7 Crossings

Coaching

About

Your Coach (MSc, CPC)

Hello, my name is Marie-Veronique Grand

I work with change-makers, leaders, creatives who feel the calling of an inner mutiny. Those who sense that something essential is asking to be heard, insistently, and that clarity, alignment, and acting for the greater good will not come from pushing oneself and others harder, but from listening deeper.

Born and raised in France from a multicultural landscape, I moved to England to pursue my professional aspirations. I spent over 15 years as an exploration geoscientist in the energy sector, working on four continents and contributing to interesting and complex projects. After a long break from the corporate, I engaged with consultancy firms on energy projects and sustainability management with small and larger teams.

At the start of a career you have this vision of the future, sometimes you even have a plan. But I remember the moment when my own map disappeared more than a decade ago, frustrated by a future that now felt impactless and unchallenged. Despite all its apparent success, my inner compass was gone.

Going back in my childhood, I perceived safety was often threatened – which maybe made me want to build something solid and impressive with my professional endeavours, but also limit my risk-taking to stay safe despite my free-spirited personality. As an adult I grew constrained by my own assignment and at the same time, felt cornered, with no idea what to do about it and seemingly a lot to lose if I stepped off the treadmill. A very common feeling and life crossing for many who have been working in traditional businesses and organisations for a long time.
I had to get there to finally hear the wiser whisper. And when I stopped trying to control the outcome – a new map began to emerge. Fragile. Uncertain. Incomplete. But more alive for my soul.
I started exploring again – still with a lot of safeguarding at first – I studied, experienced and practiced integrative and traditional medicine. I also upgraded my relevance to a changing corporate world with Sustainablity Business Management and coaching with a concious leadership development system called Energy Ledership with IPEC.
I supported women affected by debilitating health ailments with holistic wellbeing and help unhappy leaders become more liberated and act with their newly-found unique creative power, shifting life paths from frustration and constraint to satisfaction and fulfillment.

Our society is now undergoing a profound transformation, and many of us feel the need to respond, to leave behind what is obsolete and misaligned, to nourish what was depleted, and to create something entirely new when the soil and the seed are finally taken care of. Ultimately, this is less about transformation as a force, and more about transmutation, a true change of state.

I understand how uncomfortable some situations can be and how much resistance we, ourselves, and the outside world seem to put on our way to change. Thankfully, we always find powerful teachers and companions on the way. Some of my own shifts and learnings felt almost magical and some came through painful crossings and losses but all provided life-changing understandings and re-ignited passion and even intuition.

Today Connection, Optimism and Autonomy are the main advisors at my round table. It took time and perseverance to recover this true self and transmute the experiences into genuine service to support people. So I cherish this treasure, gratefully aware it will also forever be unfolding and somehow unknown. “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science”, said A. Einstein.

To do this work I lean on existing life and professional coaching tools and sytems, but I also create my own and co-create with my clients. We are born creators. And perhaps, at heart, we are also all artists, who every now and then need a bold companion to walk across and reach beyond…

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
J.W. von Goethe

Onward, and Forward!
Marie