DOZ Issue 55 May 2020 | Page 13

Audreia Josephs is an Author, Life Coach, Intervention Strategist and Motivational Speaker who teaches the Art of Forgiveness as a way to live and as a journey of release and reconnection. With training in counselling and social work, her career has taken her across the United Kingdom where, as a workshop facilitator and coach, she spends part of her time encouraging parents and families to support their children and women in prisons. Both her professional experience and her journey have led her to develop a keen interest in the empowerment of herself and others. Her extraordinary work in and around the United Kingdom is gaining a new audience around the world. Audreia trained as a counsellor at the University of Central England (UCE) and became a social advisor for young people with ‘Values Education for Life’. Later, she worked for Prison Link, where she established the ROSE Project to support the families of people in prison. While at Prison Link, she was asked to join the board for the ‘Action for Prisoners and Families’, a group set up through the Princess Diana Memorial Trust. Here, she served as a co-opted observer for two years and then as a trustee and director for a further four years. She has worked as a college counsellor, and she has been interviewed on local television for her work with refugees. She has also discussed various issues on Radio West Midlands. In 2004, she escorted a group of her clients to the Commonwealth Games, where she met HRH Prince Edward, The Duke of Wessex, and his wife Sophie, The Countess of Wessex, and the former US Envoy, Terry Waite. She has also trained with the Samaritans to help and listen to vulnerable or suicidal people. As a passionate Life Coach, Audreia believes in and teaches the Art of Forgiveness through workshops and one-to-one sessions as a way of releasing resentment and reconnecting with our community and with life. She teaches how to recognize negative habits that we develop where we choose not to forgive. Her own life experiences and her professional training form the basis of her strategy. With a focus on experiencing and finding freedom through thought-provoking questions, written exercises, meditation, and sharing, she encourages her clients to open up and explore areas of life that deserve attention and forgiveness and self- love. In this interview, Audreia shares her journey, which, although filled with the pain of abuse, rejection, betrayal, shame and disappointment has turned out to be a fairy-tale with a happily ever after. Be inspired to bounce back from adversity. Yes, you can! 13 DOZ Magazine | May 2020