Carly Sygrove: Why I became an advocate and coach for people living with hearing loss

August 29th, 2016. The day I lost the hearing in my left ear.

It was a day like any other—I was sitting in an auditorium, in the school where I was working as a teacher, listening to a guest speaker giving a presentation.

When I raised my head from my notetaking, out of nowhere came a loud screeching sound that filled my head with pressure. The room began to spin around me, and I started to feel disorientated. I didn’t realise at the time, but I had experienced something called sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

The emotional impact of sudden hearing loss

The loss was profound and didn’t recover with treatment. I sought second opinions and spent days on Google trying to find answers or new therapies that could bring back my hearing. I was struggling to process the enormity of the situation and had no idea how I was going to live my life with single-sided deafness.

My sudden hearing loss came as a shock, and the emotional impact was huge. I felt angry at my body for failing me and lost a lot of self-confidence. I experienced sadness, isolation, and exhaustion from missed words in conversations that used to be so easy to follow.

A month or so later, someone I had briefly connected with online, who was also living with hearing loss, gave me some advice. They told me that—like any other loss—I would need to grieve my lost hearing with the attention it deserved. This advice proved crucial in helping me address the emotional impact of my loss. I gave myself permission to feel my emotions and allowed myself to grieve. It wasn’t until I had accepted my hearing loss that I could move forward with my life.

Connecting with others 

My hearing loss gave me pause for thought, and I became passionate about raising awareness of the practical and emotional impact of hearing loss on everyday life. 

I started writing a blog and began to connect with people. I realized I was not alone in my experience—there were others out there, also trying to move forward positively with their hearing loss.

I took a keen interest in building connections and created a Facebook support group for people living with hearing loss to share their stories and support each other. It was so wonderful to watch this supportive community grow. 

Through the group, I continued to hear from people struggling to move forward in their lives with hearing loss, and I identified a need for personalised service to support people on their hearing loss journeys, so I decided to do something about it by training to become a Transformational Coach.

Transformational coaching for people living with hearing loss

Transformational coaching is a conversation and relationship that explores your personal beliefs, values, behaviours, and purpose. It focuses on moving forward, setting goals, and working towards achieving them. 

Coaching can help people living with hearing loss explore themes such as becoming your own advocate, overcoming feelings of low confidence, making transitions such as career changes, enabling effective communication with loved ones and colleagues, and so much more!

Now, a fully qualified Transformational Coach armed with a toolkit of coaching skills and techniques, I help people, just like me, with hearing health issues, make exciting changes in their lives. 

If this sounds like a good fit for you, feel free to reach out via my coaching website for more information or to schedule a free coaching consultation.

As I continue my hearing loss journey, I look forward to supporting many people in moving forward positively with their hearing loss and achieving their goals.

P.S. Follow me on Instagram (@carly_sygrove) for updates!