Comeback Coach
Feeling shaky after maternity or another long leave from work? COMEBACK COACH is the wobbly-bottomed podcast about kickass comebacks with coaching psychologist and author, Jessica Chivers. She’s exactly what you need when you’re riding the return-to-work rollercoaster.
Episodes
103 episodes
101. COMEBACK - Francesca Woodhouse - Edelman – proactive career management – working FT with 4 kids – having true partnership at home
Hello Bright Minds, today I’m talking to Francesca Woodhouse who is the MD of UK Workplace Advisory at Edelman and mother of four children. She works full time and is married to Lewis who also works full time as a Head of Communications. You’re...
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45:16
100. LIVE SPECIAL - Raising your career through the Primary School years - candid chat with Amanda Newman, Liz Twiney, Emmie Faust & Rachel Maguire
Hello Bright Minds, in this episode we go beyond the comeback and discuss the habits, resources, ways of working and ways of thinking that help support career development when you have young children.We recorded this episode in front of ...
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1:00:29
104. COMEBACK - Helena Morrissey - ex CEO - 9 maternity leaves - pay rise negotiations - 30% club founder - finances after a break
Hello Bright Minds, today I’m talking to Baroness Helena Morrissey, ex CEO of Newton Asset Management, founder of the 30% Club and founding ambassador of AJ Bell’s Money Matters campaign to help women feel good about investing. She’s also the m...
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38:37
99. JUST JESSICA - Psychology of crying at work – how to limit damage to your career + what managers should do when a team member cries
Hello Brights Minds, I’ve been thinking a lot about displays of emotions at work because of the increasing number of women I’ve been coaching over the last 12 months who’ve described being taken by surprise by their tears and worrying about the...
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28:23
98. COACH – Amber – career change + not burning bridges when you have multiple (potential) job offers
Hello Bright Minds, my guest coachee today is Amber (not her real name), a past coachee of mine who I worked with years and years ago and is now on the brink of making a second career change. She wanted to have a space to think about how to nav...
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40:22
97. COMEBACK – Caroline Smith – The Entertainer – Relentless resilience job hunting after redundancy – being a wildcard candidate - senior marketing women struggling to land jobs
Hello Bright Minds, I am really happy to be back with a very vibrant episode to kick off season eight where Marketing Director Caroline Smith from the toy shop, The Entertainer talk about:Making sideways and strategic ‘downward’ car...
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39:47
96. COMEBACK - Beth Wooller - Strategy Manager at Sainsburys - sabbatical - burnout - a break from hitting the next career goal - writing a book + interior design
Hello Bright Minds, keen eyes might notice that this episode is out a day earlier than usual. I’ve chosen to release this episode of Tuesday 3rd December to tie-in with International Day of Person’s with a Disability. And it feels fitting to ha...
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36:48
95. Rebecca Andrews - Pilot - missing your job - returning to flying after maternity leave - yes YOU CAN still do it!
Hello Bright Minds,This is the penultimate episode of season seven of COMEBACK COACH and it’s inspired by my 16 year old daughter Artemis, who wants to become a pilot. This is something she decided upon at the start of the year and sinc...
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38:07
94. COMEBACK – Laura Scougall – ITV – redundancy risk on maternity leave – being open at work about demands at home (autistic son) – how to get back to sleep
Hello Bright Minds, my conversation today is with Laura Scougall, Head of ITV Academy. Knowing Laura is a chatty, confident person we decided to make it a freeform conversation without any pre-agreed questions so it’s a bit of a random episode ...
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48:36
93. COMEBACK - Sarah Banks - Arcadis - Adjusting to big changes at work after maternity leave – benefits of being main earner - what is a company shadow board?
Hello Bright Minds, my guest today is Sarah Banks from Arcadis, the global design and engineering company. Sarah has two little children and was promoted after both of her maternity leaves. We have a wide-ranging conve...
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28:43
92. COMEBACK - Tara Ferguson - breast cancer - working through treatment - medically-induced menopause - how to stop women leaving in their 40s + 50s?
Hello Bright Minds. My guest today is someone who wanted a platform to talk about her experience of continuing to work on and off during breast cancer treatment with the single goal of helping others find their way through this really dif...
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47:36
91. COMEBACK – Dan Hewitt – Ocado – navigating the pull between career and family – having coaching – am I having impact at work?
Hello Bright Minds, I hope you’re on good form and thank you for choosing to listen to this episode of Comeback Coach. Dan Hewitt is the Head of Talent Management and Development at Ocado, the UK online-only supermarket HQ-ed in Her...
