Personal Identity Coach Carina Harvey helps clients struggling with the loss of identity to rediscover their purpose, develop their mindset, and embrace their unique style. Before founding her own coaching company, Carina worked in HR for two decades at blue-chip organisations in London and Dubai. Now as a qualified coach, and CIPD chartered professional in people and career development, Carina combines personal development coaching with self-discovery, identity and purpose, confidence-building, and style education to suit her clients’ needs.
Growing up as the only child of a single parent who was often unwell or in hospital, Carina suffered bullying and experienced sudden parental bereavement at a young age. Consequently, she lacked a lot of confidence and self-belief. Despite this, she was highly independent and determined, building a successful corporate career, spanning sales, talent, project, and leadership roles. Still, she never properly dealt with the insecurities she’d developed in her younger years.
During her 30s, Carina experienced several significant life changes, including redundancy, divorce, an overseas relocation, miscarriage, and stress-related illness. Everything she knew had changed or disappeared and she found herself feeling a complete loss of identity. That was when she realised her old coping mechanisms were no longer serving her, and she needed to change her approach. Over a seven-year journey, involving undergoing coaching herself, Carina learned to prioritise mindset and saw just how much it can impact our confidence levels, image, physical appearance, and behaviours. When we address mindset blocks, it enables us to feel comfortable and project our authentic selves.
While working in the corporate world, Carina always loved fashion and she decided to follow her passion, exploring a new career path. She obtained several fashion and styling certifications, including ones from Conde Nast College of Fashion and Harvard Business School. Later, while working as a stylist, Carina saw that many of her clients had also been through life changes, leading to a similar loss of identity as she had felt. This inspired Carina to find a way of working with individuals to help them on the same journey. The result is her unique two-fold approach that combines coaching to uncover people’s personal identity, purpose, and what may be holding them back, as well as educating them on their aligned and authentic style and image.
“We often have limiting beliefs that manifest in insecurities about how we look, and these doubts can really keep us stuck in times of change. Understanding where confidence issues come from is paramount to helping people move forward with a strong sense of identity and style” she explains.
Scenarios Carina supports clients through include returning to the job market (after redundancy, maternity, or an extended career break), moving to a new country, becoming a parent, experiencing menopause, and going through a divorce.
Delivered on a one-to-one basis, Carina’s holistic coaching programme delves into the mindset and personal values so people can reconnect with who they are and feel comfortable embracing their true identity. She also provides personal styling tips and techniques enabling people to make the right wardrobe choices and feel confident from within.
In addition to the structured coaching programme, Carina runs tailored workshops and masterclasses for entrepreneurs and corporate groups. In her corporate work, Carina draws on her HR experience, working with HR teams to support their well-being agenda, exploring the themes of identity, confidence, image, and style, and empowering employees to feel and perform their best.
