By Vanessa Auditore
I grew up in a family that carried its share of trauma and struggle, and from an early age I knew I wanted to create something different for myself and the generations to come. Becoming a mother and now a grandmother gave that dream even greater purpose. I wanted my child and grandchildren to grow up with role models who showed them that it’s possible to heal, to grow and to create a life that feels meaningful and true.
When I became a mum, I experienced postnatal depression. Back then, the main option offered was medication, but I felt there had to be more. I reached out to organisations that helped me navigate the uncertainty of caring for this precious new life I was now responsible for. I wanted to be the best parent I could be. That journey opened my eyes to attachment and attunement, psychosocial development, developmental psychology, family dynamics and role modelling and how profoundly these shape our development.
Those early struggles became the underpinning driver of my work. It all started when I needed to leave a toxic work culture and find a way to support my child. I’d always been active and passionate about growth, so I retrained as a Personal Trainer. I loved seeing people grow stronger and more confident, but I also noticed a pattern: many would eventually slide back into old habits and unhelpful lifestyle choices that affected their physical health.
That curiosity led me to study coaching, to help create more “stickiness” around change. Coaching helped people move forward, but I also noticed that after longer periods, the same challenges and setbacks would resurface. (It’s important to say that relapse is a completely normal part of behaviour change). Still, I wanted to understand more deeply why this was happening.
My desire to be of greater support led me further into counselling, behavioural science and eventually a psychology degree. I discovered that the real drivers often sit beneath the surface: our beliefs, our conditioning and the family patterns that shape us. These are the forces that can either keep us stuck or allow us to truly change.
I often say, “Coaching moves us from here to there – and therapy helps us work through the complex, sometimes messy stuff in between”.
Over the past 25 years, I’ve brought all these experiences together in my business, Success HQ. What began with one-on-one support while raising my children and working in People Development has grown into a practice that now helps individuals, families, leaders and organisations to grow, heal and thrive.
For me, family and business aren’t all that different. Both are systems, with patterns, roles and dynamics that influence how we show up and connect. And because we take ourselves to work, the state of our workplaces has a huge impact on our home lives and vice versa. That’s why my approach is integrative: supporting people not only in their personal growth, but in how they lead, work and relate to others.
