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Frequently Asked Questions
Coaching supports smoother, more confident returns to work—reducing turnover, strengthening psychological safety, improving engagement, and boosting productivity. It also signals that you’re an organisation that values inclusion and understands the importance of supporting working parents.
Coaching is a confidential, forward-focused conversation designed to help individuals gain clarity, confidence, and practical solutions. I don’t tell coachees what to do, instead, I ask questions that help them think differently, uncover what they really want, and find a way forward that feels right for them.
My approach is calm, supportive, and firmly centred on the people I work with feeling safe, understood, and empowered. New parents at the point of returning to work often carry a complex mix of emotions, so we work at their pace, with compassion and without judgment. I blend mindset work with practical strategies so they leave each session with insight and action.
Therapy and coaching are similar in that they both use psychological frameworks and are 1:1 talking interventions. However, they do have different processes and purposes. Therapy helps to explore and heal past experiences, and it can focus on trauma or mental health concerns. While coaching can feel therapeutic, it doesn’t diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Instead, coaching sessions explore where an individual is now and where they want to be, working together to build clarity, confidence, and strategies for moving forward.
Yes. Coaching is completely confidential. I will never share what an employee says in their sessions, unless they give their express permission to do so. Every quarter, I’ll share report for your organisation, including details on the number of coachees and sessions undertaken, as well as insights to inform wellbeing and inclusion strategies, and anonymised common themes covered in coaching (where coachees have given permission to share).
Life happens, especially for working parents! If a coachee needs to reschedule, I offer as much flexibility as possible with reasonable advance notice. Missed sessions without notice can still count toward the package, but I work with both you and the employee to minimise disruption. Full details of cancellations can be found in your sponsorship agreement.
At the end of each coaching programme, I ask each coachee for feedback and for their permission to share that feedback with your organisation. This includes progress they feel they made, challenges they have encountered and return to work experience insights, along with a star rating system for the coaching programme itself. Details of this are included in your quarterly report. You’ll find this is a great way to monitor both individual success and the impact on your wider culture of support.
Find out more about how partner organisation Arval UK measured wide-ranging impacts in this blog.
Coaching programmes can be started at any stage to suit the coachee. In my experience it is most beneficial to start during parental leave, before returning to work, continuing for up to 6 months after. In doing this, coachees have the opportunity to take stock and prepare before they return, and then to feel supported as they live through the experience. For coachees returning to leadership positions, it can be beneficial to have one session before parental leave begins.
Coaching with my partner organisations is offered as a purely supportive measure and, with that in mind, anything related to the return-to-work experience is welcome. This might include confidence, identity, boundaries, work–life balance, managing workload, navigating expectations, communicating with a manager, communicating with a partner, childcare transitions, or simply finding your feet again.
We begin with a call where I learn about your organisation, your goals, and your current support for working parents. From there, I’ll recommend the coaching options that best suit your needs. Once we agree a plan, I share a simple onboarding process, so everything feels clear and easy for both you and your employees.
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Clients say…
“If your employees feel supported, valued, and listened to, you’ve got engagement. And with engaged employees, you’ve got profitability with your customers and happy customers.”
Heather Messenger, Senior HR Business Partner, Arval UK
“One of the best decisions I made while I was pregnant was to invest in some coaching with the wonderful Laura Duggal, a Parental Return to Work Coach who has been instrumental in helping me figure out what I want work to look like going forward. Our sessions have given me the headspace and (self) permission to establish the best path forwards, and shed some of the mum guilt I’ve felt.”
Ginny Radmall, Director, The Ivy Way
“It’s our role within HR, and as a business, to educate and inform our people managers on how best to support people when they go on parental leave; how dynamics could change, and what we can do best to support them to return really successfully.”
Heather Messenger, Senior HR Business Partner, Arval UK
“ Laura helped me find confidence and direction during my return to work after maternity leave. She helped me develop simple daily practices that make my workload feel manageable. The tools she shared have changed how I manage stress and plan my days. Her warm, thoughtful coaching helped me manage overwhelm, understand my emotions, and reconnect with my strengths. Every session was more valuable than I ever expected.”
Rose, Product Manager
“The juggle is real. As a working parent there is guilt everywhere you look… what coaching has allowed our working parents to do is work through their experiences so that they can bring their best selves to being a parent and they can also bring their best selves to the workplace.”
Danni Buxton, HR Director, Cherry, Partner Organisation
