Carina's Own Story

Carina's Early Years

As the only child of a single parent—now, thankfully, a much more normalised family set-up than it was back in the 1980s and 90s—Carina experienced several formative childhood traumas, including parental illness, the loss of her mother in her teenage years, and bullying.  

These early experiences shaped her deeply, leading to a lack of self-certainty and a struggle with self-belief from a young age. As Carina puts it:  

“I learnt at a very young age, that it wasn’t good enough to be just me, to be myself”.


Despite these events, and in many ways, because of them, Carina grew into a headstrong, independent, and determined individual. As a result, she adopted a forced sense of confidence, as many of us do in our 20s. Yet beneath it all, she had never truly confronted or healed from the insecurities that had been ingrained in her early years.  

Forming such a strong attitude towards life would later form the foundations of her own Journey to Growth, though she didn’t come to realise this until much later.

Career Girl to Disruption

Carina went on to build a successful corporate career, spanning sales, HR, talent development, project leadership, and coaching. She later pursued a Master’s degree, became a chartered professional in people development, and qualified as a certified coach across multiple specialisms, including Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Life Purpose, Transformative, and Life Coaching.  

Yet during her 30s, Carina experienced monumental life changes including redundancy, divorce on top of an overseas relocation. Everything she knew had changed or disappeared and she found herself feeling a complete loss of identity.  

It was here that she realised her old forms of coping mechanisms were no longer serving her and she needed to change her approach. If she was going to rebuild, she had to let go of control and trust in the process, the very foundation of Empowered Transformation.  

During her personal development journey, Carina began work to uncover and determine who she was at the very core. Carina worked hard not only to understand her journey but also to build a level of respect, care and love for what she had been through and how this shaped her to become the person she was and is today.

The Realisation That Would Shape The Future

Having experienced the power of coaching firsthand, both as a recipient and as a practitioner, Carina saw how transformative an intentional and structured programme can be. Her years of corporate leadership and personal coaching practice led her to an important discovery:  

"To be our true selves and show up authentically in all aspects of life, we must understand who we are, the belief system we’ve built over the years, and how this impacts the person we are today. Only then can we transform or nurture it to align with the direction we want our lives to go."  

On a deeper and personal level, Carina also continued her own journey of self-discovery.  

“It took me ten years to realise that what I needed was to be able to truly respect, honour, and appreciate the experiences that had shaped me. In doing so, I developed a deep sense of Self-Worth, that was no longer based on external success nor influence, but on an inner foundation of self-respect and love.”  

Embracing both understanding and Authenticity, working with people to welcome and to love who they truly are and lead with integrity.

The True Self© Movement: Impact & Transformation

Based upon the strength of understanding her Journey to Growth and Values, Carina’s passion and mission are clear: to help others reconnect with their identity, build unshakable self-worth, and step into their power with confidence and authenticity.  

To achieve this, she designed The True Self© System, a coaching framework tailored to both individuals and businesses to support the process of understanding and embracing your Values and who you are at your core, to build and reconnect with Self-Worth on a deeper level, and to create empowered transformation to step into your unique power.

Through coaching, speaking, and tailored programmes, Carina is committed to driving her movement to make a lasting change.  

"I believe everyone has the power to be whatever they want to be—if they are driven by a deep understanding of themselves, a committed and unshakable love and appreciation for who they are, they will intrusively know what they want and truly believe in their potential and to go out and get it."