About

Hello!

I am James, a warm, curious and genuine coach and environmentalist. I care deeply about the challenges and opportunities my clients face, and I am dedicated to helping overcome them.

My practice is grounded in leadership and in Nature. I have worked in the environment sector for over 30 years, in roles including executive leadership, business management, operations, partnerships and policy. Helping others achieve good things for people, Nature and the environment.

Working as a leader sparked my interest in coaching. The more I learn, the more fascinated I become by its potential.

My work is multi-disciplinary, and evidence-based, and benefits from diverse interests in systems thinking, neuroscience, positive psychology, somatic practice and the science and psychology of nature and health. I work with the whole person – body and mind – in context of the community and ecological systems we live within.

I specialise in Nature Based Coaching, and I am a qualified mental health coach. I also have particular experience in working with people with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) – or ‘ADHDers’.

Coaching clients include Founders and small business owners, and staff and senior leaders from a range of major organisations including NHS Trusts, Nike, Third Bridge, Saga, Natural England, Microbiology Society, iSealAlliance, and central Government departments. I also do associate work for the global tech sector through Modern Health.

I have developed and delivered training, speaking and engagement for bodies including the Chartered Institute of Ecology & Environmental Management, Climate Coaching Alliance, International Coaching Federation and Greenpeace.

The importance of Nature – an autobiography

My earliest memory of engaging with the natural world was visiting a spider that lived in a wall on the way to school. Here was a creature with a life outside of mine, doing its thing, and I found it fascinating! Our house was a bit of menagerie growing up, which offset some of the lack of safe and accessible nature in the city, and I loved my pet terrapin. My A Level grades were too bad to achieve my goal of becoming a doctor – so I switched to biology, and never looked back. I specialised in psychology and ecology, becoming fascinated by ecosystems, and animal and human behaviour. I later completed a Masters degree in Nature Conservation.

The first seven years of my career was working as a nature conservationist. I was warden of an island in Shetland, and a tiny nature reserve in Kings Cross, London. I worked in Borneo and Nepal, monitored porpoises and seabirds in Scotland, and saved my English teacher salary to volunteer for environmental charities. I helped establish the UK Government’s moratorium on growing Genetically Modified Organisms, and established management plans for all of London nature reserves.

I joined the biodiversity team at the Greater London Authority in 2000, and branched out to work for the Mayor. I established groundbreaking new policy and partnerships for nature, sustainable energy, hydrogen and green infrastructure. In 2006 I joined the Environment Agency, where my roles included setting up the catchment based approach to managing land and water in partnership across England; founding a multi-million pound environmental investment programme; and leading organisational change and inclusion programmes.

As you can see, Nature and the environment has always been central to my professional life. However, it was at the Environment Agency that I came across coaching for the first time. I eventually put two and two together, and began to explore something I now call ‘Nature Based Coaching’. Working in partnership with clients and Nature, for mutual benefit.

People that have inspired me include Martin Jordan, Michael Jospe, Margaret Walsh, Charly Cox and Diana Tedoldi. There are now over 250 coaches in the LinkedIn Nature Coaching Network, over 2000 followers of the Coaching Outdoors network, and many more members of the Climate Coaching Alliance. In 2024 I joined the world’s first gathering of outdoor coaches in a sold out conference at Henley Management School. The nature coaching movement is growing fast.

Through my work with The Natural Coaching Company and The Human Nature Partnership, I have developed a strong understanding of the science and psychology behind nature connection. How and why Nature is ‘good for us’, and how and why nature-connected people take more daily action that is good for the planet. It is useful to have the evidence and to know what nature-connection means for human health, employee engagement, productivity, performance and all those important company metrics.

However, it is the felt sense of Nature that I find has the biggest impact on people. And it’s my direct experience of the natural world which really keeps me going. I am most at home ‘in Nature’ – in the sea, where I love to surf and swim; in a city pocket park or nature reserve; or really any wild landscape. It is Nature I turn to when I am sad, when I am happy, when I want to share something important, or just need time to breathe. Spending time with nature in this way makes me feel more connected with myself and the earth, and driven to give back.

And I love working with clients in partnership with Nature. It can be as simple as using natural metaphors indoors, or looking out of the window during a session. Or it may involve a phone call whilst walking in a place we love, or being face to face somewhere green or wild. Nature Based Coaching is often surprisingly powerful, and in my experience always beneficial. I recommend it to you!

Other interests

I am a writer and the co-author of ‘Being in Nature – 20 practices to help you flourish in a busy world’. I am also a TEDx Speaker, film maker, and an experienced facilitator, trainer and communicator.

My sister business is The Human Nature Partnership, a consultancy which creates nature connected organisations. I am the founder of community organisation Building Green.

I am a musician and music critic, film maker and photographer. A birdwatcher, walker and traveller. I love Alexander Technique and exercise, and am practicing meditation.

And along the way, and most important of all, I am the father of two wonderful young women – a dancer and an artist – and partner to one of the wisest and kindest humans I have ever known.

Qualifications

• Professional Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation)
• Chartered Environmentalist (Chartered Institute Ecology & Environmental Management)
• Diploma in Professional Coaching Skills (Coaching Development Ltd)
• Accredited Award in ADHD coaching (Association for Coaching)
• ADHD – Key Knowledge and Skills for Effective Biopsychosocial Intervention (Association for Psychological Therapies, Level 2)
• Understanding ADHD: Current Research and Practice (Kings College London)
• Mental Health Coach (Modern Health)
• Certificate in Science of Happiness (University of California, Berkeley)
• Certificate in Mind Management Skills for Life (Chimp Management Ltd)
• Certificate in Self Determination Theory (University of Rochester)
• MSc Nature Conservation (University College London)
• Certificate in Lean Thinking Knowledge & Practice (Cardiff University)
• Multi-Agency Gold Incident Command (College of Policing)

Registrations

• Member, International Coaching Federation
• Associate Member, Association for Coaching
• Member, Association for Psychological Therapies
• Member, Chartered Institute of Ecology & Environmental Management
• Member, Society for the Environment