Tina Monk
After living on a Greek island in my early 20s, I graduated with a good degree in the 1970s. It was a time of major strikes, economic turmoil, recession, and the ‘glittering prizes’ we had expected were not to be found. The streets of London were not paved with gold and my career dreams were shattered.
It was suggested that I go on to do a Ph.D. and I was accepted to do this at a Welsh University. Academia was not for me though as my career prospects would be limited by such a rigid specialisation.
I obtained a research position at BUPA, a private medical health insurance and health-testing organisation in London. This was a temporary assignment and I left to migrate to Australia in 1980 for more adventure.
The adventure took me from Sydney to Hobart, and not in a boat race, to Newcastle and back to Sydney where I worked for the NSW Department of Corrective Services for a few years conducting research and running drug & alcohol and education programs.
A trip back to the UK, Greece and to Sri Lanka and the death of my father in 1988 led me to give up this work and do some serious soul searching.
I undertook some career coaching and affirmed that my talents and passions lay in the areas of training, consulting, coaching and counselling. These were all things that I had experience of in previous roles.
After putting myself through some rigorous training and education, in 1989 I started my consultancy offering group facilitation, training, coaching and counselling. I worked with local, state and federal government agencies, non-government organisations and a variety of private sector companies and private individuals.
Using my coaching skills and expertise, I have helped many hundreds of people to achieve their life, professional & career goals and I am fortunate enough to be living and working my passion by facilitating transformation in others.
I do believe in work/life balance and love comedy, watching it and performing it, creative writing, learning Greek & visiting there when I can, exercising and enjoying people.
My education and professional development has focused mostly on how to understand people and bring out the best in them. I have been coaching for 20 years and continue to develop as a coach. My approach is said to be caring with a bit of ‘tough love’ thrown in!
Tina’s education, accreditation, professional development & memberships
- B.Sc. (Hons) Sociology, London University, UK
- Post grad. Dip. Social Science, UNE, Aust. Majoring Psychology & Counselling
- Counselling & Psychotherapy, Australian College of Applied Psychology
- Psychotherapy Training, South Pacific Private Hospital
- Lifetime accreditation in the Human Synergistics’ Leadership Development Tools – the Life Styles Inventory (LSI), the Leadership Impact tool (L/I)
- The American Management Association DISC Model
- Integro DiSC Model
- The Genos Emotional Intelligence instrument
- Certified practitioner of The Leadership Circle & The Leadership Circle Culture Survey
- Powerful Presentations & Super Teaching (ELI, USA)
- Learning to Learn & Training to Train (Stephanie Burns)
- Professional Skills in Conflict Resolution (CRN)
- Action Method Training (School of Training for Trainers, NZ)
- 4-MAT® Model of Curriculum Design (4-MAT Australia)
- NLP Training
- Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy (NSW School of Hypnotic Sciences)
- Training in Gestalt and Psychodrama
- Career & Job Transition Coaching (Career Planning & Adult Development Network, USA)
- Cert IV Workplace Trainer & Assessor
- Coaching for Psychotherapists
- Intensive Coach Training Results Coaching Systems
- Mentor coaching with Barbara Anderson MCC
- Member of International Coach Federation of Australasia
- Professional Member of Career Development Association of Australia
- Member of Open Colleges
Prue Freestone
Growing up Prue was interested in becoming a detective or a spy. She loved watching people, asking questions and piecing together clues. Her list of potential areas of study included Criminology and Psychology. She took a more traditional path and studied a Bachelor of Commerce at UNSW and then worked as a management consultant. In this setting, Prue quickly learned the importance of paying attention to the work you gravitate towards (and away from) and to choose work that uses your strengths. From here Prue moved into people facing operations role for a retailer and realised that motivated people doing work that suits them make the biggest difference in any part of a business.
Prue completed an MBA at Harvard, volunteered as a Lifeline Telephone Counsellor and held senior HR roles across large corporates and small start-up businesses for 8 years. In each role, she was drawn to helping people find a way to best use their skills and do more of what they found rewarding. Each experience has confirmed her belief that people are the most interesting and essential ingredient in all fields.
Prue re-designed her work to better fit with her life needs when she had her second child. She knew she enjoyed helping people achieve self-awareness. Her years in HR revealed how common it was for people to feel misalignment with their jobs.
She felt a strong calling to help people with their career so they can enjoy their life. Now she offers career coaching services through Sydney Career Coaching and the Career Accelerator Program for students and alumni of USNW AGSM.
Prue is a member of CDAA, is completing a Graduate Certificate in Career Development and Education at RMIT and is also an accredited LSI Coach with Human Synergistics.
Prue never became a detective, but in many ways, she approaches her work using a similar approach. She asks lots of curious questions and helps the client calmly piece together the data points of their lives to solve their career dilemmas.
She is easy to talk to and has broad life experience to draw from including making three career transitions, hiring people, being a manager, coaching managers, growing up in rural NSW on a farm, living in USA, Ireland and Australia and having young children.