When I was diagnosed with MS in 2021, it was the kind of plot twist I wouldn’t have written for myself. It came after years of mysterious symptoms, medical appointments and a fair bit of denial.
Then, just as I was beginning to come to terms with it… BAM! Covid lockdown. Talk about timing.
Suddenly, the whole world was isolating, but for me it felt like more of a relief and it offered a way for me to take time for myself. I wasn’t just locked inside my home, I was locked in with my own trauma, navigating the emotional aftermath of my diagnosis. Eventually I turned to counselling and psychotherapy, which were vital. I cried, processed, grieved, raged (occasionally with wine and chocolate), and I tried to begin the journey of acceptance.
However, eventually, I hit a wall of depression. I had tried to do the innerwork, but I was still stuck. I knew my story wasn’t over, but I didn’t know how to write the next chapter.
Then one random evening - probably while looking through me phone - I came across a life coaching seminar and I signed up. Just a click on Eventbrite. I had no expectations. But something shifted that night. It was both very emotional and life changing. The life coach showed me not just who I was, but who I could still become.
I realised that while counselling helped me make peace with the diagnosis, coaching could help me build my future. It wasn’t about fixing me, but about reimagining how I could show up in this new body, in this new reality.
Reclaiming my joy
I started coaching. I set goals - small at first - and slowly began to reclaim bits of joy, ambition, and self-trust that had been buried under fear, anxiety, confusion and fatigue. I made peace with the walking aids I now use. I stopped seeing them as symbols of limitation and started seeing them as tools of empowerment. Sure, they clashed with my shoes, but style is overrated anyway.
Then came the next step: I trained as a wellness life coach myself. Because if coaching could help me after my diagnosis, I knew it could help others, too.
I wanted to be the person I had needed during those dark early days. Not to replace therapy, but to complement it, to help others move from acceptance to action.
Now I support others living with MS to reclaim their lives, MS may be part of my story, but it doesn’t get to write the ending.
I do.
So, if you’re living with MS and feel like your spark’s gone out, hear this: you’re not broken. You’re becoming. Life coaching didn’t cure my MS, but it helped me fall back in love with life again - wonky walk, wild dreams and all.
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