KEITH AND JULIET JOHNSON
Our Story
Hi, we’re Keith and Juliet.
We met in 1980 at University, started dating quite soon and got married in 1983. For both of us faith has been a foundation stone to our approach to life and relationships. We soon found ourselves helping and mentoring young couples who were often starting out together and we found ourselves drawn to the joy and drama of couples building relationships.
Over the next 25 years we built our own marriage through many highs and lows, had four children, and continued to support and mentor other couples building their relationships through the many challenges of life.
We increasingly found ourselves feeling drawn to other couples and feeling huge empathy for their struggles, hopes and dreams. We knew how important our marriage was to us and saw that for many people a lifelong relationship is the thing they most yearned for. However, we all know it is one the most challenging things we ever embark on.
Yet, there was no one to help them and so often they found the journey a very lonely one. We noticed that many couples found it very difficult to admit that their relationship wasn’t great. And yet their experiences were actually completely normal and common to many couples.
During this time we built our own careers. Keith got an MBA and spent 25 years in business while Juliet worked in the 3rd sector with an MA in Charity Management. Currently, Keith runs his own Executive Coaching practice while Juliet works as a pastor with their local Christian community and coaches young people starting careers in the charity sector.
The Couple to Couple Story
In 2009 we started teaching courses on marriage and relationships. Since then we’ve supported hundreds of couples through these courses. For most couples who attended these courses they left with new hope and skills to build their relationship and flourish. But some couples clearly needed more bespoke support to get back onto a growth path. We were passionate to help them and looked around to find where we could get deeper skills.
We knew we didn’t want to train as clinical therapists or counsellors. We value these disciplines but found that there was often a huge stigma for couples to seek counselling and we wanted to provide a means of support that was more accessible and had a positive, growth mindset and culture. We were both aware of the coaching approach and immediately knew this was what we needed.
In 2013 we embarked on a postgraduate program in Coaching and Behavioural Change at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School. We loved the program and found ourselves immediately using a coaching approach with the couples we supported. We followed this with a coaching program in 2015 which gave us accreditation with the International Coach Federation (ICF), the largest professional body for coaches worldwide.
In 2016 and 2020 we trained with the Gottman Institute in the US. John Gottman is a psychologist who has invested over 40 years studying how couples build and sustain great relationships. His approach is positive, practical and fits perfectly within a coaching framework.
Since launching our couple coaching practice in 2015 we’ve coached dozens of couples and found the coaching approach creates a powerful context for couples to explore the current reality of their relationship, share their deepest feelings and desires and develop their own unique pathway to the future they want together. It’s a positive, affirming approach with none of the stigma associated with other frameworks. So often we find that couples we coach tell their friends about the coaching they’re having and recommend this approach. Just as they wouldn’t be embarrassed to hire a personal trainer or a tennis coach, they’re proud to be seen investing in the most important relationship in their life.
Our Qualifications
We have both completed numerous training including:
PGCert in Coaching & Behavioural Change. Henley Business School (University of Reading)
Certificate in Business & Personal Coaching. Barefoot Coaching
Accredited coaches with the International Coach Federation (ICF)
Level 1 & 2 training in the Gottman Therapy Method
Explore Couple to Couple Coaching with Keith and Juliet.
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