Welcome.
I’m Michelle Shaw — and if you’ve ever felt like you were quietly falling apart while helping everyone else shine, you’re not alone. I see you.
This is a story of late diagnosis, silent unraveling, and slowly learning how to rebuild a life that finally feels like mine.
**🧭 The Official Line**
I’m a trauma-informed coach, consultant, and creative strategist who’s worked across industries, stages, and seas.
I’ve started and managed businesses across multiple sectors, performed around the UK, on cruise ships, and online — showing up in a wide range of venues, rooms, and with all kinds of audiences. I’ve coached people through crisis and rebuilt my entire life (and nervous system) more than once.
I run Michelle Shaw Coaching & Consulting and Mischemix Academy (Want2DJ, Want2Dance and Want2Speak).
I’ve supported over 200 people — from under-tens to professionals in their sixties — both on stage and behind the scenes. I instil self-belief and equip individuals with the tools, knowledge, and industry insight they need to take their next aligned step with confidence. My work helps people reconnect to who they truly are, who they’re becoming, and how they want to show up in the world — and be authentically remembered.
I’m also the author of Ship Life — a reflective and practical book about life at sea, creative identity, and resilience. Written during my time working onboard, it captures both the external experience and internal evolution that shaped my next chapter. It’s been read internationally, with copies sold in the UK and USA — and marked the beginning of my journey into voice, story, and self-reclamation.
What began as a private daily practice became a living record of adaptation, identity, and rediscovery — now shared to help others feel less alone in their own transitions.
**🫀 The Real Line**
“You don’t need a five-year plan. You need five minutes of truth — and someone who knows how to hold space for it.”
I’ve been the fifty-something woman who could hold space for everyone else — helping them grow, thrive, be seen, and achieve their dreams — while quietly abandoning herself.
The married woman who only knew how to survive — who had no idea what her deepest desires were, and couldn’t articulate what she needed to function, let alone flourish — not to her partner, not to her family, not even to herself.
The professional who couldn’t open emails, return messages, or face another day of pretending everything was fine.
The employee who had to walk away from a job she once loved and excelled at — not by choice, but because her nervous system said no.
The DJ who lit up dancefloors and entertained for hours on end — until one day, she couldn’t stand up, step on a stage or face a camera.
The business owner who lost her voice, her spark, and her ability to promote what she’d built from the ground up.
The creative who burned herself out making life more comfortable for everyone else — without ever asking what she needed in return.
There were days I journaled for up to 14 hours — just to stay grounded enough to breathe.
Days I felt completely disconnected from the loyal community I’d nurtured — too dysregulated to reach out, too raw to be seen.
And still — somehow — I was able to show up for my learners to…
Teach them how to get setup to DJ, take the mic, pitch their services, secure bookings, and perform live to the world.
Facilitate, hold space, and offer steady ground — even while I was rebuilding my own.
Coach traumatised individuals out of suicidal ideation and back into self-trust, into employment and achieving goals they’d put off year after year.
Support burnt-out entrepreneurs to launch purpose-led businesses and get comfortable enough with tech to start creating and sharing their own content.
Yet I couldn’t live in the house I owned or find work to replace my salary.
For over a year, I stayed in a hotel — sometimes for up to three weeks at a time — just to find space to breathe.
I couldn’t find the words for the people who loved me most.
And I wasn’t always easy to be around — I couldn’t control it.
But by sitting with discomfort — not fixing it, just facing it — I found hope.
And from the wreckage, I began to create moments of clarity, connection, peace, and possibility — right in the middle of chaos.
So when I say I know what it’s like to feel lost, invisible — even to those closest to you — I mean it.
I know what it’s like to sit in a room full of people who love you, and still feel like no one really sees you.
To speak, and still not feel heard.
To smile, function, and show up — while inside, everything feels heavy, tangled, or numb.
I know how painful it is when words don’t come, when needs feel too much to name, and when the mask feels safer than the truth.
And I know the courage it takes to start peeling that mask away — slowly, gently — one honest breath at a time.
And when I say it’s possible to rewrite that story and the rules of how you live, work and help others, I say it from lived experience.
Not just in theory.
In practice.
Breath by breath.
Step by step.
**🪨 The Bottom Line**
I believe in real support — the kind that doesn’t flinch at your truth or rush your process.
I believe in brave, honest and open conversations — even (and especially) the ones that feel messy or long overdue.
I believe in building a life that feels like yours — not just one that looks good from the outside.
I believe your story makes sense — even the chapters you can’t yet articulate.
Even the parts still tangled in silence, or stuck somewhere between memory and meaning.
And I believe you don’t have to make sense of it all alone or all at once.
“I couldn’t live in the house I owned — but I still showed up to hold space for others.”
My motto right now?
You don’t need a five-year plan or a three-month sprint.
You need five minutes of truth — and someone who knows how to hold space for it.
**🌊 The Deeper Why**
My purpose is to create spaces where people feel seen—even in the moments they don’t yet see themselves.
To give language to what feels too complex to name.
To meet people exactly where they are—gently, clearly, and without judgment—
and help them reclaim their voice, their story, and their next step.
My mission is to dismantle the internal and systemic barriers that keep brilliant, sensitive, creative, neurodivergent people:
✖️ stuck
✖️ silenced
✖️ or burning out in plain sight.
To make support feel human—not clinical, overwhelming, or out of reach.
To build real bridges between where someone is now, and where they deserve to be—
in life, in work, in relationships, and beyond.
From the very first session, my role was never just to teach.
It was—and still is—to:
💡 Equip
🌱 Nurture
🧭 Guide
🤝 Enable
🔥 Empower
To give people the tools, confidence, and presence to show up—
🎛️ not just behind the decks,
🗣️ but in conversations,
🎤 on stages,
📊 in meetings,
and most of all—in their own lives.
Whether it’s one conversation,
one training session,
one decision,
or one quiet moment of support—
I’m here for the moment it shifts.
If any of this resonates, you’re not alone.
And you’re not too much, too late, or too far gone.
👉 Explore ways we can work together by emailing me: hello@michelleshaw.co.uk or [Book a no-pressure call].
Curious what support looks like now? Let’s have a no‑pressure chat.