Testimonials | Doctor Amina

Testimonials

90% of my clients report that they got MORE than they expected.

“Amina is one of the most incredible coaches and entrepreneurs I know. She’s an extraordinary woman with world class professional training and a track record in helping clients do exceptional things.”

- Rich Litvin, Coach, Author, Founder of 4PC

"Amina combines the power of synthesis with great listening skills, and a sense for actionable guidance."

P. Matthieu. European Space Agency

"Amina approaches coaching with clinical precision. She identified my problem quickly and we began working on it right away."

John Purkiss. Executive Search consultant and author

"When considering whether to start coaching I was uncertain about what I might achieve but I knew I needed a better strategy for dealing with increasing complexity in my professional life.

Like a lot of people I am pulled in many directions and Amina gave me the tools to successfully juggle broadcasting, research and a home life. I was forced to think about what I wanted to achieve and then given practical tools to get there. I wanted practical help (which I got in spades) but the main benefit turned out to be a rediscovery of inspiration.

I would recommend Amina in a heartbeat. She’s kind but firm, compassionate and practical. In short, everything you would ever want in a coach."

Dr Chris van Tulleken. Doctor, scientist and BAFTA winning BBC TV presenter

"I initially thought that coaching with Amina might be an extravagant thing to do in order to address certain areas which I thought I should perhaps deal with myself.

However, the coaching process has enabled me to bring about real and positive change. I have more confidence and self-belief, having seen evidence of changes in my life, both professional and personal.

I had regular meetings with Amina every two weeks over a defined period of 6 months. The coaching relationship was very good and I was able to be completely open and honest in these. It was valuable to work through situations and problems, and it was very interesting to unearth the underlying true blocks and conditioning which were the real areas to focus on (e.g the inner critic).

In the initial stages of the coaching, we addressed and overcame a lot of personal issues, limitations and assumptions, which were holding me back. As this became less of an issue, I was able to move forward with professional goals. I started off with smaller projects and improving team dynamics, then working toward larger goals. Since starting coaching I have achieved major goals including securing a senior consultant post in a world class hospital that will enable me to lead a service and becoming a Fellow at the National Institutes of Health and Care Excellence.

Coaching has supported me in several ways including:

Greatly improved self-confidence and self-belief, and understanding thought processes that may have been holding me back.
Better ability to define and realise goals – initially small and self-related, moving to larger and more ambitious life and work goals
Improved relationships – ability to observe team dynamics and to understand the ways in which people work.
Better relationships with work colleagues– more confident in being assertive and asking for what I need/ my service needs, rather than hiding and being unhappy.
Being open to starting a new, healthy romantic relationship after a difficult period.

I would definitely recommend coaching with Amina. She is extremely capable, insightful and a warm and wonderful person with great positive energy. She has an ability to observe a scenario and offer a range of different perspectives. She is always on your side, supporting you for who you are, rather than who you think you should be. Amina is also extremely intelligent and well educated, and her advice is always supported by strong philosophical, psychological and practical principles. In some areas, she has directed me toward various literature, which has been very helpful.

The sessions are relatively free/ loose, which allows room to discuss and address goals, blocks and which direction to take. I usually have some targets to work on following each session, reinforcing my impression of progress.

I think that Amina’s coaching would help a lot of people with a range of goals, blocks, situations, both personal and professional, and on a large and small scale. I would highly recommend it. Some people may need a small push and everyone needs to be motivated and invested in the process, as what you get out of it is related to what you put in."

Ms. Ophthalmology Consultant, UK NHS.

"Amina is naturally gifted at coaching. She’s brilliant at identifying the root cause and nature of a situation and suggesting practical strategies for change. I've been impressed by her approach, enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge in this area."

Dr Modi Mwatsama, Policy and Science lead, Wellcome Trust

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"I started pursuing personal development before I embarked on personal coaching. Through this I learned that coaching would be beneficial for me and approached it with a positive mindset having decided to spend money and time for this purpose. Prior to that, I was concerned about the cost and time investment and whether it would work.

Through coaching with Amina, I learned the techniques to recognize, and acknowledge my emotions and explain their origin in various situations thus leading to better emotional control and personal satisfaction overall.

I began to see how to turn personal failures and seemingly difficult situations into opportunities to grow and develop.
I created a vision with goals for my life and career and my identity statement to which I turn on daily basis.
I recognised some of my limiting beliefs and gained confidence to do things that I didn't believe I could do before because I thought I was not good enough, especially when it comes to leading.
I made a progress on a previous project (publication from my PhD thesis).
I have less anxiety associated with working as a doctor on a team, when many aspects of day to day work are out of my control. I am less stressed about the future job opportunities.

