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life coach melbourne
  • About
  • Coaching
    • Life coaching
    • Business Coaching
    • Leadership Coaching
    • Half-day coaching intensive
  • Workshops
    • Compassionate Conversations
    • Write Your Life Stories Workshops
    • The Confidence Course
    • Free Monday Talk & Meditation
  • Speaking
  • Retreat
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    • Kate’s books
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  • About
  • Coaching
    • Life coaching
    • Business Coaching
    • Leadership Coaching
    • Half-day coaching intensive
  • Workshops
    • Compassionate Conversations
    • Write Your Life Stories Workshops
    • The Confidence Course
    • Free Monday Talk & Meditation
  • Speaking
  • Retreat
  • Resources
    • Kate’s books
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • 0 items

Build self-belief &
find your direction

Download our free guide to discover your values and strengths and to uncover what you really want.

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Build self-belief &
find your direction

Download our free guide to discover your values and strengths and to uncover what you really want.

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Business, leadership and life coaching

Kate James is a business, leadership and life coach based in Melbourne. Since founding Total Balance in 2002, Kate has worked with thousands of women find direction, let go of not feeling good enough and discover a true sense of self-belief.

Kate is the founder of The Confidence Course, a small group coaching program for women. Alongside Clinical Psychologist, Catherine Morey-Nase, she is the host of Compassionate Conversations and an annual mindfulness retreat for women in Byron Bay.

She is the author of six best-selling personal development books including Change Your Thinking to Change Your Life and Quietly Confident. 

Join over 30 million global meditators on the Insight Timer meditation app to listen to Kate’s free guided meditations and 30,000 others who have taken her ten-day audio course, Build Self-Belief through Mindful Action.

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leadership and confidence coaching Projects

Work with Kate

Business, leadership and life coaching with Kate James.

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Coaching

Create a compassionate relationship with yourself and build self-belief.

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Workshops

Rediscover peace and harmony with a transformative retreat experience.

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Retreat

Life Coaching Melbourne Clients

Kate’s coaching clients

Kate’s coaching clients are women who want to discover greater clarity about their direction and a deeper sense of confidence in themselves.  You may find that some of the following qualities resonate.

  • You might be feeling stuck or lost.
  • You may be burnt out from over-functioning.
  • You may struggle with self-confidence or self-belief.
  • You may have an inclination to overthink things.
  • You have a tendency to be hard on yourself and even perfectionistic.
  • You want to live with purpose and meaning.
  • Even if you don’t meditate, you like the idea of living consciously.
  • You care less about the external measures of success and more about being true to yourself.
  • You may have always felt a little different.
  • You feel restored by spending time in nature and care about taking care of our planet.

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About Kate

Kate James is an author, business, leadership and life coach and mindfulness teacher based just outside of Melbourne. Drawing on principles from Positive Psychology, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, coaching philosophy and other forms of therapy, Kate helps her clients create mindful and meaningful lives. Her work is about inspiring clarity, balance, confidence and inner calm and she’ll work with you to create a deeper connection to your true self.

She is the author of six best-selling personal development books including, Believe in Yourself & Do What You Love, Be Mindful & Simplify Your Life, Change Your Thinking to Change Your Life and most recently, Quietly Confident.

Kate studied coaching in Melbourne in 2002 and opened a practice where she could blend her business experience with her interests in psychology, creativity and mindful leadership with her love of deep conversation, and purposeful living.

More about Kate

Kate James is a life coach in Melbourne.

Join Kate live every Monday

Join over 100 people from around the globe each Monday morning at 9.30am (AEST)
when Kate shares a free talk and meditation on Insight Timer. With over 129,000 followers,
Kate’s popular guided meditations will help you find clarity, calm and confidence.

JOIN HERE

What people are saying

Clare Bowditch
Big Hearted Business

‘I absolutely adore Kate. She is a highly skilled, generous and enormously gifted business coach, especially for those who don’t traditionally consider themselves “business people”. I discovered her through sheer luck (thanks Google), and I remain sincerely grateful for the counsel she offered me back in 2010 when I was first fleshing out the bones for what would become Big Hearted Business. Thanks Kate!’

Catherine Morey-Nase
The Wellbeing Corner

‘Working with Kate has literally been life changing. In addition to being extremely professional and having the highest integrity, Kate is wise, kind and generous. She is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives and does just that with her compassionate, grounded and creative approach. Working with Kate helped me gain clarity and, more importantly, develop the self-belief to pursue what is truly aligned and meaningful for me.’

Elise Bialylew
Mindful in May

‘I had some coaching sessions with Kate to help me in becoming clearer about a project that I dreamt of running. Kate is authentic, professional, sparkling with creativity and truly inspiring. She provided generous ideas and helped me to develop this idea into a reality. Kate’s practice is grounded in the wisdom of meditation and you can certainly feel her clarity in the room. I have already spread the word to my friends and would highly recommend seeing her.’

Quietly Confident

In Quietly Confident, Kate looks beyond the narrow scope of popular culture and paints a broader, more human definition of what it means to have confidence and be ‘successful’. In an era that rewards those with the loudest voices (and the most followers), Kate encourages introverts to let go of outdated ideas and beliefs so that they too might shine just as brightly. With a better understanding of an introvert’s many invaluable gifts and showing us how to tap into our infinite worth, Kate will guide readers towards the confidence that already exists within each of us.

