Core

Core Coaching with Gemma Cousins
Confidence coaching for teens, adults and workplaces in Cheadle Hulme + online.

Helping you uncover confidence so you can live, communicate and lead with greater self-trust.

1:1 Coaching | Workshops | Talks

04/11/2026

Had a bit of fun making this one! Quite fitting really, given what I want to say about celebrating all the wonderfully complicated, curious and extraordinary parts of ourselves.

I had a coaching session earlier today where we were exploring some big questions. Why does progress sometimes feel so difficult? Why do certain things feel like such an uphill struggle? Where does all that exhaustion and frustration come from?

Important questions. Worthy of time, curiosity and exploration.

One of the beautiful privileges of coaching is getting to hold up a mirror for someone. Reflecting their words, noticing their energy and gently drawing attention to something they might not have recognised in themselves.

Sometimes that reflection brings an almost immediate moment of clarity for the coachee.

Today, what I noticed was excitement. A spark. The energy that came from someone talking about something they absolutely LOVE. Their extraordinary depth of knowledge, their curiosity and the way they use that knowledge to make sense of the world.

It was genuinely wonderful to witness.

It also got me thinking about how much energy we can spend trying to fit ourselves into spaces, expectations and ways of thinking that don’t necessarily make room for who we are.

Just because your way of seeing the world doesn’t always align with how the world expects you to see it, that doesn’t mean the problem is you. (Say that out loud!)

Find the people who are genuinely interested in your thoughts and ideas. Seek out those who value your depth, your curiosity and all those wonderful complexities that make you who you are. People who appreciate your perspective, even when it’s different from their own.

Give yourself opportunities to flourish in spaces that welcome the full breadth of what you bring.

Imagine how much energy we might have for the things we love if we weren’t spending so much of it trying to fit into spaces that don’t quite fit us.

Take up space with every complicated, curious, extraordinary part of yourself.

I’ve a hunch there might be a blog incoming on this. Watch this space! 👀

03/11/2026

Here’s something I absolutely LOVE doing.

Working with young people!

I’ve spent years working as a drama facilitator alongside my acting and coaching work, and there’s still something brilliant about getting a group of young people together, giving them space to experiment, have a laugh, try something new and discover a little more about themselves.

I genuinely believe that confidence is something we need opportunities to experience, as well as talk about. That’s why my workshops bring together coaching, reflection and practical exercises, with plenty of room for curiosity and a bit of fun.

We can explore all sorts of things, from confidence and self-trust to communication, friendships, boundaries, resilience, public speaking and preparing for what’s next.

Every group is different, which is part of what makes this work so interesting. I love creating sessions that feel relevant, engaging and genuinely useful for the young people in the room.

So, if you work with young people in a school, youth group or organisation and think this could be something they’d benefit from, please get in touch.

I’d love to hear about your group and see what we could create together.

02/11/2026

I’m not a builder. I’m an archaeologist - when it comes to confidence anyway. (I wouldn’t trust myself with an actual excavation!)

I’ve always talked about ‘uncovering’ confidence rather than building it. It’s a distinction that’s really important to me and sits at the heart of how I coach.

I believe confidence is already within us. We’ve all recognised it in some way, at some point. Sometimes it’s easily accessible and other times it’s buried under years of experiences, expectations, beliefs and a healthy dollop of self-doubt.

That’s where the digging comes in!

Through coaching, we get curious about what’s going on beneath the surface. What helps us recognise our confidence? What gets in the way? What have we come to believe about ourselves AND how useful are those beliefs now?

Of course, developing skills is part of my work too. Drawing on my acting background, I help people explore practical tools around breath, body, voice and presence, particularly when it comes to communication and public speaking. We can practice, experiment and strengthen self-trust along the way. All brilliant stuff. I love starting from a place of recognising what we already have rather than focusing on what we think we’re missing.

The more we understand ourselves, the more choice we have in how we respond, connect and show up in the world.

Awareness restores choice. (Yep, said it again!)

So, curious about uncovering your own Comfortable Confidence through coaching? Let’s have a conversation and explore what’s possible for you.

No hard hats required. 😉

30/10/2026

I’m Gemma, founder of CORE Coaching, an ICF-accredited confidence and communication coach and former actor of 20+ years. I’ve always been fascinated by what makes us humans tick.

My acting background taught me plenty about breath, body, voice and presence. Coaching lets me explore what’s going on underneath all of that. Why do we hold ourselves back? Why can being seen and heard feel so exposing when it’s often exactly what we’re craving?

At CORE, I believe confidence is already within us. My Comfortable Confidence approach explores three interconnected circles: Protected, Present and Projected. How we support ourselves, connect with others and express ourselves. The real value is developing the awareness and ability to move comfortably between them.

Awareness restores choice. And having more choice in how we show up in the world is pretty powerful stuff.