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29:47
90. JUST JESSICA - Boundaries - psychological job control - why bosses need to talk about downtime (but not tell us not to work weekends and evenings)
Hello Bright Minds, this episode is inspired by the previous where my guest, Ramona Aning from Ketchum, talked about how her CEO is open about family time and downtime. I'm geeking out on "psychological job control" and "segm...
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19:49
89. COMEBACK – Ramona Aning – Ketchum – setting boundaries at work after maternity leave – being yourself – sussing out a company’s culture before you join
Hello Bright Minds, I am really happy to be back with a very vibrant episode to kick off season seven. We ended season six with an episode on the psychology of focus and attention and how to adapt your day when you wake up absolutely shattered....
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38:16
88. JUST JESSICA - Finding focus when you’re stretched and shattered – psychology of attention – deep work - coachees' top tips for traction
Hello Bright Minds, I hope you’re on good form and by the end of this episode got a better sense of how you can help yourself find focus, sustain your attention and experience traction. I'm
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32:06
87. JUST JESSICA - neuropsychology of therapeutic writing - what, how, when, why?
Hello Bright Minds, I'm inspired to bring you this episode as I've been invited to be part of a 'Human Library' at CIPD's Festival of Work where my title is "How to not burnout as a parent of a neurodiverse or challenge child." Journaling or 'f...
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19:38
86. COMEBACK - Emma Young - Firefighter – speaking up when things aren’t right at work – trying to change maternity policy - 'boreout' + psychology of uncertainty
Hello Bright Minds, at the end of 2023 I read about a landmark legal victory for a former Avon Fire and Rescue Service employee, Sasha Acheson, who won her sex discrimination case against the organisation. Reading that piece got me curious abou...
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35:18
85. COACH - Sabeha - designing your ideal work week - how to be more present at home - experiencing more joy
Hello Bright Minds, my guest coachee today is Sabeha, a first time mother based in London who has returned to work for a Californian tech company. It's a conversation about the tension that exists within us when we want to give more to work and...
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44:05
84. COMEBACK - Yvette Bramley - Psychologist – my most upbeat guest – how to feel success and get a grip on guilt – is it OK to change your mind about career aspirations?
Hello Bright Minds, my guest today is Yvette Bramley, a woman who describes herself as a full time mum and part time business psychologist. She works with the Quality Team at Lexxic, a specialist psychological consultancy and the focus of her r...
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45:25
83. JUST JESSICA - Managing rumination + keeping healthy habits when you’re consumed with problems at work + psychology of meditation
This short “JUST JESSICA EPISODE” is about managing rumination, how to keep healthy habits going when you’re consumed by work and the psychology of mindful meditation. It’s inspired by a particular coaching conversation I had one Tuesday a few ...
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12:58
82. COACH - Brian Ballantyne - redundancy from Amazon - opportunities on gardening leave - psychology of being 'at risk' of redundancy
Hello Bright Minds, this is a very different episode to anything I’ve done before. Brian is a chap whose energy, openness and actions around supporting fathers I’ve admired on LinkedIn for quite some time. Throughout the time Brian and I have b...
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1:11:24
81. COMEBACK – Michaela Thomas – Clinical Psychologist - relationship satisfaction after baby – keeping perfectionism in check - ADHD and returning to work
Hello Bright Minds, my guest today is Michaela Thomas, a clinical psychologist I’ve been really looking forward to chatting to because we’ve been batting voice notes back and forth for about a year and then I heard Michaela on a podcast ...
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56:34
80. COMEBACK - Lianne Baker - Enfuse – making family as childcare run smoothly – working on maternity leave isn’t a bad thing – knowing your worth
Hello Bright Minds, my guest today is Lianne Baker, Head of People & Culture at Enfuse who had surprise baby number three last year and we caught up at the end of her five month maternity leave. Lianne is an award-winning People professiona...
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36:38
79. COMEBACK – Ros Kwok – When divorce drives a return to work – 50 job application rejections – psychology of hope
Hello Bright Minds, my guest today is Ros Kwok, a woman I was introduced to after asking one of the wonderful Partners at our past podcast sponsor, Rayden Solicitors if she had a client who had had to return to work due to a change in financial...
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59:47
78. COMEBACK - Andrea Byrne – ITV Newsreader - projecting confidence when you don’t feel it – YES you can still do your job – how to have NO GUILT ‘me time’
Hello Bright Minds, my guest today is Andrea Byrne, one of the faces of ITV News and a past coachee of mine. She anchors the BAFTA award-winning daily news programme Wales at Six, as well as ITV’s national bulletins. This includes ITV Wee...
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37:41