Meet The “real” Rachael…

Founder of Reset and Rise | Coach | Speaker | Kidney Donor | Mother | Self-Made Woman

There are parts of my story I never used to tell. They felt too heavy, too raw. But I’ve learned that it’s in the telling — in the truth — that healing begins. And if you’re here, maybe you’re seeking your own healing too. So here’s the truth about me.

I grew up in chaos.

My childhood was shaped by daily domestic violence, the constant threat of danger, and being dragged away to Northern Ireland by my mum’s partner — a member of the IRA. I saw and felt things no child should have to. I learned early how to read a room for safety. How to stay small. How to survive. Things that I still do today for safety.

That trauma didn’t magically disappear when I became an adult. It followed me, silently shaping my choices. I married a man 18 years older than me — a kind, stable presence who felt like safety after years of instability. We had a daughter. I donated my kidney to him out of love. But after 13 years, life began to unravel.

A miscarriage. The death of my beloved grandmother. The weight of childhood trauma I’d tried to outrun finally caught up with me. I broke.

What followed was one of the darkest chapters of my life: severe depression, anxiety, a complete loss of self. I had no money. No job. No support network. And I was drowning in shame. I felt judged, humiliated, broken beyond repair. At my lowest point, I genuinely believed the world would be better off without me.

But something stopped me. A small, fierce, beautiful thing. My three-year-old daughter.

She didn’t know she was saving me. But every time she looked at me with trust in her eyes, I found the tiniest flicker of belief — maybe I could come back from this. Maybe I wasn’t beyond help.

So I asked for help. A doctor. Medication. Therapy. One step at a time, I began to rebuild. I retrained as a mental health first aider and then as a trainer. I started a small business teaching others how to recover their minds — even while mine was still learning how to breathe again.

But I was still struggling financially. Still scraping by.

That’s when a friend and later a mentor, who I met one night in a nightclub nudged me toward something I never imagined: property investment. I said yes, even though I had zero money. No capital. No investors. Just grit and absolutely fuck all to lose. And bit by bit, I built a property portfolio from scratch. That was the first time I saw what was possible when we stop asking “Who am I to do this?” and start saying “Why not me?”

From there, I founded my coaching practice — Blaze Your Own Trail — to help other women like me. Women who have been broken, overlooked, exhausted, traumatised, or told their dreams were too much. Women on the edge of giving up… or just beginning to hope again.

I created Reset and Rise because I’ve learn’t sometimes, especially in mid-life, life demands a reset. Not the surface-level kind. The deep, soul-stirring reset that asks you to look your past in the face, choose yourself, and begin again — no matter how many times you’ve fallen.

Now, I help women reclaim their spark. Rebuild their confidence. Write powerful new chapters. Whether it's rebuilding their lives or building personal brands and purpose-led businesses that feel aligned — I walk with them as they rise.

Because if I can crawl my way from rock bottom with a toddler on my hip and trauma in my bones…
So. Can. You.

Things that may interest you….

1. Three years ago I met a guy on holiday. He has been my biggest healer. He held space for me to forgive myself of my past relationship mistakes, wounds and everything else that goes with “situationships” in your twenties and thirties. We just tied the knot in Edinburgh. 30|04|2025 - I found a way of believing that true love does exist and it’s okay to let someone in again.

2. I am now a step-mum as well as a mum to an 18 year old, 17 year old and 11 year old. - Let’s just say this brings new and unique challenges to me on the daily!

3. I am also mum to Milo, Tinker, Ralph and Louis and step-mum to Diva, our 5 cat babies that bring me so much love and happiness.

4. I decided the time was right to leave my town that i’ve spent my entire teenage and adult life living - Bournemouth and move to Scotland where Alistair and his children lived when we met. I left my 18 year daughter behind as she finishes her A-Levels, another “hardest thing I’ve ever done” moment with often, overwhelming feelings of guilt which sometimes weighs heavy on my mind. But making bold moves and taking brave steps has been a theme all my life. She was going to leave me this year anyway by going to University so I just flipped the script! - We have to let them go eventually.

5. I recently self-published Reset Your Mind, a huge milestone in my life and career.

6. As a result of this, I got chosen to work with Chloe Bison, from Inspired by Publishing to work on my next book together. Currently in progress and will be officially published in the next 6 months!

7. I am the host of blaze Your Own trail Podcast - a passion project that I hope will get more of my time later this year.

8. During the pandemic, I taught myself golf, in a vain attempt to get a boyfriend! The boyfriend thing didn’t work out for me but I did find a sport that I’ve fallen in love with - I’m terrible at it but you can find me embarrassing myself at our golf course in Gleneagles when the sun is shining.