Sherif Gaafar’s Testimonial
“Bernie has an incredible amount of wisdom that I seldom see in a single person. I find her to be fully
understanding of the level each client is at. She explores each of my boundaries with utmost love and
clarity. The inquisitive mind on her shoulders does not easily ‘accept’ any of my limiting beliefs.
Bernie is quick to get me explore my thinking by asking open-ended but still precise questions, in
order to help me see my intellectual and other short-comings.
She makes no assumptions and effectively helps me expand the boundary of my vision and thoughts without me even realising that I just got myself unshackled from what might have been decades of old cultural or childhood beliefs.
Her power as a coach in accepting a client’s apparent limiting beliefs and not negatively judging
them, not beating around the bush (so to speak), and helping me discover where and why those
beliefs existed in the first place, is phenomenal in my opinion. She knows exactly “what to leave
alone” and how to guide an intelligent client realise and change course from a limited mindset within
minutes of a discussion.
I am Sherif Gaafar. I am a chartered engineer by training, and has worked in business development
for nearly three decades. I am starting my own coaching practice to help established entrepreneurs
who are stuck with expanding their business.
My biggest struggles so far are on my emotional side. After having several narcissistic relationships in
my life with very close loved ones, I am cautious and hesitant to enter into any new relationship
before I understand why there seems to be a pattern of attracting certain types of people. I confided
in Coach Bernie about my situation, and was instantly surprised how the questions I have always had
in my mind were broken down into two simple but very different ways of looking at an issue. For
example, she helped me change my perspective from “I have to tolerate certain behaviours in a
relationship” to “in a relationship I understand the other person with love”.
I take this matter very seriously. I was barely able to accept others’ behaviours in my previous
relationships. But now I realise and practise to accept and love people as they are – inclusive of all
their strengths and weaknesses – and without judgement - which is something I had so much trouble
accepting before. In one coaching session, I was able to deeply understand the difference between
accepting a behaviour of a person and accepting a person as he or she is.
I have now worked with Bernie for over two months. I can confirm her observant and cognisant
coaching style and personality; on frequent occasions I got completely new insights on my
understanding of “out of the box” thinking! She has demonstrated steady, state-of-the-art unbiased
thinking that truly go beyond my expectations by far. Initially I thought it’s a ‘cultural delicacy’. But
later I learned that through using one of her methods (replacing all negative vocabulary including all
negatively attributed words with positive terminology, and doing so intentionally and consistently), I
am able to change the whole landscape of my reality.
Bernie asks me the right questions at the right time – in order to get to the outcomes that I need in
order to grow. I was able to have a big revelation, one that I have been searching for, for a long time.
I simply could not lay my hands on it by myself, especially when I was always quick to criticise myself
harshly in the past.
Bernie has truly mastered a few things that I honestly have not seen combined in a single person so
far. She is so reflective in her conversations that she is able to totally take herself out of the matter
being discussed. She is so clear about the difference between the coachee’s views and her own, and
does not bring her own views into coaching because the sessions are all about me as the coachee. I
say that because Bernie truly believes that the clients have all the answers within them and are
capable of finding those answers for themselves, all she does is to guide that process using her
unique tools and methods.
I cannot count the times when I was taken through that “unbeaten path”, which I never have thought
to take myself. The fruits of this collaboration bear so much discernment; I could not stop myself
shedding tears out of joy as to what I have discovered for myself.
One more thing you should know about Bernie. She is truly “a thousand angels in one in human form”. While she could be hard on herself, in her coaching sessions she has totally eliminated her own judgements and assumptions.
Once I get that, I am able to collaborate and understand that all her ego-absent open-ended questions are for my own benefit of self-exploration and selfactualisation.
She brings me on a (seemingly) straight path towards reaching my specific goals, while I myself was unaware of it. I am amazed that every single time I achieved a magnificent thought barrier-breaking result.
To me Bernie is such an advanced-level coach. She meets her clients at the level they are at and guide them – ‘just’ by asking open-ended questions - through jungles of your thoughts; you will be surprised where you land after dissecting your personal thought-Amazonas.
My pleasure and my joy that comes from working with Bernie cannot be explained on 2-D papers, however, I trust you get what I am saying. I believe the best way to make the most out of these treasure-of-self-exploration sessions is to take some 10 to 20 minutes to prepare your intentions prior to embarking on your self-exploratory journey.
Needless to say, now, not only do I highly recommend Coach Bernie, I also recommend that you reserve an additional 30 to 60 minutes of your time to reflect on all the discoveries that you will make during a session.
This time will increase your acumen significantly and will ensure that you have digested the insights gained from each session to their fullest depth.”