Through 1:1 coaching, workshops and talks, I work with adults, young people and organisations on everything from communication and public speaking to boundaries, relationships and the wonderfully messy business of being human.

What drives me? Seeing people uncover what they’re capable of and begin to trust themselves enough to do something with it.

I absolutely love this work and the opportunity to help people uncover their confidence, trust themselves and discover what’s possible for them. It’s a real privilege to be part of that process.

If you’re curious about what coaching could offer you, I’d love to have a chat. DM me CONFIDENCE and let’s get the conversation going.

29/10/2026

“I’d love to feel more confident. Just don’t want anyone thinking I’m full of myself.”

This comes up a lot in coaching. We want to back ourselves, speak up and see what we’re capable of. Preferably without anyone asking who we think we are.

So we brush off a compliment, explain away an achievement or follow “I’m good at that” with a joke at our own expense. Just to keep everyone comfortable.

I’m passionate about helping people uncover their confidence because I so often hear the enthusiasm when someone talks about what they’d love to do, followed almost immediately by all the reasons they probably shouldn’t. Somewhere in there is often a worry about what other people will think if they let themselves go for it.

You can be good at something and enjoy it. You can even tell people. It doesn’t cancel out your kindness or your ability to be interested in anyone else.

I’d love us to feel more comfortable saying “I’m really good at this” and letting the sentence end there.

If this feels familiar, you’re very welcome to get in touch. There’s space to explore it together.

27/10/2026

A day of searching for the best pumpkin and measuring up my pockets to see if a bunny would fit. 🎃🐰

No big coaching revelation today. Just a reminder that doing something purely because you enjoy it is a perfectly good use of your time.

The bunny is still at the farm, by the way. A decision I’m still coming to terms with.

Smithills Open Farm

27/10/2026

A day of searching for the best pumpkin and measuring up my pockets to see if a bunny would fit. 🎃🐰

No big coaching revelation today. Just a reminder that doing something purely because you enjoy it with people (and animals) you love is a perfectly good use of your time.

The bunny is still at the farm btw. A decision I’m slowly coming to terms with.

Smithills Open Farm

26/10/2026

I feel these three have “comfortable in my own skin” covered. Pots with absolutely nothing to prove. 🥳

These Greek pottery pictures felt like good company for a post about confidence. There’s something about them that, to me, says: “Here I am.”

That feeling will be different for each of us. Perhaps you notice you’re breathing more deeply, stop checking everyone else’s reaction or say what you mean without needing to justify it afterwards. You might still feel nervous, while also feeling able to trust yourself.

Getting familiar with those moments is useful. Where are you? Who are you with? What’s helping you feel comfortable being yourself?

When you know, you know.

What tells you that you’re feeling confident?

DM me if you like, I’m very happy to chat 😊

25/10/2026

What’s rest got to do with confidence? Quite a lot as it happens.

It takes confidence to make time for yourself when your to-do list is still very much alive and well. To say “I need this” and give that need some space, even when you could fill the evening with another seventeen things.

When we make time to rest, we’re giving ourselves evidence that our needs matter and that we can be trusted to look after them. That’s self-trust and it’s a real part of the confidence I help people uncover.

It’s why Rest & Ready belongs within CORE Coaching. I want us to feel comfortable making room for rest regularly, with a community of people who understand how easily it slips to the bottom of the list.

Join me on 25 November for seasonal readings, deep breathing + meditation, beautiful music, full body relaxation and guided journalling. A little rebellion against always having to do more, and some time to feel resourced for what’s next.

£25 · Book through the link in my bio. Or DM me and I’ll send you the link 😊

DENISE | HAIR | YOGA | HEADSPA | WELLBEING | STOCKPORT | MCR

20/10/2026

Confidence is a funny old thing, isn’t it? You can feel completely comfortable in one situation and then find yourself questioning absolutely everything in another. Same person, same brain, very different experience!

What confidence means to you might be completely different from what it means to someone else. It could be speaking up in a meeting, setting a boundary, making a decision you’ve been putting off or finally having the courage to give something a go.

That’s what I find so fascinating about confidence. It’s incredibly personal and influenced by all sorts of things, from our experiences and relationships to the expectations we place on ourselves.

At CORE Coaching, I’m interested in helping people get curious about their confidence…

👋Where does it show up?
👻Where does it seemingly disappear to?
🛤️What’s helping it along
⛔️What’s getting in the way?

There’s often far more confidence available to us than we give ourselves credit for. Sometimes we just need a little help uncovering it. 😉

While confidence is my speciality, coaching conversations can take us into all sorts of areas of life. Relationships, work, change, difficult decisions, feeling stuck or simply wanting to understand yourself a little better. Life doesn’t tend to organise its challenges into neat little categories, does it? (Annoying!)

So whatever you’re navigating, if you think a bit of space to explore it might help, I’d love to have a conversation.

www.core-you.com

Address

Cheadle Hulme

Website

http://www.core-you.com/

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