more information on Niamh’s work and to get in touch with her, visit NiamhHannan.com
