Valerie Navarro

I was born, raised and educated in France by French parents. I grew up in a small village in the rural area where everybody knew everybody. As a result, I learned from young age how to interact with people from different ages and social levels and to have empathy. In 1989, I started Medical School. It took me 2 years and our first hand-on practice to realise that I couldn't stand the sight of open wounds. Not a good thing when you're planning to be a surgeon! Having chosen my career when I was 8 (Parents, be very careful about what you're saying in front of your children!), I had no plan B and only 1 week to find one so, I decided to study History just because I liked this subject during school time. 

I got married in 1992 and 2 months later, we immigrated to Canada on a sabbatical. It was my husband's dream. It started kind of weirdly: When we arrived at the immigration check-point in Quebec and told the officer why we were coming, he look at us totally shocked and said "Are you crazy??? We all dream to move to France and you come here just before winter?" I don't know if we were crazy (maybe a little for doing something like that) but great things always started with a crazy idea. It was before Google. To prepare our trip, we read books and articles about Canada, watch documentaries, etc. We were really well prepared to visit the country for a long lenth of time but not to move in. We arrived not only for the worst winter in Canada history but also for the worst economy crisis they had so far. We couldn't find a job so we were back home 7 months later ... but not alone: 6 months later, our son was born.

My plan was to come back to University when he will start kindergarten but, when it was going to happen, my husband was offered a 1-year job in Argentina by the French company he was working for. There was no way we could say no to such an opportunity so, again, I pushed back my uni dream, packed our things and we moved to Buenos Aires in 1998. And then, overnight, my totally normal husband became a workaholic, working 12 to 14 hours per day, 6 days per week, everything and anything became job-related for him and all the rest fell on me: Setting up the house, adjusting myself and the family to the new environment, learning the local language to be able to interact with the locals, make connections with other expats to create a bond and not feeling too lonely so far from home (No Skype or emails at that time. It took at least 1 month for a letter to come back with an answer!). If this wasn't enough, 6 months after our arrival, our daughter was born. I have to say, it had been a very challenging time but I overcame it, which was lucky because the 1 year became 2, then we were sent to Brazil for 5 years and to China for another 5 years. I'm pretty good at packing, adjusting, learning languages and making friendships now ;) At this point, I had totally given up about going back to uni but to be frank, I learned more about life, languages, adaptation to new cultures or solving problems during those years than I would have in any school.

For the past 8 years, we have been living in Malaysia. 2 years ago, while talking with a friend who's a coach, I realised that I have been coaching since almost forever without knowing it. So, when my children left home, I finally went back to study and gained several certifications (6 to be precise and I'm planning to get at least another 3 in 2019). The beauty of getting them so late in my life is that now, I know what I want to do, what I can help people with and I have tons of hard-learned experiences about life, relocation, culture adaptation, language learning, immigration, settling down, crisis management, relationships management, relationship crisis management (those are the ones who can sink your whole life if badly managed!) and on coaching as I practice on my friends and family during the past 20 years.