My Mission and Beliefs

I believe transition isn’t an ending, it’s an invitation. That clarity comes not from more doing, but from mindful pause. Body, mind, and spirit are inseparable when it comes to real transformation; and it is seeing real transformation that inspires me.

My mission is simple: to help people walk back to themselves, equipped with practical tools, open hearts, and renewed purpose.

My Approach

I combine modern coaching with the ancient wisdom of pilgrimage with a sprinkle of the latest healthy human habits.

Although I have had many turning points in my life, the most important came when I walked the Camino de Santiago for the first time.

It eventually led to developing the Power of Pilgrimage 9-Step Framework, to guide clients to work across three dimensions of Body, Mind, and Spirit to prepare for whatever lies ahead.

Each step blends reflection, science-based coaching tools, and embodied practices like breathing, meditation and mindful walking. The result isn’t a “plan” so much as a path. One that leads to calm, clarity, and confidence in the next chapter.

About Boxy

I live in a bayside suburb in the Australian city of Melbourne. I grew up next to the sea and love it for many reasons. I am also 5 minutes away from the sea-side trails that I have come to know intimately. 

When I’m not coaching or writing, you’ll probably find me walking, cooking, sharing lunch, dinner and wine with my partner, family and friends, going to the cinema or theatre or planning the next Camino - and some other travel.

I’m a life-long learner and curious by nature, a lover of philosophy, history and travel. A keen student of what makes us human. If you want to know - I did write a little more below.

Let’s Walk Together

If you’re in transition, standing at a crossroads and ready to explore what’s next, you’re in the right place.

Start with a chat, or join one of my upcoming workshops.

Let’s take the next step together.

About Power of Pilgrimage

Put your feet up! The image of Boxy with his feet up in his old Jeep is an invitation to relax and step out of your routine for a moment, then read.

Firstly this is written in the collective pronoun because, although Boxy has the inspiration, he works with so many people who are part of the business in some way and they make it come alive. 

Warning: there is a little philosophy, a little science and possibly a little mystery.

We do what we do because we know that transformation happens when we slow down, step out of routine, and reconnect with something deeper.

The way we apply this to you, for your transformation, is through a combination of life coaching methods, the latest science on beneficial human practices, positive psychology and walking. Yes! Walking!

{Actually mindful walking - which is something slightly different than a stroll}

Walking mindfully is a quintessentially human activity. Since we rose up on two legs, our eyes saw the horizon and we walked toward it. Humankind hasn’t stopped.

The Greeks and other civilizations - we’ll use them because the so-called “western world” is heavy on the Greeks - saw walking and thinking as twins. Aristotle taught while strolling the colonnades of the Lyceum; his followers were called Peripatetics, literally “those who walk about.” Socrates, Plato, and later the Stoics used walking conversations through the agora or gardens as a kind of mobile classroom.

It wasn’t just logistics. They believed movement stirs thought. The body’s rhythm helped loosen the mind, and conversation found its natural tempo. Centuries later, thinkers like Rousseau, Nietzsche, Thoreau, and Kierkegaard all claimed their best ideas arrived mid-stride.

Modern research actually backs it up: walking increases blood flow to the brain and stimulates creative problem-solving. For individuals, that might mean rediscovering meaning or navigating a life transition. So movement really does stir thought.

For businesses, it means giving your people the space to reconnect to purpose, creativity and resilience - and return with more to give.

We do what we do because we’ve seen it change lives. We’ve walked it. It’s changed ours. And we know.

We don’t do much walking in the workshops and programs per se. What we do give you is lots of preparation to head to a very special classroom. Carrying this analogy, let’s say we give you the pencil, the paper, the text books, help with the habits of learning, having the right mindset and being open to the messages.

We then send you our actual classroom. For us it is the Camino de Santiago. It is not just a beautiful trail through Spain, through ancient towns, in ancient lands full of culture and connections, nor is it exactly a normal classroom. It’s a mirror, a crucible, and a catalyst for growth.

We do this because we believe in you and we are inspired by you.

A Little Bit More…

The image is a young me, with my kids. It is, maybe, 15 years ago. Little did I know what would happen in the next quarter of my life. The only real constant is that I adore my kids and I am so blessed that they love me and they show it.

