ABOUT ME
QUI SUIS-JE ?
MY MISSION
I support humanitarians and expatriate spouses willing to create positive, lasting changes in their professional and personal life, and achieve successful professional and personal transitions.
I’m Nancy Bonamy, certified in Life & Career Coaching, Resilience and Well-being. I am also trained in Burnout Prevention and Post-Burnout Career Guidance.
MY BELIEFS
MY MULTIPLE EXPERIENCES AT YOUR SERVICE.
I’m an expatriate for 28 years, I’ve worked in a dozen countries in Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Europe, and North America. I also returned to my home country, Switzerland, for 5 years.
My career path is atypical and includes several very different career changes. I have worked as an elementary school teacher, as a manager for professional musicians, as a humanitarian with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for ten years, as an expatriate spouse (yes, it’s a job too!) …and since 2014, as a Life & Career Coach for humanitarians and expatriate spouses.
The day I took on the role of expatriate spouse, I realized, much to my surprise, how complicated this position – too often misunderstood and not at all valued – was to take on. I faced many obstacles in terms of professional and personal fulfillment. I had to learn to live with this reductive label of “wife of…” and compete with ingenuity to often reinvent myself!
As a humanitarian worker with the ICRC, I have spent 8 years in the field in emergency contexts (Palestine, Chechnya, Congo-Brazzaville, Sudan, Iraq) and 2 years at Headquarters in Geneva. In addition to the challenges directly linked to my humanitarian work, I had to face the difficulties of taking care of myself and my life balance. I also experienced a rapid career progression (Deputy Head of Delegation right after my 2nd mission) with all the challenges and learnings that this implies regarding management, communication, and leadership. After 10 years in this sector, I finally had to learn how to reorient myself professionally after all this time in this sector.
Since 2014, I’m a certified in Life & Career Coaching, Positive Psychology, Resilience, Social & Emotional Intelligence. I’m also trained in Burnout Prevention and Post-Burnout Career Orientation. Throughout my studies, I developed my expertise on issues related to life and career transitions, expatriation, humanitarian sector, the status of expatriate spouse, and studied many other subjects such as well-being, non-violent communication, mindfulness meditation, etc.
YOU ASK YOURSELF A THOUSAND QUESTIONS? I UNDERSTAND, I’VE BEEN THERE TOO!
My life is full of transitions and for a long time I managed all these changes with great ease… until one day, where I was no longer able to identify what I really wanted, how to reclaim my rightful place and ensure a good life balance.
At the time, I was facing several circumstances that had important impacts on me:
- Professionally, after years in the humanitarian field, I was no longer satisfied with my life balance, though not knowing what to do about it. When I finally decided to leave the humanitarian sector, I was at a total loss as to how to find a new, meaningful career direction that would combine my past experiences.
- On a personal level, becoming a parent marked a real turning point in my life. It felt like a tsunami, turning my priorities, values, expectations, and goals upside down.
- And finally, the day I took on the (too often) misunderstood status of expatriate spouse, I faced many obstacles to reinventing myself and living a fulfilling life.
It was through coaching and my various training courses that I finally succeeded in creating the positive changes I needed. Throughout my studies, I had the privilege of equipping myself with tools that still enable me to bounce back with agility from life’s challenges! What has had a real positive impact on my career is to have been able to clarify who I am today, to identify what I really want and to have learned to put in place the right strategies to achieve my goals.
My experiences and training have naturally led me to work with humanitarians and expatriate spouses willing to create positive changes in their lives and navigate successfully their personal and professional transitions.
AN article WHERE I SPEAK ABOUT MY STORY AS AN EXPATRIATE SPOUSE AND HUMANITARIAN WOMAN:
You want to know a little more about me? Here’s a short article where I tell you more about my experience as an expatriate and humanitarian woman.
​​The greatest traveler is not the one who has been around the world ten times, but the one who has been around himself only once.
Ghandi
EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS
Certification in Personal & Professional Coaching – New York University (NYU) – New York
Trained in Burnout Prevention & Post Burnout Orientation – Ciao Burnout – Belgium
Trained in PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) Reconsolidation Therapy – Brunet Method – Canada
Certification in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) – The Flourishing Center (TFC) – New York
Certification in Emotional & Social Intelligence – Institute Social & Emotional Intelligence (ISEI)- Denver
Certified Resilience Trainer – Bounce Back Better® – The Flourishing Center (TFC) – New York
Certified Facilitator – Flourishing Skills Group® – The Flourishing Center (TFC) – New York
Certification in the use of the DiSC® tool – New York University (NYU) – New York
Positive Psychology in Coaching – Institute for Social & Emotional Intelligence (ISEI) – Denver
Group coaching – New York University (NYU) – New York
Teaching Diploma for Elementary School – Ecole Normale de Fribourg – Switzerland
