I care about coaching that reveals, resolves and renews.
I’m Conny Weyrich, an arts-based and trauma-informed coach.
I enjoy the depth of working with individuals and love the rich process that unfolds in groups.
I combine a solid grounding in trauma-informed practice and mental wellbeing with creative processes to help you navigate work and life in a changing world.
A good fit between how I am as a coach and how you like to be coached is essential.
My Coaching Approach
Integrative and multi-facetted – I combine a range of frameworks and tools, a foundation of neuroscience, and my understanding of the stress-trauma-continuum to provide tailored support and help you achieve lasting outcomes.
Emergence & structure. Our exploration follows your life, not a fixed coaching process. We’ll work together to navigate the messy middle that comes with change, liminal space and personal growth but won’t lose sight of your overarching intentions and goals.
Anchor & activate. Learning happens at the edge. Our brains can change when we work at the sweet spot of being activated and anchored. I aim to create a space that supports you in facing your challenges and holds enough energy to imagine ways of dealing with them.
Creative. When my own creative practice is alive, I’m more creative in my coaching. Therefore, I emphasise the value of engaging your creative part. You’ll receive tailored creative invitations to support your coaching in-between sessions, and I’ll encourage you to cultivate your own creative/ reflective practice as part of our coaching.
Trauma-informed. I define trauma as an experience that overwhelms our capacity to cope. During this experience, we often feel isolated or utterly alone, and our brain learns something emotionally that guides how we see the world and move through it going forward. This could be one event, a series of events or a set of conditions which might seem small or insignificant in isolation but build over time. As a qualified creative arts therapist, I’m trained in holding coaching conversations that intersect with therapeutic work in a compassionate, gentle, and responsible way.
-
Who I work with
People who were caught off guard when their usual strategies for life stopped working.
People who want to unravel sticky patterns so that they can move forward differently.
People who realise that running on fumes isn’t how life was meant to be.
People who worked so hard to fit in and realise it comes at a high cost.
People who want to steer through big change without the whiplash.
I also support leaders who want to lead in an empathic and trauma-sensitive way through longer-term coaching as a space to think.
My style works well for anyone who is curious to combine creative exploration with a more cognitive and structured inquiry and who wants to learn more about the mind-body connection and ways of accessing emotional knowing.
-
What shapes my work
My love for learning and connecting the dots between frameworks and concepts shapes me as a practitioner.
These are some people who influence how I show up as a coach: Jules Taylor Shore, Janina Fisher, Gabor Maté, Deb Dana, Frank Anderson, Nora Bateson, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Francis Weller, Vikki Reynolds.
Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice, The MIECAT Institute, Melbourne, 2018
Certified Practitioner in the Map of Meaning®, 2021
Master of Business Administration, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 1998
Ongoing training: STAIR level 1 & 2 with Jules Taylor Shore, coaching skills, Internal Family Systems, Polyvagal Theory, Narrative Therapy.
Professional Memberships: ANZACATA, EMCC, AC
-
How I create
Creating in altered books and journals is my creative spine. These books hold the complexity and messiness of life in a meaningful and compact way. They provide a home for my reflective experiments, collages and mixed media art.
Found poems are one way I make sense of life, a mindful and creative approach to bring order into my thoughts.
I love combining collage and found poetry on altered playing cards.
I have a ‘tiny practice’ for tough or busy times and love more expansive art making sessions to dive deep and play with materials.
My love for language shows up in my reflective writing processes, my journals, my blog, my newsletter… maybe one day in a book?!
I constantly connect the dots between what I read, learn, hear, observe...
-
What I love
I love reading.
My daytime reading of non-fiction inspires my work and feeds my curiosity.
My night-time reading of novels and stories calms my brain and gets me ready for rest.
I also love the stillness of early mornings, the colours of autumn, coffee for breakfast and sitting on swings.
A good day includes creative work, real conversation, a lot of laughter, time to read, learning something new and making something with my hands.
My soul comes to rest on a mountain top, near a river or by the sea, in a forest or when quietly watching wildlife, in front of a fire, and when gathering with people I deeply connect with.
Of course, there's more to my story...
I started out as a creative, quiet, daydreaming child.
A comment on something I made in art class took the joy out of creating. It took me 20 years to rekindle my love for art making.
I climbed the corporate ladder, encountered toxic workplace dynamics and experienced the brain fog and emotional cost of burnout.
Ultimately, this led me to experiencing the liminal space of career transitions, needing to find my place in the world again.
With Sensemaking Space, I found the joy of integrating my business background with art therapy and bringing it into the world of coaching, meaning making and personal growth.
The qualities that infuse my approach and practice are:
Arts-based: use your creative expression in addition to words.
Trauma-informed: build awareness of trauma patterns and echoes from the past.
Reflective: cultivate a deeply personal reflective practice.
Meaning-focused: learn to create meaning opportunities in your daily life.
These words by writer Annie Dillard are a daily inspiration:
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Every day, I aim to create a life I feel at home in. And I want the same for you.
Learning and professional development
Life-long learning is one of my core values and integrating what I learn into my practice is a deep source of inspiration.
The fields of trauma research, neuroscience and workplace wellbeing move fast, and regularly updating my knowledge is essential to support you in the best way I can.
Latest research & training that inform my work:
2024/25 - STAIR Level 1 & 2 with Jules Taylor Shore (Self Trust and Integrated Resilience, a brain-based method for integrating multiple modalities)
2024 IFS Annual Conference, hosted by IFS Institute - Internal Family Systems
IFS Online Circle, hosted by IFS Institute
Annual Trauma Conference with the Trauma Research Foundation in May 2020, May 2023 and May 2024, hosted by Bessel van der Kolk
Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems (IFS), Frank Anderson, 2022
Polyvagal Summit including a masterclass with Deb Dana on ‘Putting Polyvagal Theory into Practice’ – The Polyvagal Institute, 2021
Advanced Creativity Coaching Training, Eric Maisel, 2021
The Map of Meaning® – Certified Practitioner, 2021.
Leading in Times of Uncertainty - Coaches Rising Summit 2020
Bessel van der Kolk: Trauma, neuroscience and the evolving therapy of traumatized children and adults, 2019
Janina Fisher: Transforming trauma-related resistance and stuckness, 2019
Certificate in Existential Wellbeing Counselling from KU Leuven, Belgium
Connecting the dots
A personalised service that meets your needs and preferences:
Therapeutic Arts Practice - we integrate creative and reflective approaches based on your preferences and circumstances. No experience, specific materials or spaces required.
The Map of Meaning® – understand the responsibility and possibilities of meaning as something you constantly create.
Polyvagal Theory – be in partnership with your nervous system to connect well with yourself and others.
Internal Family Systems – welcome all aspects of yourself for their good intentions and strengths.
Narrative Therapy – externalise experiences, emotions or struggles to gain a fresh perspective.
Professional Memberships
I’m a fully insured professional member of ANZACATA, the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association, and work within their Standards of Professional Practice and Code of Ethics. This includes continuous professional development and clinical supervision.
Further memberships
European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) in Asia Pacific
Association for Coaching (AC).
Certified Practitioner in the Map of Meaning®