Quietly Confident - Kate James

Read Kate’s recent articles

Wave breaking with horizon and soft clouds in the background.

Why we overfunction (and why it’s so hard to change)

  If you recognised yourself in my last post about overfunctioning, you’re not alone. I had a huge response to this article which tells me that you are I are not alone. What I find…

Read more
Field of white daisies

5 signs you might be overfunctioning

  Overfunctioning is one of the four hidden patterns I wrote about recently that often arise when we don’t feel good enough. The other three – avoidance, paralysis and people-pleasing – are also common, but…

Read more
The four hidden patterns of feeling not good enough

The four hidden patterns of feeling ‘not good enough’

  If I could identify one consistent theme that impacts almost every one of my clients, it’s the feeling that no matter how much they do or what they achieve, they’re somehow still not good…

Read more
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WORK WITH ME

COACHING
COURSES
RETREAT
Clare Bowditch<span>Big Hearted Business</span>
Clare BowditchBig Hearted Business

‘I absolutely adore Kate. She is a highly skilled, generous and enormously gifted business coach, especially for those who don’t traditionally consider themselves “business people”. I discovered her through sheer luck (thanks Google), and I remain sincerely grateful for the counsel she offered me back in 2010 when I was first fleshing out the bones for what would become Big Hearted Business. Thanks Kate!’

Elise Bialylew <span>Mindful in May</span>
Elise Bialylew Mindful in May

‘I had some coaching sessions with Kate to help me in becoming clearer about a project that I dreamt of running. Kate is authentic, professional, sparkling with creativity and truly inspiring. She provided generous ideas and helped me to develop this idea into a reality. I had been to other career counsellors in the past but this was an entirely different experience for me. Kate’s practice is grounded in the wisdom of meditation and you can certainly feel her clarity in the room. I felt absolutely blessed that although I found her through a random web search, she proved herself to be so helpful. I have already spread the word to my friends and would highly recommend seeing her if you are needing inspiration and support to reach your goals.’ Elise Bialylew, Founder, Mindful in May

Angus Wurth<span>Bonsai Media</span>
Angus WurthBonsai Media

‘Kate’s approach in her coaching sessions is relaxed and friendly while being efficient and results driven. She very quickly understood where my business was at and as such was able to provide me actionable tasks that resulted in increased profit at a time when it was much needed. I will see Kate again and continue to recommend her to other business owners.’ Angus Wurth, Bonsai Media

Amy Crawford <span>The Holistic Ingredient</span>
Amy Crawford The Holistic Ingredient

‘Like everything that the gifted Kate James does, this delightful book is full of gentle, thoughtful and poignant messages that do as the very name says, it inspires the reader to Believe in Yourself & Do What You Love. This gorgeous book simplifies what can be a particularly overwhelming process of finding our true purpose; encouraging us to take time in this journey, to embrace vulnerability, to ask the deep seated questions of ourselves without judgement – but with self compassion and kindness. Gently directing our self discovery through her gorgeously positive words, Kate’s book is the perfect accompaniment to a comfy couch, countless cups of tea, scrap books and pencils. It is a must read for anyone questioning their journey and in need of further clarity and encouragement.’ Amy Crawford, The Holistic Ingredient

Audrey Reis<span>Melbourne </span>
Audrey ReisMelbourne

‘I came across Kate’s website by chance when searching for coaching. I was immediately drawn by her work and what she was offering. My life has turned a big corner after my discovery session with Kate. I was feeling very lost, unmotivated and in a very negative state of mind about my present and future professional life and my life general. After 10 years of successfully running a business in Australia I become a full time mum and my life changed direction. I was struggling to find out what I was really passion about and which direction I wanted to go after my career gap. Kate worked with me in a very powerful and honest way that help me to leave the session empowered and with a completely different outlook about my future. She helped me to realise my true potential and to work with what I know and am very good at. At the moment I am working on my new own business, and am very confident about my choices.  Kate is very professional, wise and grounded and when working with you she is fully present and committed to you.’

Kerry Rowett <span>Awaken Kinesiology</span>
Kerry Rowett Awaken Kinesiology

‘Kate has a real gift for helping her clients stabilise when they’re going through challenges, or a time of growth. She has a wonderfully calm presence. Her advice is practical, grounded and strategic and she expertly guides you to seek your own solutions. In working with me on my kinesiology business during a time of expansion, Kate was able to help me formalise plans, work through many decisions and provide strategic guidance. Kate is generous in her nature and wonderfully affirming and encouraging. I have also seen the highly positive effects working with Kate has had on some of my clients, who always speak of her with the greatest respect.’

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LATEST FROM THE BLOG

Why we overfunction (and why it’s so hard to change)

  If you recognised yourself in my last post about overfunctioning, you’re not alone. I had a huge response to this article which tells me that you are I are not alone. What I find…

Read More »

Changemaker: Sara Tiefenbrun

In November 2012, I met with Sara Tiefenbrun at a local cafe to talk about the opening of the Melbourne branch of Alain de Botton’s The School of Life. To say I was excited is an…

Read More »

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