About Me
Hi, I’m Lorraine
I’m a multi-certified Chronic Illness & Ambition Coach, a project manager in a high-performance corporate law firm, and I’ve been navigating ME since 2009.
I understand this territory from the inside. Not because I read about it, because I lived it.
I know what it’s like to feel unsure and afraid of what life would mean now. I know the shame of no longer being able to remember things. The exhaustion of cancelling plans at the last minute because getting out of bed wasn’t possible. The quiet grief of watching the person you used to be become someone you no longer recognise.
And I know what it’s like to keep pushing anyway. The way that probably pushed me towards this illness in the first place.
Chronic illness doesn't just change your body.
It quietly rewrites your identity.
Especially when you’re someone who was ambitious. Driven.
Someone who had a clear sense of what you wanted from your life and the ability to go and get it.
And then the rules changed — and nobody gave you a new playbook.
Needing to reclaim my power is a lesson I learned the hard way
In 2009 I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a chronic neurological illness that causes multi-systemic symptoms, which for me most affects my respiratory, nervous, cognitive, and immune systems.
There were ten of us in the room that afternoon….
3 have since taken their own lives
4 are completely housebound with full-time carers
2 struggle with most daily tasks
I’m the one living a full life. Running marathons. Maintaining a demanding career. Running a coaching business.
The difference wasn’t luck, or bravery. It was a choice. A belief that recovery was possible, and a refusal to accept that my life had already happened.
I’m not telling you that to perform resilience. I’m telling you because I know something about what’s possible. Not from a textbook, but from having been in that clinic and choosing a different direction to most of the people in the room.
Your diagnosis does not revoke your ambition.
It just demands a different strategy.
I also didn’t really tell people I was sick as I didn’t want to be judged
I can’t even begin to explain the shame of no longer being able to remember things;
or needing to cancel so many plans at the last minute because I was unable to get out of bed.
I tried to keep pushing myself the same way I always had done.
The way that likely pushed me towards this illness in the first place!
Yet, I refused to give up, in spite of being told countless times “you can’t do that anymore”.
You don’t have to feel this way.
I thought I was doing ok, and then, I had a relapse.
I realised I had to develop new ways of managing work and life, but there was nothing available to help me. I was still bumping up against all those nos.
So I found my own way. I listened to the voices of my mind and body, and not to the voices of other people. It wasn’t, and sometimes still isn’t always easy.
But easy doesn’t mean ease. It’s not all or nothing. Living life and recovery live side by side.
Healing is messy, with ups and downs, and finding the resilience to say I want to try again, how can I do it differently.
I found simple ways to support my mindset, my movement, my energy. Ways to reduce mental and physical fatigue. All to ensure I stay in the best shape that my illness and broken brain allow.
I realigned and reclaimed my choice, my confidence, my power, and my joy.
Taking that chance on myself after diagnosis, to ignore what doctors and others were saying about what I could and couldn’t do, to find my own limits and not be limited by them, was an enormous, powerful leap of faith.
It’s one I keep choosing to make today.
My journey is what I developed into my SHIFT to Alignment programme
It’s not a list of things to fix. It’s a path back to yourself, one that accounts for your actual capacity, not the capacity you used to have.
And it works in layers. Just like the proverbial onion. There will always be another layer to work through. That’s not failure. That’s what real, lasting change actually looks like.
Let's find alternative solutions that fit for you and your life.
Ones you can sustain.
Tools you can use time and time again for when another layer of the proverbial onion comes off.
Different didn't have to mean worse. It just had to be different.
Education:
In my 30s I decided I finally wanted to do my psych degree, but half-way through I got too sick and my Neurologist gave me a choice of doing it all, or picking a headstone. I was on track for a first, too. *sighs* So, again, I found a new way
- Certified Body Healing Coach
- Certified Diet and Nutrition Advisor
- Certified EFT practitioner
- ME/CFS awareness diploma
- Gut-Brain connection diploma
- Energy anatomy diploma
- ICF Accredited Coach
- The Coaching Academy Certified
- 25+ years experience as trainer and coach
- Project Manager, US Law Firm
I am a back-of-the-pack runner, and a New York and Berlin marathon finisher, despite losing track of how many times I was told I’d never be able to run again.
When I’m not working with clients or doing the day job, you’ll find me testing recipes, exploring nature with my partner and dog, out for a run, lifting weights, or curled up on the sofa with a good book and a big cup of coffee.
Life in Align exists because I get it. I’ve been there. Sometimes, I’m still there.
Life can be tough. But it doesn’t have to stay this way.
If you’re ready to find a more aligned, clearer, more confident version of your life, one that works with your body rather than against it, I can’t wait to see your journey.
She’s still in there. The woman you were becoming before illness got so loud. She hasn’t gone. She’s been waiting for a strategy that actually works for her.
## Start Here
If this resonates, the best first step is the SHIFT quiz — five honest questions that identify which phase of the SHIFT framework is your starting point. From there you’ll receive a personalised EFT session to calm your nervous system and create some space for clearer thinking.
Most women begin there before anything else.
[Find your SHIFT phase →]
[Explore Coaching →]
