About Denise

Before setting up her coaching business, Denise was an award-winning manager in the corporate world. She specialised in turning around underperforming teams. One day, she realised that she was on the wrong career path and something had to change. Denise stepped down from the corporate ladder and started a mobile coffee cart franchise; serving fresh coffee at shows, events and shopping centres across the UK – for which she won a Small Business Award.

Denise’s passion for people’s development and wellbeing led her to establish her second business, Barceidillo Ltd. She designed and delivered health and wellbeing programmes, focused on managing stress, to help leaders build their resilience in the workplace. It was a fantastic accolade when The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) used Denise’s work with QVC Shopping Channel as a case study.

Denise found her true calling in coaching and went on to train with The Coaches Training Institute and qualified as a Certified Professional Co-active Coach (CPCC), accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She set up her third business Denise Chilton Ltd in 2010 and since then has accumulated over 2500 hours of coaching experience supporting individuals and teams in organisations from across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, nationally and internationally.

In addition to running her own coaching business, Denise works as an Associate Coach and facilitator for Beyond Coaching and its sister company, Health Coaching Academy. She has worked since 2015 as part of their coaching team delivering on a number of NHS England national coaching and leadership development initiatives supporting Clinical Directors, GPs and Practice Managers in their roles and practices.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, she was invited to join the NHS Looking After You Too service, offering coaching to both clinical and non-clinical primary care staff to manage their psychological well-being and build resilience.

For over 10 years, Denise has also been an approved business, career and executive coach and facilitator at the University of Liverpool where she delivers management training programmes for new and aspiring managers and 1:1 and group coaching for early career academics and professional services staff. She is an approved career coach on Prosper, a 12-month career development programme aimed at unlocking postdocs’ potential to thrive in multiple career pathways.

Denise is also a published author. Suddenly Single was published in 2017, helping women to move on after the loss of a significant relationship. In the same year, she was awarded ‘Mentor of the Year’ by Northern Power Women.

Ultimately, Denise lives her life on purpose. She knows what is important to her and why she is here. She is passionate and committed to helping others do the same.

Denise adopts the Co-Active Model in her coaching relationships which simply means ‘being in action…together’. She believes in helping people to build upon their strengths and recognises her clients’ natural resourcefulness. By staying curious and asking the right questions, she trusts that her clients will find the answers to their own questions.

With an innate ability to motivate people, Denise connects and engages with people at all levels. Her clients are stretched to raise their levels of self-awareness, to look at things from new or different perspectives, and to gain a greater understanding as to what’s going on “beneath the surface” so they can move forward.

Coaching is a process of self-discovery and Denise offers a safe and non-judgemental space where clients can identify, explore and overcome the barriers that hold them back from making the changes they want and achieving their full potential. Her guidance helps clients to understand what is really important to them and supports them to create a fulfilling life for themselves in which they fully show up.

The agenda for the coaching sessions comes from the client which means that the coaching is focused on getting the result that the client wants – not what anyone else wants for them!