I expanded this section because so many moments led me to dedicate my life to helping people. There have been just so many moments, that it nearly feels like destiny has led me here on my own Hero’s Journey.

I am extremely grateful that my life has been rich in variety through different continents, careers, cultures, and chapters, each with its own mix of successes, stumbles and crises.

Through all of it, two of my character strengths have driven me: a deep love of learning and an endless curiosity about what it means to be human. They have led me into philosophy, history, travel and the quieter corners of human experience - the places where meaning and life experience dwell.

In my twenties and thirties, I walked cities: Melbourne, London, Paris, Jerusalem, Rome, New York and Caracas to name a few. Only rarely with a backpack then, mostly with a daypack - other times just wandering.

I walked through three continents, learning languages, seeing the world. Sometimes with a partner beside me. Sometimes alone.

But somewhere in my forties, things changed. The kids came. The pram took over. Corporate life was more and more demanding. I walked less.

I had a side business fail. That just left a corporate life that was just not fulfilling me. Before too long I stopped walking. The effect was terrible: both physically and emotionally.

Soon I started to burn out, life at home seemed to be all wrong, depression started, my marriage broke down and I had an existential crisis. I was hospitalise, suicidal - twice. Corporate life ended.

After decades in big business leadership across three continents, I reached a point where success no longer equaled fulfilment. The roles, the titles, the pace - they’d all lost their meaning. So I started walking again.

In my fifties my journey back began. Finding what moved me, not just what entertained or amused me. I tried the wine business; following a passion and an earlier degree. I chose things that filled my tank and not empty it. With the support from psychiatry, psychology, meditation, my kids, my friends and, importantly, my Aussie terrier, Simba, I focused on appreciating beauty around me and understanding who I was - in my mind and my heart.

My creativity led me to build a successful business introducing Australian Gin to hundreds of thousands of people. I wrote a quintessential book on the first Australian Gin pioneers. Sadly this second business collapsed due to COVID. Not just the business, because for my 58th birthday, I went into personal bankruptcy. But I had already done the work to become resilient, to know how to handle what could have been a huge setback. I channelled my strengths of bravery and zest, yet still remain vulnerable. Money was not everything. I already knew the value of children, friends, health and life in general. Then my humour and honesty kicked in to make light of the situation. It was a new transformation - but it had not stopped.

I sat with that. And the universe conspired - as I find it often does when you are open to it.

I was set for a business class flight for 60 days for my 60th year with a partner, but that broke down. Rather than give up the tickets, a great friend reminded me of perspective. I rescheduled a couple of flights to make way for something I had always wanted: to walk the Camino de Santiago. That changed everything for me - again.

Step by step, I began to shed the noise and hear my own voice again. That experience became the foundation for my work today: guiding others to slow down, look inward, and realign their lives with what truly matters.

It was inspirational. Giving back now mattered more than achievement. Upon return I studied hard and became a life coach, quickly discovering that you can’t simply hand people your wisdom and expect it to fit. Real transformation happens when you walk beside someone, not ahead of them - giving them the space and support to find their own clarity.

That’s why I use mindful walking, or what I call pilgrimage, as a central practice. At its most basic, it grounds you in body and breath. At its highest, it opens something spiritual - a reconnection to self and to life itself.

Bringing it back home to me, if my work can help even one person step back from the edge, to re-engage with life rather than check out of it, I’ll consider my work worthwhile. I hope to do more though.

While I still offer one-to-one coaching, I’m drawn to the deeper impact of group experiences - walking, reflecting, and learning together and to sharing these ideas through writing. My aim is simple: to help as many people as I can to rediscover the power of walking, of Pilgrimage and the purpose, vitality, and peace it can bring.

My focus, for now, is to help people navigate life’s transitions, their crossroads - retirement, relationships, reinvention. To answer the quiet question of what’s next?

I’ve lived through so much. In fact many of the chapters that my clients now face: the career highs, the burnout, the rebuilding, and the search for meaning that follows. What lights me up is seeing people rediscover purpose, energy, and joy through reflection, movement, and conscious change.

A Pilgrim’s Life

My newsletter: Reflections and practices for walking through life with meaning.

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