Through my consultancy Jeannette Kavanagh and Daughter Limited, I’ve helped clients in schools, Universities and small businesses to review their performance as one way to improve.  I also consult on establishing mentoring and coaching programs.

Until the mid 1990s I was the deputy director of Box Hill Institute of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in Victoria, Australia.  Before that, I worked as an education policy analyst and as an advisor on postsecondary education to Ministers of Parliament in Victoria, Australia.


I vowed I’d never study again after gaining my Doctorate, but took yet more post graduate courses in coaching and counselling.  In the past few years, I’ve worked as a solution-oriented personal coach and counsellor.  I've worked with many clients to conquer their public speaking fears.  I also work with other people to help them find their way out of other types of anxiety and fear.

If you’re interested to learn more about my qualifications and the approach I use in my practice, please go to the Centre of Effective Therapy (CET) website.  The emphasis of my work is on working with the client to find the best solutions not possible causes of problems.

Research shows that even when the cause of a problem has been found, that doesn’t eliminate the problem. 

How Calming Words differs from other products

My self-help kit Calming Words which allows you to move from anxiety to calm evolved over the past twenty years.  Unlike far too many other anti-anxiety products on the Internet, it is thoroughly researched and it’s written in the clear, straightforward language that you’d expect of a professional educationalist and writer. It offers many approaches to anxiety, stress, phobias and panic attacks. Why? Because that's what my professional experience and my research indicated were needed.

 
 
 
 

I’ve designed education/training programs on a broad range of topics.  Of greatest relevance to Calming Words is my very popular series of seminars on public presentation skills.

Fear of public speaking is one form of anxiety

From the very first public speaking skills seminar, I realised that most participants were actually more nervous or even terrified about speaking in public than about writing their speech.  It didn’t matter whether their talk was to a small group of friends, or to thousands of people.  Knowing that I was dealing with a more complex level of the very normal and natural “butterflies in the tummy”, I sought input from a number of psychologists.

Together we designed strategies to overcome that performance anxiety. All of the approaches which work and work well are in Calming Words.  It doesn’t matter whether your anxiety is about performing in public or going to the Mall, the strategies are equally effective and equally applicable.

As an educationalist, I always sought feedback from participants.  So from that first seminar to now, I’ve been constantly learning about which anti-anxiety strategies worked best, and why.   Naturally, my extensive work helping people to overcome varied phobias, anxiety and panic through my counselling practice has also been part of the journey to produce Calming Words.