WHO
AM I ?

Once upon a transition

A

Coach at heart.
Collector of stories.
Creative mind.
Sensitive spirit.

PLACES WHERE I LIVED, WORKED OR STUDIED

MY BACKGROUND

I graduate in Economics and Criminology from Louvain and Montreal universities.

I move to London. There I start my professional life at the Belgian Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, accompanying Belgian businesses setting up in the UK and founded ‘The Young Chamber’, for younger professionals. 

I settle in Paris; I quantum leap from the world of SMEs to the world of Multinational Corporations in joining LVMH – Moet Hennessy, in their HR department dealing on a regular basis with the expatriate employees.

Following a brief stopover in Brussels, I move to Hong Kong.  Incredible experience of integration into yet another culture, of personal and professional adaptation and reinvention: I become in turn, entrepreneur (Cake Design), train as teacher of French as a Foreign Language and as Executive Coach (ICF-ACTP) and finally become Director of the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.

It is when I move to Seoul that I fine-tune my interest for coaching people with a stronger focus on the trailing spouse’s particular situation.

My passion for coaching led me to start a two years master program in Coaching and Consulting for Change with INSEAD in Singapore of which I graduate in Sept 2018

Back in Belgium following 20 years of expatriation, I devote my first months to settle back in my home country with my family and the writing of my INSEAD master thesis: ‘Lost (and found) in translation: a phenomenological study of the trailing spouse upon returning home’

I join EDHEC Business School in France as part-time Management and Leadership professor and later in the year, I launch my own coaching consultancy S’SENS, to accompany those trailing spouses, in transition across countries, across jobs and across life.

HOW DO I WORK
AS A COACH ?

Once upon a transition….

My name is Stéphanie Gheysen and I have been a trailing spouse for 20 years. 3 continents, 7 destinations, 6 jobs, 3 universities, 1 husband and 3 children later, I am now happily settled back in my home country.

Today, as Executive Coach, through my company S’SENS, I help the trailing partners finding their own sense in this international adventure.

Yet, this big adventure had started ‘rather’ quietly and I could not have expected what was going to happen next…

Newly graduated from university, I started what should have been a two years experience abroad that quickly transformed into a 20 years long nomadic adventure. Along the way, I worked for small and large companies, I became a professional cake decorator, the GM of my country’s trade organization, an ICF certified executive coach, a professor at university and graduated from INSEAD in Change Management with a thesis about the return home of the trailing spouse.

Many questions …
I realized with those regular moves and through my personal struggle to reinvent myself again and again that I was not alone going through this… I had been surrounded, since the beginning of my international wandering by so many women going through the same experience…. and the same questioning: 

  • Who am I in this nomadic life? Beyond the charming spouse, the caring parent, the supporting friend, where is my professional life gone? – How can I define sense and purpose for me in this new context?
  • How can I value those experiences through a professional project? 
  • How can I prepare the next step?

…And the answers…
Through a deep reflection towards knowing myself better, combined with an exploration of all the possibles, I could redefine who I was and where I was going to. Surrounded by a bunch of kindred spirits, that is how I defined the present and set goals for an inspiring professional future.

Now that I am back, I have decided to put my expertise and accumulated experience to the service of others.

Through this bespoke coaching program, together, we will: 

  • Go on an exploration of yourself: what are your values, your desires but also your limitating beliefs, your blind spots
  • Define your professional project: where are you at the moment? What is your professional goal?
  • Take action: what do you have in your backpack? What else do you need? How to make the first steps towards this goal?

…Result oriented!
After completing this program, you will have a clearer view of: 

  • Where you stand 
  • What you want 
  • How to handle the next steps with confidence

You will feel energized by this exploration, empowered by your findings.
You will address the present and the future with more clarity and purpose. You will glow, and it will show!

You will glow, and it will show!

3 advices for a successful transformational journey!

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