Gemma | Resilience & Confidence Coach
I spent 3 years being very good at pretending I was fine.
Then I threw up in a work toilet before a meeting and called it nerves.
Hi, 👋 I'm Gemma. I coach the people who are still doing the pretending.
You've probably decided this is just how you're wired
Anxious. Busy-minded. Always on. Bad at relaxing. Someone who unwinds with a glass of wine, loses an hour to scrolling, or impulse buys something they didn’t really need - and still doesn’t feel properly switched off.
You've read the books. Listened to the podcasts. Possibly had therapy, which helped, until it didn't. So you've concluded it's you. That this is your personality and you're stuck with it.
I thought that too. I was wrong, and I can show you where I was wrong.
I’m Gemma.
I'm a coach for people who look like they're coping and know they're not. Overthinkers, over-givers, high performers, the ones who hold everything together and never put any of it down.
I work with the mind and the nervous system, because you cannot talk your way out of a body that's stuck on high alert. That's why the affirmations didn't work. It was never a thinking problem.
I work 1:1 with individuals and with workplaces on burnout, pressure and leadership.
I didn't do a weekend course and start calling myself a coach
There's a lot of that about. Fridge-magnet quotes, three steps to a new you, someone with a perfect morning routine telling you to be more grateful. It doesn't work, and you already know it doesn't work, which is probably part of why you haven't booked anything.
Trained in hypnotherapy, NLP, Integral Eye Movement Therapy and conscious connected breathwork. Trauma-informed. We work at the level where the pattern is actually held, not at the surface.
13 years in law and construction. Senior roles, male-dominated rooms, relentless deadlines. So when you tell me about the pressure, the politics & the 9pm emails, I don't need it explaining.
Trusted by private clients and organisations alike, including In Accountancy, Spaces, Department, Recom, Chord Consultancy, Hussle, Beale & Co and the GM Wellbeing Series.
6 years coaching, and never a Google review below 5 stars. Northern Power Women Game Changer. Manchester Young Talent Awards, Northern Impact and Agent of Change.
I know it works because it's the only thing that worked on me
In 2014, I was in a top international law firm, on the ladder, doing everything right. I was also throwing up in the work toilets before meetings and calling it nerves.
When I missed a promotion I'd worked years for, my confidence went. I’d tied my worth to achievement, and suddenly the proof that I was “good enough” had been taken away.
So I stopped trying to think and prove my way out of the stress and self-doubt, and started paying attention to where they were actually showing up in my mind and body. Six months later, I was running a legal department at 25 in a business that was 95% men, using the same tools I’d developed to rebuild myself.
Then my mum was diagnosed with cancer and died 12 weeks later. Grief is not a mindset problem. That's when I went further into the nervous system work, because it was the only thing that would hold it.
I retrained in everything that worked on me. Six years later, that's what I do for other people.
I'm not a guru. I don't have it all figured out. I have tools, and I'll teach you all of them.
Stress isn't something to manage. It's something to process.
The cold plunge, the meditation app, the week in Portugal. They give you a few hours of relief, and then you're back where you started, and you decide the problem must be you.
It isn't. Five minutes on charge doesn't fix a flat battery.
Most coaching works on the mind. Most wellbeing works on the body. I work with both, because that's where the pattern lives. The overthinking, the second-guessing, the inability to sit down without a job in your hand. It's a system that's learned to stay switched on and never learned how to come back down.
You can learn that. It's a skill, not a personality.
If you're anything like my clients…
Read the books
Done the podcasts, maybe even had therapy. It helped for a while, then you drifted back to exactly how you were.
Try to fix it with logic
You already know the pressure is largely self-imposed. Knowing has changed precisely nothing.
Told yourself
You'll deal with it after this deadline, this project, this term. And then quietly moved the finish line again.
You don't have to reach breaking point to be allowed support
The thing people say most often, three months in, is that they wish they'd done it years ago. Not because anything dramatic happened. Because they didn't realise how much they'd been carrying until they put it down.
You don't need the right words, a clear plan, or a good enough reason. Book a free consultation, and we'll talk about where you are and whether I'm the right fit. I'll tell you if I'm not.
In my spare time I…
Convince myself that the completely unnecessary thing I’ve found in a thrift or antiques shop is, in fact, essential. I’m also happiest making something - whether that’s life drawing or singing badly-but-enthusiastically in my R&B and soul choir.
Eat my way around wherever I am. I love discovering new restaurants, tiny cafés and dishes I can’t pronounce, but I’m equally happy tucked into a corner alone with a coffee, my journal and the admin I’ve been avoiding.
Chase a bit of adventure - a long walk with my cockapoo Dennis, a hike with friends or a flight to almost anywhere. I love the feeling of doing something new, even when I’ve packed too much and forgotten something important.
Want free tools to switch off ?
If you're holding it all together and it's costing you more than you'd admit, let's talk.
Resilience & Confidence Coach ManchesterGemma Donnelly is a coach specialising in high-functioning anxiety, stress and burnout. She works with the mind and the nervous system to help people with busy minds and high standards switch off, release pressure and lead with calm confidence. She works 1:1 and with workplaces, in Manchester, Cheshire and online. She spent 13 years in law and construction before retraining, and has coached for 6 years.