I would recommend coaching with Amina. She has an excellent understanding of clients' needs. Through coaching with Amina I was encouraged to take a different perspective to certain challenges which made a positive impact on my private life and career. Being a medical doctor, Amina has a great understanding of medical career pathway and the segments of coaching related to my medical career were invaluable.

Coaching has been the best investment for me so far!"

Dr Rajna Golubic (double PhD), Academic Specialist Registrar in Medicine (NHS) and Gates Scholar, Cambridge

"Amina is an incredibly skilled and focused coach, helping me to get to the bottom of a tricky work issue and more importantly helping me work out practical and realistic strategies and tools to address it. The coaching helped to give me clarity in dealing with a matter where I felt there were several competing and contradictory factors. My understanding of why I was responding to the issue in a certain way changed, what I wanted to do in response changed and I realised how best to go about it. Having the tools to help me think through and address the issue really helped to keep me focused. This greatly increased my confidence and through Amina's support and encouragement, and the right amount of constructive challenge, I got the result I wanted. I would highly recommend Amina to others."

Helen, Independent Consultant in healthcare, UK

"Coaching has given me a new perspective to assess my circumstances. I also notice a marked difference in my anxiety and worry levels. My doubts were around the cost and utility of coaching. I was at the peak of confusion and internal disorder when I met Amina. All of this is getting better. The anxiety has left and when it does come, I am able to think through issues or write them down and come back to it. Through coaching I have also been able to organize my ideas long term and also prioritize more effectively.

Through working with Amina, I have:

Reduced my anxiety
I made progress toward completing my first post-PhD manuscript
I made progress with defining mentee/mentor boundaries
Developed as a thought leader in my field and was accepted on an Emerging Leader in Biosecurity Fellowship program at Johns Hopkins.
Achieved my best consulting contract so far and will be working with an intergovernmental agency

The most valuable of aspect of coaching to me is Amina’s contribution of a different perspective to my circumstances and my goals/objectives. I really appreciate the resources and anecdotes that she shares as well.

I believe that Amina’s focus on high performing individuals is very important. She applies her years of training and knowledge to encourage and develop talent which helps to confer confidence and authenticity to her client. The confidence bit is truly important for early career folks or people that are about to transfer to a new career or a new life path.

I have thoroughly enjoyed coaching with Amina. I feel like she is well prepared when we meet and she is a good example of creating boundaries and yet having a high level of integrity.

I cannot emphasize enough the contribution that coaching has made particularly to combating stress and anxiety around my career and my success. I really do feel more equipped and better positioned to achieve my highest goals."

Dr Ngozi Erondu, PhD. Founder and Managing Director The Global Bridge Group LLC; Emerging Leader in Biosecurity (Johns Hopkins)

Helen, Independent Consultant in healthcare, UK

When thinking about starting coaching, I wasn’t sure it would work, or that I was clear enough about what I needed to do, whether I had the time, the value of coaching and whether talking would fix things.

It has helped me accept my style and my way and value what I can bring to an organisation. It has helped me understand my skills and what I can offer to the world and move away from feeling like I need to conform to a defined leadership style.

The most valuable aspect of coaching was accepting my skills and way of working and understanding my motivation and self more. Other results include:

* Identifying my skills
* Reducing my anxiety particularly in terms of not knowing what is next 
* Understanding my boundaries better and accepting I don’t need to fix things for everyone at all times.
* Taking active steps towards creating a new work role with greater autonomy and seeing favourable changes in team dynamics which eventually enabled this

Amina has a great way of listening and helping you distill out the key messages from your brain’s chatter! I’ve had coaching before but this experience was very different. Amina would follow up with documents or books to read and was always available for me to reach out to for additional guidance and direction. I can’t express how valuable this experience has been.

I’m also grateful for her Wise Wednesdays weekly emails - which I value incredibly - they offer me a moment to self reflect which is so valuable."

Dr Jay Bagaria, MBE. Health Adviser, Global Funds. UK Department for International Development, World Health

"In a short space of time Amina has helped me make incremental behavioral changes in my work environment and help me develop new perspectives. I actually have a lot of self-doubt and coaching is giving more insight. Specifically, results I’ve had within two months include:

Improved personal ability to air difficult opinions and provide feedback- improving my perception of ‘control’ at work. Increased confidence.
Improved ability to control my anger/ emotions throughout my experiences daily. I’ve got stronger at rationalizing and contextualizing because I’m feeling more comfortable with my thoughts.

My initial barrier to starting coaching was hubris: I was not sure whether ‘anyone’ would be able to empathize to my context. I was also embarrassed to ask for help. However, Amina’s ability to create a ‘safe space’ and give clear/ direct feedback to my own thoughts has been hugely positive for me.

