How Clara Clark can help you… your own confidential coach

Clara Trekking

Client Feedback:

Since my twenties, I have had several careers. Having qualified as a Montessori teacher, I realised that it was not possible to support myself and my two young children on a trainee teacher’s salary, and so took a circuitous route into business.

Managing the National Women’s Council, I was their chief executive, lobbying Government for legal and social change, liaising with women’s organisations all over Ireland, monitoring and driving many changes in social policy now taken for granted, such as: the removal of the concept of “illegitimacy”; full social welfare for deserted wives, lone parents and widows; contraception; broadening the definition of rape; judicial separation and divorce, etc.

After five years, I moved to manage Book House Ireland, Clé: the Irish Book Publishers’ Association and the Booksellers Association Irish Branch. During my time there I ran conferences, seminars, training courses, managed the Ireland Stand at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, and represented Ireland at the European Commission on book trade issues, which included a campaign to keep books zero rated for Value Added Tax.

Five years on (there is a pattern here!), I moved to become the director of fund-raising for the Rotunda Hospital Dublin, and after a year I was head-hunted to do the same job for the Coombe Women’s Hospital. Thus, I spent six years raising much-needed funds for newborn babies and their mothers’ needs in two of the best maternity hospitals in Europe. Most of the monies raised were by way of events such as concert dinners, fashion shows, golf classics, car draws etc.

Along the way I have written two editions of a book on successful lone parenting, “Coping Alone” (Arlen House, Dublin 1982) and “Coping Alone – A Handbook for Single Parents” (Poolbeg Press, Dublin 1990). I have had several articles on social issues published in the national press. I have also done many interviews on social issues, for international radio, TV, newspapers and magazines. Voluntary work has included family counselling and advice with AIM Group for Family Services and, more recently, a two-year stint as a telephone counsellor with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. For relaxation, I run, walk, cycle, cook, hill-walk, travel, garden, and read. And follow rugby, a new-found pleasure!

In 1995, having never before considered self-employment, I set up my own business, Clara Clark Event Management, (http://www.claraclark.ie). My company specialised in organising and managing business events – conferences, science events, awareness programmes etc. My clients included government departments, semi-State organisations and state-funded bodies, as well as corporate, national and international organisations and the voluntary sector.

This business has been very successful. However, wanting even more to my life, I decided to explore other potential career avenues and I discovered life coaching. I researched the opportunities, trained and qualified as a life and business coach, and set up More to Life Coaching in 2004..

And I love life coaching! It meets a stimulating creative need, it creates a perfect balance in my life, and working with clients is hugely rewarding and satisfying. Life Coaching, Career Coaching and Business Coaching are about working with you and encouraging you in whatever it is you want to become. With a Diploma in Life and Business Coaching, I am a member of ICF, the International Coach Federation.

I have an Advanced Diploma in Nutrition & Health Coaching (FETAC Level 6, BTEC and ITEC), offering Nutrition, Health & Wellness Coaching, as well as food intolerance testing, alongside the other services and support I can offer to you.

Since 2005, I have been a business coach and mentor with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Local Enterprise Office. I use Life Coaching, Career Coaching and Business Coaching skills to mentor people in business and in start-up companies. Business Coaching is one of the most effective means of helping others to achieve peak performance. Business Coaching provides support, focus, motivation and feedback, helping you to explore and expand your goals. Since 2020, Covid-19 has me mentoring many businesses coping with sudden change and loss of earnings in their businesses. I act as a judge for companies’ and schools’ Enterprise and Environmental Awards, and with the Business Degree students in Dun Laoghaire IADT.  http://www.localenterprise.ie/dlr.

Appointed in 2013 as a (voluntary) adviser and business consultant to www.crann.ie, a charity whose mission is to enhance the environment of Ireland through planting, promoting, protecting and increasing awareness about trees and woodlands.  I am now the chairperson of the Project Management Group and project manager of Giants Grove, http://www.giantsgrove.ie, an international project to plant over 1,000 redwood trees in the grounds of Birr Castle, Co. Offaly. People from all over the world are now sponsoring the planting of what will be the largest grove of Redwoods outside of California.

Another interest is www.s2s.ie the promotion of a 22 km dedicated, level, off-road cycle and walkway around Dublin bay, from Sutton to Sandycove. We are lobbying the local authorities to build and support this brilliant way to enhance Dublin city as a bay city, get people out walking and on their bicycles, and improve the environment and their health. Please support us. 

I brought Cycling Without Age, www.cyclingwithoutage.ie to Ireland in 2017. A Danish concept, CWA volunteers take residents in nursing and care homes and in the community out for slow cycle rides on specially-built trishaws, at no charge, with the pedal-power supplied by volunteer ‘pilot’ cyclists. Check out the website for more details.

My own very varied life experience keeps my mind open to your possibilities and potential, and I will enjoy working with you as you become the very best at whatever you wish to be.

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