Sarah Dodsley Life Coaching and Bodywork

27/01/2026

Consciously, you know it’s not meant to be all on you.

And yet… you don’t know how to stop carrying it.

I have the same conversation again and again with people who are holding everything.

The responsibility.
The emotional load.
Other people’s feelings.
Keeping things steady.
Making sure it all works.

These are caring people.
Thoughtful people.
People who want to do the right thing and not let anyone down.

And yet, this way of being is exhausting.
And it isn’t sustainable.

What’s often at play here isn’t a lack of insight or self-awareness.
It’s subconscious patterning.

Deeply learned ways of being that say:
“If I don’t hold it all, things will fall apart.”
“It’s easier if I just do it myself.”
“This is just how I am.”

Left unexamined, these patterns can quietly shape a lifetime.

Not only keeping us stuck but keeping us exhausted.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In my work, we gently look beneath the surface at what’s really driving the over-responsibility and over-functioning
(and no this doesn’t have to be heavy or overwhelming).

Together, we explore what’s happening inside you and around you.
Not just what you think you should do differently,
but what needs to shift at a deeper, embodied level and in your relationships and life.

The result?

More ease.
More space.
A way of living that doesn’t require you to hold everything together all the time.

And perhaps most importantly learning how to carry responsibility well, without carrying it alone.

If this resonates, I’d love to hear what it brings up for you or have a conversation about what life could feel like with more support.

Pic of my favourite beach in Devon because I’m dreaming of warmer and sunnier days ahead.

19/01/2026

Many people I work with tell me there are very few places they can speak freely.

Recently, a client reflected that our coaching space feels safe enough for them to say what they really need to say — without minimising themselves, over-explaining, or worrying about how they’ll be perceived. It’s feedback I hear often from people I work with.

That sense of safety isn’t accidental.

It’s built through how I work in the relationship: through clear boundaries, careful listening, and creating a pace that allows honesty rather than performance.

Through tuning in not just to what’s being said, but to what feels hard to name, what keeps repeating, and what’s quietly shaping choices beneath the surface.
And it’s important to say what that safety doesn’t mean.

Safety in my work isn’t an echo chamber.
It isn’t reassurance without challenge.
And it isn’t about making life feel easier without looking at what needs attention.

The safety creates the conditions for real work.
Work that explores patterns of thinking and belief that may once have been protective, but are now holding someone back.
Work that notices familiar loops, people-pleasing, self-doubt, over-responsibility and gently questions where they came from and whether they’re still needed.
Work that supports people to act with more self-trust and integrity.
My role isn’t to tell people what to do or who to be.
It’s to create a space where honesty, challenge, and compassion can exist together — without judgement.
Because when people feel safe enough to think clearly and truthfully, real change becomes possible.

This is the kind of working relationship I carefully create.

18/01/2026

How often do you feel like you should have it all figured out?

Your next step.
Your purpose.
The “right” decision.

And when you don’t…
your nervous system tightens.
Your mind searches.
You wonder what’s wrong with you.

On Friday evening I went to listen to Professor Brian Cox speak about Emergence — the way life and order arise from mystery. From tiny snowflakes to the vastness of the universe.

The science was astonishing.
But what stayed with me was something much quieter.

He spoke about how, for most of human history, we believed there had to be answers. Certainty meant safety. Knowing meant control.

It’s only recently — in the last few hundred years — that we’ve begun to accept that even science doesn’t know everything.

And he seemed… at ease with that.

Watching someone rest comfortably in not knowing felt rare. Almost radical.

For people-pleasers, uncertainty can feel especially threatening.
Because somewhere along the way we learned:

If I know the answer, I won’t disappoint.
If I’m clear, I’ll be accepted.
If I get it right, I’ll be safe.

So we rush.
We overthink.
We try to resolve what isn’t ready yet.

But life doesn’t unfold on demand.
And neither do you.

There are seasons where clarity doesn’t arrive through effort, only through presence.

Through staying.
Listening.
Letting what’s true rise gently, in its own time.

This is the heart of the work I do.

Supporting people to loosen their grip on certainty.
To soothe the part that believes not knowing is a failure.
To learn that you don’t need all the answers to be worthy, loved, or ok.

Not knowing doesn’t mean you’re behind.
Often, it means something new is trying to emerge.

And you are allowed to take your time with it.

