London-born, Sophie Carvin originally travelled north to Newcastle University to study politics under the late Labour MP Mo Mowlem, but has lived all over the UK, most recently settling in Northumberland with husband Paul and their two black labradors.

Forging ahead in her early post-graduate career in recruitment, Sophie, who is now a stepmother and grandmother, then also took on responsibility for training and development whilst working with an environmental and engineering consultancy, and studied part-time for an additional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Motivated to make a difference by equipping people with the knowledge, tools and confidence to achieve, many varied years spent at Northumbrian Water spanned areas including learning and development, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement, educational outreach, and graduate and apprenticeship programmes, as well as the elements of the organisation’s innovation festival that are aimed at young people.

With the desire to leave a positive legacy wherever she goes, Sophie returned to university to train in coaching and mentoring part-time, and developed an internal coaching team working with Northumbrian Water’s senior leaders.

This, plus additional training in both one-to-one and group coaching helped spur Sophie’s long-held ambition to focus on coaching and in 2020 she left the utility provider and began her coaching practice – Deror – with the aim of creating a real and sustainable sense of support and empowerment that positively impacts people’s lives.

Primarily but not exclusively coaching senior women leaders working in traditionally male dominated environments, Sophie delivers one-to-one support and collaborates with colleagues to offer leadership and management programmes, and psychometric assessments to help growing businesses scale.

A perpetual learner, Sophie was introduced to the six-week Positive Intelligence PQ programme in 2021, where she met the three kindred spirits that would become instrumental in the development of her latest venture – Mid Life Thriving. These are coach, nutritional therapist and functional medicine professional Erica Gibbon of Linden Tree Health, experienced educator, school leader, coach and non-profit administrator Aaron Listhaus, and business coach, consultant, storyteller and poet, Susan Le Plae Miller.

Now a PQ Master, having sadly lost her father just weeks after the launch of Deror in the midst of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, Sophie found her new skills and resilience would shortly be tested again when in 2022, a routine outpatient surgery went wrong and she was left fighting for life. 

Sophie found the consistent and forward-looking daily practice of PQ beneficial to her recovery from major surgery. Her connection with Aaron, Susan and in particular Erica grew, with the transatlantic foursome in constant contact to learn from one another, developing their respective practices, and helping Sophie find a balance that enables her to enjoy the privilege of being allowed into people’s lives to make a significant difference to them as a coach, whilst leading a rich non-work life, walking her dogs, cultivating produce in her greenhouse and on her allotment, and spending quality time with her friends, husband and grandchildren.

Ably supported by Aaron and Susan, Mid Life Thriving, which launched in 2023 and is helping individuals to change their lives for the better, is the natural evolution of these skills and experiences, which combine perfectly with Erica’s knowledge and expertise to give members of this flourishing community all the tools they need to live life as they choose.