Amina’s coaching is a marriage of experience, empathy and pragmatism.

Dr Arup Paul, COO CMO Axa PPP,

"Coaching with Amina has made me feel comfortable managing a high and increasing workload. I am learning to balance the flow of what needs to be done and what can be put off without carrying this workload on my mind. In addition to this, prior to meeting Amina I could not pinpoint/describe what it is that I do specifically both at work and within my business. She hit the nail on the head when she told me that “I build businesses”, this is exactly what fulfils me and with this clarity I am more focused on becoming a highly successful serial business builder in many industries. Property being the first.

My initial thoughts about coaching were that because Amina does not work in my industry (Real Estate), she will not be able to coach me on anything relevant. Nevertheless, I went along for the consultation. During this meeting, I raised my concern and she sufficiently addressed this by distinguishing the different roles a coach plays vs a mentor. In a nutshell, as a coach takes a more holistic stance on one’s overall objectives.

The most valuable aspect was being forced to take scheduled time out and evaluate what is taking place around me - what I need to do to take steps towards my 3-5 year objectives. Specific results include:

Employing a virtual assistant and delegating more has enabled me to maintain momentum as I am no longer a bottle neck with multiple tasks waiting for my input.
I have a clearer vision on the purpose of what I am doing. This has given me reassurance when in doubt of the value I bring to my team at work and has also helped refine my goals
My inability to communicate in difficult or non favorable circumstances has been highlighted and I am now actively working on this every day
By discussing both my business goals and personal aspirations such as wanting to be in a relationship, I was able to see how my default “corporate mode” was not appropriate and would not let my fun personality shine. Addressing this I worked on being relaxed when out of work and having met someone I liked, I made sure I was myself and I am thankfully now in good relationship. Most importantly I can be myself and fully relax, as this is the person she met.

Amina has made me strongly aware of areas I need to improve if am to reach my potential and fulfil my dreams. My self awareness has increased. Being an entrepreneur, in full time employment and having other commitments such as faith, family and friends, means that I have several personalities constantly overlapping and at times causing in efficiencies. Finding a healthy balance is still ongoing. Memorable quotes from my sessions with Amina:

Be yourself and your people will find you
How you do anything is how you do everything

I would definitely recommend Amina’s coaching for the following reasons:

She is genuine, very easy to get along with and build a rapport, enabling you to feel comfortable sharing issues one may usually feel insecure about discussing
She has adapted the structure of the session on several occasion to suit my needs and or schedule. This again demonstrates he desire to facilitate the needs of her client on an individual basis
She has a good understanding of the importance of work life balance and incorporates this holistic stance in her coaching approach"

Tex Jones, Real Estate entrepreneur and expert (SureRents/Prosperity Capital Partners)

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I sought coaching with Amina because I was feeling trapped. I was working so hard but felt like I was on an unenjoyable treadmill to nowhere ...... and I was exhausted! I felt misunderstood, unappreciated and I was unsustainably unhappy. I felt like I was under-achieving all the time and I was going to ‘miss the boat’…I wasn’t sure the coaching process would be able to deal with all this but something had to change. I gave myself three options: an amazing holiday, a personal trainer or 10 sessions of coaching. I chose coaching because I thought it had the greatest chance of creating sustainable change. And it worked.

The biggest impact the coaching had on me was regaining a sense of my own self. The person who knew what she wanted and found a way to make it happen. She had got buried by the system in which we train.

Coaching enabled me to give myself permission to explore other career pathways alongside and outside of the NHS. Finding new ways in which I can use my strengths and make a difference. I recovered a sense of empowerment and freedom. I gained a greater understanding of my own priorities and the ability to choose how I spend my own time and how I balance my work and family time.

Over the 5 months of coaching I have:

- improved my relationship with myself, my husband and my son

- made progress with creative ventures not linked to my work

- developed existing relationships and made new contacts with people that have led to new adventures (including an exciting Fellowship that I successfully applied for)

- built upon previous coaching to understand myself, my trigger points and my behaviour under pressure

Amina is very human. She is enthusiastic, encouraging, and her coaching is evidence-based. The advantage of her coaching is that she understands the medical training process and the challenges of working in the NHS.

She has introduced an eclectic spectrum of tools which I continue to use, to aid my performance. I thank her for allowing me to be myself again.

Miss Joanna Manson MBBS BSc MRCS (Eng) PhD NIHR Clinical Lecturer, Barts Centre for Trauma Sciences

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"Amina is perceptive. Incisive. Frank. I greatly appreciate her questioning, her way of taking things right back to the core of who I am, and helping me to link this to my thoughts and actions. This really helped me on the first steps to a different way of working to achieve the heights I want to reach.

