Muslimah Business Spotlight: CoachAmal: SuperMuslimah Project

The service Amal Stapley provides for her clients is a unique one. Her business, CoachAmal: SuperMuslimah Project, specializes in life and confidence coaching for Muslim women.

As more people strive to achieve personal growth and spiritual fulfillment in their lives, the demand for life coaching has boomed. Life coaches guide their clients and help build their confidence so their clients can get past common roadblocks and trials such as feeling stuck in an unsatisfying career or navigating relationship issues or managing a major life change. Amal takes the life coaching she provides a step further. She has aptly recognized a need for her services within the ummah. Beyond her skills and coaching experience, she is a Muslimah so she understands the challenges and needs of her Muslimah clients. Amal is based in the UK, but works with Muslim women all over the globe guiding and encouraging them to make the changes they need.

Amal has been providing coaching services since 2008. She kindly shared how her business got started:

“I had had a successful career working with people with learning difficulties, and then went to live overseas for 20 years working as a volunteer, graduating in Islamic studies and Psychology from Malaysia and then working for Islamic organizations in the US and Egypt.

But I eventually reached a point in my life where I felt totally stuck and empty. I’d lost loads of confidence in myself, felt totally alien in the place I was living and was getting no pleasure from the job I was doing, and the thought of living the rest of my life like that was pretty scary! I felt like the proverbial square peg in a round hole! But there was something inside that kept on telling me that I shouldn’t give up. So I kept on looking and praying, and, alhamdu lillah, Allah started opening doors for me.

I found a Muslim coach, who helped to give me a new perspective on my life and work out what was important to me. I also gained the courage to massively step out of my comfort zone to make some real bold changes in my life; one of which was to travel to Canada to be trained as a life coach, with Muhammad Alshareef from DiscoverU.

After that everything seemed to fall into place; it felt like I was pulling all the threads of my life and experiences together and that was what I was meant to be doing. So I started up the CoachAmal life coaching service in 2008, which has now recently developed into the more comprehensive SuperMuslimah Project.

It’s been an exciting journey developing the business and I’ve learned so much and am continuing to do so. And I feel honoured to have worked with so many amazing women who’ve grown and blossomed over the time we’ve worked together. That’s the best part of doing this job; when I start, I’m speaking to a lady who’s confused, down and feeling very lost about what to do next and within a short period of time I see them grow and develop in self-esteem and confidence and make amazing changes in the way they live and perceive their life. It really is true that Allah is the best of planners!

As mentioned previously, the coaching services she provides are quite unique to the Islamic community:
“I work with Muslim women from around the world who have come to a point in their life where they feel stuck and unable to move forward. It may be because they have lost confidence in themselves and their abilities, due to their life experiences; they want to do something different with their lives, but have no idea what it is they want to do or what they would be good at; they have come to a crossroads and they’re not sure which direction to take or they just need someone to support and motivate them to make the changes in their life they want to make. And they want the support of someone who understands where they’re coming from in terms of their deen and culture.

Through coaching by phone or Skype, I give them the space and encouragement to look inside themselves and rediscover their self confidence, uncover the natural skills and inclinations that Allah has blessed them with, and find their direction in life. I also share with them tools and techniques that they can take away and use to plan and develop themselves after we have finished working together.

Through my CoachAmal Blog and SuperMuslimah Project Facebook page, I regularly share advice and tips on a range of coaching subjects that include: assertiveness, anger management, confidence development, goal planning, relationships and personal development, and change, combining modern coaching ideas with Islamic teachings.

The next stage I am working on is to develop online and offline courses in the following areas: Confidence, Personal Development, Spirituality, Relationships, Work/Career, Lifestyle Change, as these are the main areas of focus of my coaching. “

Amal finds operating a home-based life coaching business suits her personality and lifestyle perfectly. She says, “The massive advantage of working this way is that it is so flexible. I can work from home and adjust my hours to suit myself and my family, and even though I’m based in the UK, I can also make myself available to work with a sister who lives on the other side of the world by adjusting my working hours. Even if I travel, I can still work if I chose to, or not, as the case may be.”

You can learn more about Amal’s coaching services for Muslim women by visiting www.coachamal.com.  You can also connect with Coach Amal on Facebook, Twitter and her blog.