The Deprogramming Company
COACHING
Leadership, clarity, and agency
– without burnout or self-erasure
At The Deprogramming Company, coaching is not about fixing people or pushing performance at any cost.
It’s about helping leaders and professionals understand the invisible rules, roles, and pressures that shape how they show up at work – and supporting them in leading with clarity, integrity, and sustainability.
Our coaching is grounded in organisational psychology, relational awareness, and a deep understanding of how power, culture, and conditioning shape behaviour at work.
We work with individuals who are capable, conscientious, and often carrying more than their share and with organisations that want leadership development to be human, ethical, and effective.
COACHING WITH MICHELLE MINNIKIN
​Deprogramming, self-trust, and sustainable leadership
Michelle works with leaders and professionals – particularly women – who are navigating pressure points in their working lives where confidence, voice, or authority are being tested.
This often includes:
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Stepping into senior or visible leadership roles
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Navigating power dynamics, influence, or scrutiny
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Experiencing burnout, self-doubt, or chronic over-responsibility
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Feeling stuck between ambition and exhaustion
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Losing confidence in environments that quietly undermine it
Michelle is an organisational psychologist, guide, and author. Her work focuses on how internalised conditioning – particularly Good Girl Conditioning – shapes behaviour, confidence, and leadership at work, often in ways that are invisible but deeply impactful.
Her coaching supports clients to:
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Recognise and dismantle internalised rules that drive people-pleasing, self-silencing, or over-functioning
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Rebuild self-trust and internal authority
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Set boundaries without guilt or backlash
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Navigate visibility and power without constant self-monitoring
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Lead with clarity, steadiness, and integrity rather than self-erasure
Michelle’s approach is evidence-based, trauma-aware, and politically literate. It does not focus on “fixing” women or teaching confidence techniques in isolation. Instead, it helps clients understand why certain patterns exist – and how to change them in ways that are sustainable in real organisational contexts.
This work is particularly valuable for:
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Senior women and emerging leaders
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Professionals operating in high-pressure or male-dominated environments
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Leaders whose confidence has been quietly eroded over time
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Organisations that want to support women’s leadership without asking them to absorb the cost of broken systems
Clients leave with greater clarity, steadier nervous systems, and the capacity to lead with authority without burning themselves out to earn it.
COACHING WITH JAMES EVES
Identity, transition, and leading through change
James works with people at key transition points in their careers – moments where role, status, and identity are shifting, often abruptly.
This includes:
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Promotions into senior or visible leadership roles
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Redundancy, restructuring, or role loss
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Career pivots, pauses, or redefinitions
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Changes in authority, expectation, or professional identity
James is an executive coach and doctoral researcher at Durham University, specialising in identity shifts and career transitions. His research examines how individuals navigate abrupt changes in role, status, and expectation – and how these transitions impact confidence, decision-making, and performance.
He is also a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, using strengths insight selectively and contextually to support people to understand how they naturally think, relate, and lead during periods of change – rather than as a fixed or limiting label.
This means his coaching is both deeply reflective and practically grounded.
James supports clients to:
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Make sense of who they are becoming as their role changes
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Understand how identity disruption affects confidence and performance
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Navigate uncertainty without rushing to premature answers
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Rebuild coherence and authority after loss, change, or promotion
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Lead effectively while internal ground is shifting
His approach is particularly valuable for:
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Leaders stepping into bigger or unfamiliar roles
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Professionals navigating redundancy or unexpected career change
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Clients whose sense of identity has been tightly bound to their work
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Organisations supporting people through transition without defaulting to “bounce back” narratives
James’s coaching is thoughtful, relational, and evidence-informed – helping clients integrate change rather than simply endure it, and move forward with clarity, realism, and self-understanding.
COACHING WITH JAMES AND MICHELLE
​A dual-perspective approach for complex leadership moments
For some clients and organisations, the most effective coaching happens with Michelle and James together.
This joint approach is particularly powerful when leadership challenges are not purely technical or individual, but sit at the intersection of identity, authority, relationships, and system pressure.
Working together allows us to hold both:
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the internal landscape – strengths, conditioning, self-trust, nervous system responses, boundaries
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and the external reality – how you show up, are experienced, and operate within organisational systems
Joint coaching is especially valuable for:
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Senior leaders navigating complex power dynamics or scrutiny
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Founders or executives at moments of growth, strain, or transition
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Leaders working through visibility, authority, or cultural change
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Clients who want both psychological depth and relational clarity, without fragmenting the work
Sessions draw on both perspectives in real time. This allows patterns to be explored as they emerge – from multiple angles – and translated into grounded, practical action that clients can sustain in real working conditions.
This option is intentionally limited and offered by enquiry.
HOW OUR COACHING WORKS
Coaching is offered on a 1:1 basis, with Michelle, James, or both
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Engagements are typically short- to medium-term (3–6 months)
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Sessions are delivered online, with in-person options by arrangement
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Coaching can be commissioned directly by individuals or sponsored by organisations
We work collaboratively with HR, L&D, and organisational leads where appropriate, while maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the coaching relationship.
