Welcome to our blog series profiling the winners of the 2021-2022 Beautiful You Coaching Academy Awards. The awards aim to uplift and honour our worldwide community of coaches and the incredible work they are doing through their coaching, events, programs, books, products, podcasts and more. Get ready to have your mind and heart blown wide open and be inspired by an incredible round-up of coaches.

Today we’d love to introduce you to our 2021-2022 Shine Award winner, Karen Marie Johnston. The Shine Award is a personal award given to the coach that CEO and Founder of the Beautiful You Coaching Academy, Julie Parker, believes to most uphold the values of being a Beautiful You Life Coach.

Karen Marie Johnston is an ICF Certified Coach, social worker and trauma-informed yoga teacher for addiction and mental health. She has recently won an International Coaching Award and was finalist for an ITV National Diversity Award for Positive Role Model. She organises beautiful ‘Self-Love’ retreats and works 1:1 with women who are ready to truly thrive and learn how to be kinder to themselves, so that their dream life and recovery, can actually become a reality. Her work has been featured on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’ and Channel 4’s ‘The Secret Millionaire’.

What made you decide to become a Beautiful You Coach?

I heard the incredible Julie Parker talking about her journey from social worker to business owner and describing her work. I had a full-bodied ‘OH MY GOSH!’ I want to learn from this woman! She was talking about running her business with the same ethics and values that I uphold in my profession, and this felt so exciting to me. I had not heard of anyone making this transition before and I wanted to learn more about Julie and her work. I found incredible testimonials online and this led me to finding another Beautiful You Coaching Academy coach, who supported me unbelievably both pre-study with Beautiful You and since. The attention to detail, exceptional customer service and heart-centred ethos were an inspiring combination. Once I found Beautiful You I knew I had found a community of women who would contribute to my expansion as both a practitioner and a human.

Tell us about your coaching business and the clients you work with.

I work primarily with women who are in recovery from trauma, addiction, alcohol misuse, eating disorders and co-dependency. I work across the ‘Cycle of Change’ model, which means I work with women still in active addiction who fund their drug habit through sex work and those who are in long term recovery. I run a Facebook Group called ‘The Self-Love Recovery Hub’ which offers daily support to over 2000 women. We organise incredible ‘Self-Love Retreats’. ‘The Co-dependency Code’ – is our group coaching programme, ‘Self-Care Sunday’ our FREE monthly online workshop and offer 1:1 coaching to women who are looking to take their healing to the next level in our intensive programme ‘The Self-Love Method’. We combine a unique blend of personal development, bodywork, nervous system care, dance therapy, trauma-informed yoga, and self-love practices to ensure that lasting change can take place and be sustained. It is our body which continues to hold the trauma associated with exposure to this level of self-harm and neglect and so we include our physiology, biology as well as psychology in our healing journey.

What do you think has helped you to grow as a coach and reach success that you’ve had so far in your business? 

I know that the Beautiful You training provided me with EVERYTHING that I needed to succeed and more. I especially love the modules on ‘Beyond Coaching’ as my retreat business was birthed within this. I have always tried to show up as myself, not a polished version, just me, exactly as I am. I think this has helped to create trust with my community of women because they have often experienced stigma and shame when trying to access more mainstream well-being, health, and healing environments. I follow my intuitive nudges and only do work that truly lights me up. I am just as happy in a red-light district during an outreach shift as I am hosting a retreat. I absolutely love the women in my community. They are some of the bravest women on the planet. To be able to address inequality through my business is also incredibly fulfilling. I offer bursaries and subsidised places to women who experience multiple disadvantages and are marginalised. This is very important to me because otherwise the coaching industry becomes another system where only those holding financial privilege are valued. This feels wholly unsatisfactory to me. 

What does it mean to you to win this award from the Beautiful You Coaching Academy?

Oh my goodness!! I could not believe it. It meant the world! To have my work recognised in this way felt overwhelming. I also had this moment of deep gratitude because I felt truly seen. The women I work alongside are often not seen, heard, or valued. I have lived experience of trauma and am in long-term recovery from addition, so it felt like a full circle moment. It felt as though everything we have collectively been through in this community was honoured, respected, and held with deep reverence. It was a HUGE moment for me personally and professionally. It is almost as though everything came together inside of my soul, and I knew that I had not just made it out of survival but that I was thriving and so were the women in my community. We had made it out of such darkness, and we were collectively being given ‘The Shine Award’ because we were worthy, lovable and of the highest value, just as we were! It was very humbling.

What’s next for Karen Marie Johnston? Do you have any exciting plans in store for your coaching for the rest of the year and beyond?

 YES! I have 4 more ‘Self-Love Retreats’ coming up in 2022, offering a high-end experience at an accessible price point. I am working 1:1 with some incredible women who are working towards healing their relationship with themselves through a combination of coaching, nervous-system care, and trauma-informed embodiment work. This work is integrative and works with the whole system. I am excited to be offering ‘The Self-Love Method’ both 1:1 and as part of a group coaching programme because it is a beautiful programme that was divinely gifted to me. I am loving my life and business right now. It feels as though it has all come together this year. I am beyond blessed to be doing this work in the world.

Find out more about Karen’s work at Karen Marie Johnston

Photography Sophie Carefull