Commercial leadership meets deep coaching
Before I trained as a coach, I held senior roles including Chief Commercial Officer and Board Member of a global executive search firm. I also founded and exited my own consultancy. That commercial grounding means I understand what it’s like to lead under pressure and make big decisions with people, pace, and performance in mind.
I completed my coach training at Henley Business School and hold both ICF ACC and EMCC Senior Practitioner accreditation. My practice is also shaped by my own personal development and trauma work. I believe that sometimes talking it through isn’t enough, we need to peel back the layers to get to the heart of what’s really going on. Often, that’s made easier by getting out of our heads and into our bodies.
You can view professional background here on linked in.
Coaching that goes deeper
I work with smart, capable, brilliant people but that doesn’t mean they always find life and work easy. My clients come to Coaching ready to get beyond the surface to unpick patterns, shift stuckness, and reconnect with what really matters.
I hold space when things feel vulnerable, and offer challenge to break through old habits. I see through polished answers and gently push to get to what’s real because that’s where the real change happens.
About Founder, Emma Thorp
I’ve spent most of my career working inside complex systems - leading through growth, pressure, and change, and seeing first-hand how easily leadership becomes performative, strained, or disconnected from what actually matters.
I didn’t step away from corporate leadership because I stopped caring about impact. I stepped away because I wanted to work differently - with more honesty, more depth, and a clearer understanding of what sustainable leadership really requires.
Thorp Coaching brings together the things I’m deeply committed to: deep human connection, turning ideas and talent into meaningful success, and creating the conditions for people and organisations to do good work well, over time.
Most leaders don’t struggle because they lack capability or ambition. They struggle because the systems they’re operating in are demanding, fast-moving, and rarely designed to support reflection, good decision-making, or healthy ways of working and being.
That’s where my work sits.
I work with leaders and organisations to build the capacity to lead, and live well inside complexity. The work focuses on clearer thinking, healthier relationships, and decisions that hold up under pressure. This isn’t about fixing people or offering quick solutions. It’s about strengthening how humans function inside real-world contexts.
One of the most consistent pieces of feedback I hear is that the impact of this work isn’t limited to the workplace. Clients often notice improvements in their relationships at home as well. I see this as whole-human coaching, with whole-person impact.
Why Work with Me
Credentials and Approach
✔️ Lived C-Suite leadership experience
✔️ Henley business school trained, ICF & EMCC-accredited coach
✔️ Evidence-based methods that go deep and deliver lasting impact
Coaching in Nature
Much of this work happens in connection with nature, which I work with as a co-facilitator rather than a backdrop. Nature creates the conditions for thinking to settle, patterns to become visible, and perspective to return — which is why it’s central to how I work, not an add-on. As well as Executive Coaching online I offer immersive retreats and corporate away days bringing people out of the office and into nature.
My purpose-built coaching space on the edge of Ashdown Forest (Sussex) provides a powerful environment for deep reflection and transformation.
I believe environment shapes thinking and that leadership development doesn’t always belong in a meeting room. How can we expect new thinking in the same old setting?
Find out more about coaching in Nature
Neuro-spicy, trauma-aware, and proudly different
I’m neurodivergent and I’ve done a lot of work to understand how that’s shaped the way I lead, relate, and think. That insight helps me support others (neurodivergent or not) to find ways of working and leading that feel more natural, not performative.
I also bring a trauma-aware lens to my practice, without pathologising. I understand what it’s like for the “then and there” to affect the “here and now” — and how past experiences can shape the way we lead, relate, and respond under pressure. This work is about creating space between trigger and reaction, so you can choose how you want to respond — not just repeat old patterns.
You can read more about my own spicy-brain journey here.
