About Maria Arredondo

Before launching my coaching practice in 2013, I spent 10 years between Cologne (Germany), Madrid (Spain) and Brussels (Belgium) working in the institutional and corporate worlds, holding different roles, in the marketing and business development area. I travelled the world and was on a path to climb the corporate ladder. I thought I was making it.

But life had a different plan for me, and in 2010 I had a wake up call, when I lost both my partner of 8 years and my job.

My outer journey started by me relocating to Paris. But I was also embarking on an even more significant journey, which was the journey within. I had climbed the corporate ladder quite successfully, only to find out in my early 30s that I had no idea of who I really was or what would make me *truly*, *genuinely* happy. So I embarked on a journey to discover what that looked like, and to rebuild myself on all fronts.

I very quickly started listening to some new voices in my head. One was inviting me to dance tango. The other one was calling me to set myself free and create my own business. The minute I stepped into my first tango class, I fell irreversibly and deeply in love. With the music, with the dance, eventually, with me.

Then I discovered coaching, trained and got certified as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. I found a passion for fostering growth in others and decided to make coaching my full-time occupation.

My thirst for growth threw me into Gesltalt Therapy and the Enneagram back in 2017 and that’s where I have experienced the highest and most profound transformation and integration ever on a personal level, which has rippled into the work that I do.

Today, my role as a leadership development guide is to support others find their own truth and embrace who they fully are, so they can own their power and create the lfe, career or business they want.

I love to create a space that enables reflection, exploration and growth, where I heavily focus on identifying their natural strengths, talents and “true self”, so they can embrace their unique way to thrive.

Also, as a Faculty Member of my beloved Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), my mission is to support coaches in certification who want to master the co-active coaching model, so they become the outstanding coaches they dream to be and contribute to a paradigm shift in the world.

These days, I am honored to work with a wonderful diversity of people, from highly regarded institutions like the United Nations, to large international companies and wonderful small business owners (mostly coaches and consultants).

I coach in English, French and Spanish.

MY APPROACH

My work is a blend of coaching and various non pathologizing psychotherapy approaches, meaning that I see the person as an infinite well of resources that need to be accessed and updated regularly in oder to grow as a human being.

I always aim at supporting the person become who they truly are, for greater fulfillment, self-realization, aliveness and satisfaction with themselves.

Some facts about me:

:: Was raised in Spain. Moved and lived in the UK, Germany, Belgium and France (+ travelled to over 40 countries). Moved back to Spain after 16 years living abroad.

:: Reinvented my career several times: from assistant in one of the largest European Organizations to EU Marketing Manager in a Fortune 500 company, to business coach and mentor, tango fashion designer, to Transitions Coach and into Leadership Development coaching.

:: Renewed my training and qualifications on a semi-permanent basis since 1997: from a Masters in Human Sciences to an MBA, from online marketing, top sales training to renowned Coaching and Leadership schools, and Gestalt Psychotherapy Training.

:: Reinvented myself from scratch after a heart-break, immediately followed by 2 consecutive corporate job disasters.

:: Rediscovered what filled me up after a corporate and a life burn-outs.

:: Rebuilt myself from the ground up through dancing tango, and deeply listening to myself and alining my inisde to my outside.

:: Built a life around my multiple passions and multiple talents, created several income streams and managed to keep my freedom, integrity and independence.

:: I’ve also had to pivot my own business a few times since 2012, because it was not the right idea, because I was getting burned out and depleted from growing my business in a certain way, or simply because I was growing and needed my business to be a reflection of my inner changes.

:: Had to figure out my own identity as a bi-cultural child and later third-culture adult, and then as a personal-development geek fascinated by the human depth.

:: Developed the fantastic ability to look at things from many different angles and perspectives, which allows me to explore and understand a very wide variety of approaches, ranging from the rational realm, to more integrative approaches that include the mind, body, emotions and spiritual realms.

:: Cultivated the art of pivoting, which is the art of changing direction to follow a new one, both as a tango dancer, and metaphorically, as I was looking for options that would satisfy me more than what I considered the “easy” or “mainstream” ones.

I’ve thrived my whole life reinventing myself and reinventing what was possible, always searching for greater alignment and inner guidance. 

CREDENTIALS

Here are some of the professional trainings and credentials that have shaped my work (and who I have become):

:: Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) by The Coaches Training Institute (CTI), the “Harvard of Coaching schools”.

:: Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by the International Coach Federation (ICF), which accounts for an experience of over 750 hours of paid coaching hours.

:: Faculty Member of the Co-Active Training Institute.

:: Gestalt Therapist, by Lamar Gestalt Psychotherapy School (Spain)

:: Internal Family Systems (IFS) informed Coach and Therapist, by the IFS IInstitute.

:: SAT Programme by Fundacion Claudio Naranjo (Enneagram)

:: Co-Active Leadership Graduate by the Coaches Training Institute.

:: BA in Humanities, Universidad Carlos III (Spain-Germany).

:: MBA by ESIC (Spain).

(you can check my LinkedIn here)