“Traveller, there is no path. The path is made by walking.” Antonio Machado

How we got to cross paths
Welcome. I’m Clare Saponia. With over 20 years in education and training, writing and arts sector project work, I’ve always been hungry to explore all areas of interest and skill. Lust for life, oozing curiosity and a contagious sense of adventure are key features that impact positively on those around me, above all my growth-focused clients. I chose to become an empowerment coach.
I realised early-on that my passion and strength lay in helping people change the way they perceive themselves and their
personal development: people who genuinely wanted to build happier, more fulfilling lives. It was how I wanted to spend my time. Because happiness resonates, and as my clients will testify, there’s always room for growth.
About five years ago, I began shifting my focus specifically towards empowerment coaching and Reiki. Clients benefit from my intuition, perceptiveness and clarity of insight that enables them to become more aware of their own power and potential. I call a spade “a spade”, am direct but kind, both open and human, and a real sucker for humour.
I won’t let you lie to yourself for the sake of a softer ride… Because what would the point be in that? I bring a wealth of both experience and life experiences to the table, so that you just need to bring you. Our coaching sessions, whether face to face or online, provide you with a safe space to put down your armour and just be yourself.
Having spent a large part of my adult life abroad, I also coach in German and French, providing life coaching for expats. I’ve worked with adults and children alike, young people with behavioural and learning difficulties such as Dyslexia, ASD and ADHD, which is why I offer empowerment coaching for teenagers too.
Now based in London, I also coach online globally. Time zones and commuting stress no longer have to stand in the way of personal growth. We just have to want to grow. So, are you ready to take the next step? Get in touch with me, Clare Saponia, to find out how Freeflow empowerment coaching could benefit your path.
What inspired me to develop Freeflow Coaching for adults and teenagers?
Backtrack to the age of six and I’d already decided to learn foreign languages and live abroad. What seemed like a fearless, free spirit on the outside was really anything but. For only with the benefit of time and experience, did I also learn the huge gulf between running to and running from given situations. I was an escape artist. A bold one. But an escape artist nevertheless. And it’s been quite a journey. That’s why I choose to coach both adults and teenagers.
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Go back a year to the age of five and I was physically abused my first schoolteacher. It began with her hitting me in front of the class for daydreaming. Yes, shock horror: a 5-year-old daydreaming! I was the only kid who could tell the time and was told to keep track of how long a classmate was in the WC, but then drifted into a more exciting zone, as five-year-olds do, and was publicly punished and humiliated for it.
This teacher then chose to target me verbally for the next six years. I related ability and knowledge to punishment and figured it was something I was better off hiding. All in all, primary school could have been a more pleasant experience and the only way I could cope with it and regain some sort of control over myself was to withdraw and build a physical and emotional buffer around me.
In short, I went from being fussy-eating infant to an overweight kid and then a very underweight teenager. The only thing I felt I could steer was what went into my body. So yes, you guessed it: Basically, I was using my body as a punchbag for everything I could not control on the outside, re-beating bruises that had never healed because I was still blaming myself for being abusable. A belief system built on false foundations.
And far from uncommon. Pain can be addictively familiar, as can the fake feeling of power you think you have when punishing yourself. In short, I had to unlearn the behaviours I thought I needed to manage my childhood. Because as an almost-adult, my behaviour towards my own body was standing between me and self-fulfilment. I had to reset my relationship to my physical self and the signals my body was sending me.
Since childhood, the moments where I’ve felt freest and happiest were those where I was truly grounded in my body: dancing, swimming or just walking etc. Not escaping or denying it. And you could argue that I didn’t need to move 1000 miles away to discover that. But then, on the other hand, I think I personally needed the physical distance, different tongue and mindset in order to notice the changes I had to make.
I got involved in various forms of dance, Reiki and nutrition, as well as art and writing projects. The messages our bodies send us are so clear and unambiguous. If we listen. I mean really listen and learn to trust. Because it we don’t know what our own bodies are telling us, how can we know what they’re communicating to others?
And we wonder why people react to us in a way that shows very little understanding…
The fact is, developing physical and emotional awareness is not only the key to recognising what choices and changes we need to make to achieve our personal goals, but also a super power in establishing positive, wholesome human relationships. That’s why Freeflow Coaching focuses on boosting consciousness. Because it always comes back to the body – For it tells you everything you need to grow happily.
Looking to get more out of life for you and your family? I coach online worldwide, as well as face-to-face in London. Simply message me at Freeflow Coaching and let’s talk.
Why does writing play such a big role in my approach to life coaching?
People often ask me about the role writing has played in my own path as an empowerment coach. I’ve been involved in creative activities for most of my adult life out of choice because Freeflow is also about a way of being. There’s so much more to it than scrawling or tapping away at a keyboard – emotionally and developmentally.
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For me, writing is both a mental and physical activity simultaneously. So, formulating thoughts and feelings in text form not only enables us to search deep inside and externalise what would otherwise just spin around in our heads, but allows for greater clarity and understanding of ourselves – and others – from another angle.
It gives us a chance to really listen to ourselves in a different medium and reassess the truth of our story – an essential practice in training us to acknowledge what has changed and where we could still grow, even if we find it hard to be open with others. Nothing is more important than recognising what we need to feel fulfilled.
From diaries and blogs to fiction and poetry, by simply writing, you go from passive to active mode. As for the motion, you can physically feel it working in time with your thoughts, the movement of your hands and fingers, the flow of the ink or rhythmic tapdance on your keys – the sights, sounds, sensations and smells around you, influencing you at any given time and boosting consciousness.
Because writing is also dance. And it will help create flow inside you, rather than allowing issues to pile up and cause emotional blockages that hinder change and progress. That’s why clients are encouraged to document their insights and feelings throughout the coaching process and beyond, be it on paper, phone or PC.
After many years abroad, I now coach in London, in addition to online around the world. Freeflow Coaching was born on The Sunshine Coast inspired by powerful natural elements that benefited me health-wise, as well as creatively and developmentally. In a word, it just felt right.
I have written three poetry collections: Federal Gods (Palewell Press 2022), The Oranges of Revolution (Smokestack Books 2015) and Copyrighting War and other Business Sins (2011), and contributed to various anthologies, including: Smokestack Lightning (Smokestack Books 2022), They want all our teeth to be theirs (Culture Matters 2021), The Cry of the Poor (Culture Matters 2021), The Brown Envelope Book (Caparison Books 2021), Witches, Warriors, Workers (Culture Matters 2020), Kakania – An Anthology (Austrian Cultural Forum 2015), The Robin Hood Book – Verse versus Austerity (Caparison Books 2012), Emergency Verse – Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State (Caparison Books 2011).
You can read some book reviews here.
Committed to enhancing the real you? Simply get in touch for your free empowerment consultation and let’s make that happen.