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BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE COACHING
You know what you want to change. You just might not know what actually needs changing.
You might be overthinking decisions, avoiding conversations, doubting yourself, taking on too much or finding yourself reacting in ways that do not feel like you.
You have probably thought about what you need to do differently. You may have even tried. But knowing what you want to change is not always enough to change it.
Because it is often not the thing you think it is.
The behaviour you notice is often just the visible part.
Underneath it may be a belief, a learned response, an internal conflict or something you're trying to protect, avoid or achieve.
When we understand what's actually driving it, we have somewhere much more useful to start, so the change you make can actually last.
Goldman Sachs EY Ashurst Xero
What is continuing this way costing you?
You do not need to be falling apart for something to deserve your attention. When the same pattern keeps showing up, it can start costing you time, energy, confidence, opportunities and connection.
Do you need to control how everything gets done, even by others?
Even when you don't want to micromanage, letting someone else do it their way can feel harder than doing it yourself.
Do you overthink until you're not sure which thought is even yours?
The more you turn it over, the less certain you become of what you actually think, or what's just noise.
Do you want to handle pressure well, but feel chaos take over anyway?
You know how you want to respond. Under pressure, something else seems to take the wheel.
Because when an old pattern keeps making the choices for you, staying the same can slowly start to feel like shrinking.
Whether it's a pattern only you notice, or one your whole team keeps running into, it starts the same way: understanding what's actually underneath it.
Client Reviews
Seeing what is underneath
Working with Tara has helped me see patterns in myself that I knew were there but couldn’t fully understand on my own. She has a real skill for listening to what I’m saying, noticing what might be underneath it and asking the questions that help me make connections I wouldn’t have reached by myself.
Creating real change
Working with Tara has genuinely changed my life in such a short amount of time. The shifts I’ve made since working with her have been huge, both personally and professionally, and I’m so grateful for the impact she’s had on my life.
Feeling safe
I always felt safe to be honest and vulnerable, without any fear of being judged. Tara made me feel seen, heard and valued.
Trusting myself again
I find myself responding to situations with greater confidence, clarity and purpose, and I already feel like I have a stronger framework for making decisions across all areas of my life.
What becomes possible
Change isn't about getting rid of parts of yourself.
Control, overthinking, staying quiet or taking on too much can all be meeting a need, protecting something important or responding in a way you've learned works for you.
Understanding what's driving the behaviour gives you something more powerful than simply trying to stop it: choice.
Greater choice
Understand what you need, and choose how you meet it.
Hand something over without automatically needing to take it back. Make a decision without questioning it for the rest of the day. Recognise when control is helping you and when another response could give you a better outcome.
Greater self trust
Know yourself well enough to trust your own response.
Say what you actually think in the meeting, rather than thinking about what you should have said afterwards. Make a decision and move forward without needing someone else to tell you it was the right one. Trust what you know, what you feel and what matters to you.
Greater presence
Have more space for what's happening right now.
Be in the conversation instead of in your head. Come home after a difficult day and be present with the people you love. Notice an old reaction showing up and know you have a choice about what happens next.
The goal isn't to remove the behaviours that have helped you get this far. It's to understand what they're doing for you, so when they're no longer giving you the outcome you want, you have another way to respond.
More choice. More presence. More possibility in what comes next.
What change can look like
Three clients. Three different reasons for coming to coaching. And three examples of what became possible when we explored what was sitting underneath.
As we explored what was happening, she began to recognise beliefs and influences she'd absorbed from others that no longer reflected her own experience. Through questions and exploration, she started seeing her situation differently and finding answers that felt true for her.
She built a stronger relationship with herself and learned that fear didn't have to disappear before she could move forward.
She still feels fear sometimes. What's different is that it no longer gets the final word.
Read the related insight →She would put them off, worried about getting them wrong while already juggling work, family and everything else she was carrying.
As we explored the pattern, she recognised an expectation that she needed to do things herself for them to be done properly, alongside a strong attachment to how the outcome should look.
Understanding that pattern created more choice. She began trusting others with more, loosening the expectation that everything had to be perfect and finding it easier to make decisions and move forward.
With less pressure to get everything exactly right came more peace, trust and freedom in her choices.
Read the related insight →What emerged was a pattern of controlling and planning the details around her when things felt unpredictable. As we explored further, she recognised something else underneath it: when she felt overwhelmed, she tended to hold everything herself rather than expressing what she needed.
The work wasn't about removing control. It was about understanding what it was doing for her and creating another choice.
She began recognising the pattern when it appeared, expressing what she needed and allowing others to support her rather than carrying everything alone.
It was never about getting rid of control. It was about having more ways to respond when she needed support.
"Working with Tara has helped me see patterns in myself that I knew were there but couldn't fully understand on my own. In one of our sessions, she helped me understand that my tendency to control certain situations was often connected to needs I wasn't expressing directly, and guided me through an exercise that helped me let go of the belief that I couldn't ask for what I needed. The biggest shift was realising I can express my needs without making someone else's response mean anything about my worth."
Not sure where to start?
A free reflective guide with five questions to help you get curious about what's really driving a pattern you keep noticing in yourself.
Not another strategy. A different way of seeing what's actually there.
My role is not to tell you what decisions to make or who you need to become. It is to create a space where you can understand what is really happening, see what can be difficult to see on your own and decide what feels right for you.
Before founding Rise & Thrive, I spent more than a decade supporting professionals, graduates and leaders through growth and development across Xero, EY, Goldman Sachs and Ashurst.
Today, I bring that experience together with my training as an ICF-credentialed Professional Certified Coach (PCC), working with people who are ready to understand what is shaping the way they think, respond and make decisions.
My mission is to help people understand what is getting in the way of how they want to live, work and lead, creating the freedom to let go of what no longer needs to shape them, reconnect with who they are and make meaningful change in the way they show up for themselves and others.
Meet Tara Isaac