But what impressed me beyond all this? The "unknown unknowns" she drew out of me. I thought I fully understood myself and how I interact with the world. Then she delved deeper, and I now feel that I see myself more truly. It was unsettling at first to explore this, but Amina gave me the support I needed. Now, I feel energised and capable of widening my ambitions, in work and life, far beyond the limits I'd previously set. This was totally unexpected."

Ros, Humanitarian doctor and public health specialist, UK

"I found myself losing direction, and so had been considering career coaching for some time, but struggled to find someone who I felt would understand the specific issues I was facing. A friend put me in touch with Dr Amina, who, as a woman, a doctor, and someone with a diverse background in both her career and life experience, seemed to be the perfect fit. I had an initial meeting with her and, finding her to be warm, understanding, and very easy to talk to, finally decided to go ahead with coaching. It has been an eye-opening and invaluable experience.

Amina is able to cut incisively through a cloud of muddled thoughts to the core of a problem, and uses a no-nonsense but empathetic approach to create a clear path forward. She offers both short and long-term solutions that combine a range of techniques for holistic self-improvement and practical actions. Because she takes the time to understand your own thoughts and situation, her advice is carefully tailored and is always actionable - so there is no excuse for not moving forward! - and I began to see results after the first session. Changing perspective and self-understanding can be uncomfortable, but with Amina's guidance and support, I have been able to build up my confidence and move past my anxieties. I have learned an enormous amount in just two months, and continue to apply this to expand my outlook and opportunities."

Dr Ria Jas, GP Partner, UK

Amina is a wonderful coach. She is highly intelligent and has a great understanding of the workings of the mind and human psyche, which means she gets to the heart of the matter and can unravel limiting beliefs and behaviours very quickly. Amina has helped me reframe situations so that I realise a more useful perspective and, as well as diving deep in a coaching session, she has a great sense of humour! I can recommend Amina as a valuable life coach."

Mary Toolan, Life Coach, UK

"I had the opportunity to have a brief coaching session with Amina. During a short but deep discussion, she understood my problems, identified my needs, and came up with solutions. At the end of our conversation I felt more optimistic and empowered knowing that I have an action plan, and tools to deal with my emotions."

Dana, Medical doctor, UK

"I had a fantastic coaching experience with Amina. She is a naturally caring and warm person with a sharp analytical mind. This combination of skills makes her a phenomenal coach. One of the things that resonated and helped me the most was Amina’s emphasis on authenticity and truth. She explained how to relate to the world (people and situations) from a place inside me called ‘the place of truth’. By connecting to my place of truth, I suddenly felt in touch with my inner self. I experienced deep positive emotions and a joy that I had forgotten even existed. I had a coaching session before a conference and can honestly say this was the best experience I have ever had. Not only did my two presentations go well, but more than five people came to me afterwards proposing to work together. I was able to secure a great consulting contract at a fantastic rate.

Amina’s love, warmth and care changed my perspective about the world and my position in the world. When I started talking to her about my challenges and fears, she did not employ a simplistic ‘situational’ approach. Instead, Amina focused on the core pillars of my existence that related to my place of truth and inner values. Our talk was surrounded by such positive emotions, that by the end I felt that a huge burden had been taken off my shoulders. By changing the perspective, my decisions have also changed. A fundamental shift occurred when we somehow decided that I was ready to present myself to the world without fear or shame. Instead, I chose to focus on the sheer joy of sharing my ideas with others. My actions were then guided by a sense of responsibility to the world and to the people that have generously shared their insights with me. So, I wanted to do as best as I could to represent their points of view faithfully, while doing justice to my own understanding and experiences.

Amina is simply one of the best people I have ever had the privilege to meet and an incredibly gifted coach."

Dr Roxana Bratu, Social Scientist, independent consultant, UK

"I met Amina briefly at a coaching event and she really inspired me with her energy and I thought why am I still sitting on the shelf? So following our meeting, I sprang into action and put the word out, hired consulting rooms and have just seen my first two clients! Amina has a very positive energy."

Joy Johnson, new coach, UK

"I found my gift session with Amina very insightful. She quickly got to the core issues in the brief time we had. Her understanding of the human mind came through clearly and her perceptiveness enabled her to provide solutions to overcome my problems. After my consultation I felt ready and prepared to tackle my issues with a clear plan that Amina and I had talked though. I would highly recommend other professionals at crossroads in their careers to seek the extra support that Amina provides."

Parth, Medical Doctor, UK

Dr. AMINA AITSI-SELMI MD PHD

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