12/01/2026

I’m slowly making my way (for at least the 3rd or 4th time) through Heartminded by Sarah Blondin and it feels like nourishment for the soul.

Gentle. Spacious. Deeply human.

If you listen to the audiobook, honestly… it’s like red velvet cake for your nervous system, so rich and comforting. For even more impact, listen to the audio and read at the same time! It never fails to reconnect me to self.

A beautiful companion for anyone craving softness, truth, and a little more tenderness with themselves. 🤍📖✨

23/12/2025

As the year comes to a close, I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s worked with me, followed along, shared, commented, and engaged this year.

Your trust, conversations, and support mean more than you know.

I’ll be taking a couple of weeks away from social media to rest, reflect, and recharge over the festive period.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful end to the year. I’ll see you in the New Year ✨

15/12/2025

💚

Walking in the forest is therapy without walls.

10/12/2025

This morning’s slow dog walk.
No agenda. No multitasking. Just the sea, the cold air, and time to breathe.

I’m spinning a lot of plates right now, and it would’ve been easy to keep pushing… but stepping into nature always brings me back into my body. It doesn’t magically solve everything, but it does soften the edges, calm my stress levels, and help me see things more clearly.

A reminder for anyone who needs it today:
Take the pause. Go outside. Let the world steady you.

26/11/2025

We talk a lot about becoming our best selves…

But we don’t talk enough about the messy, uncomfortable, unglamorous part of personal development.

The bit where you’re sitting with feelings you’d rather avoid.

Where nothing is clear yet.

Where two things feel true at the same time and you don’t know what to do with either of them.

This work isn’t about being endlessly positive or always knowing the “right” answer.

It’s about learning to hold uncertainty without running from it.

It’s learning to sit in the grey, the contradictions, the discomfort, the not-knowing and still choose to stay curious.

Growth isn’t clean or tidy.
It’s brave.
It’s human.
And it’s available to all of us.

Message me if you are looking for support in your growth. I am a therapeutic life coach supporting clients to develop and improve the relationships with themselves and live the life they want without guilt.

13/11/2025

🧡🧡🧡

10/11/2025

Can we live a life that’s true to ourselves without self-compassion?

I’m not sure we can.

So much of the work I do with clients begins here, in that tender space between honesty and kindness.

Because living a life that’s true to you means getting really honest about what you feel, what you need, and what’s no longer working.

But honesty without compassion can quickly turn into self-criticism.
It sounds like:

“Why can’t I just get over this?”
“I should be further along by now.”
“I’m being too sensitive.”

The truth is many of us find it much easier to be hard on ourselves than kind.
We push, we strive, we analyse, believing that’s how we’ll change.
But compassion? That often feels uncomfortable, even indulgent.

And yet, it’s often the one thing that brings the biggest shift.
When we meet ourselves with gentleness instead of judgment, something softens.
We can finally hear what’s underneath the noise.
We can begin to move forward, not from pressure, but from truth.

This is the heart of coaching for me:
Creating the safety for that truth to emerge,
and the softness to meet it with care.

What would it look like for you to bring more compassion to yourself this week? ❤️

06/11/2025

“You seem like someone who has all your s**t together.”

Someone said that to me today.

In a polite way, I waved my hand and laughed it off, brushed it away - “oh definitely not”.
But it stuck with me.

Because honestly?
A part of me loved hearing it.
The perfectionist part. The good girl.
The part that still wants to be seen as capable, grounded, sorted.

And yet another part of me wondered…
Do people also see the human bits?
The parts that don’t have it all figured out?

If I want to be seen fully then perhaps I might need to show more of those parts of me too…

It reminded me of something I see a lot with my coaching clients.
So many of us have been conditioned to show up as “together”, “fine”, “capable.”
We wear it like armour — especially those of us who’ve spent years people-pleasing, holding space for others, or proving our worth through competence.

But in the coaching space, something different happens.
It’s where the armour can come off.
It’s where we get to be whole - messy, uncertain, brilliant, real.
And that’s where true transformation begins.

So next time someone says I’ve got it all together, maybe I’ll just smile and say —
“Some days, yes. Some days, not at all. And that’s ok.”

This is how I can allow multiple things to be true at once - because that is how life is.

Do you ever catch yourself wearing that “I’ve got it all together” armour too?

I wonder what it would feel like to soften it?