GrowForte mental health coach Katherine Gillespie explains her job

Mental health coach and GrowForte owner Katherine Gillespie works with people experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, overthinking and low self-esteem. Photo / Judith Lacy

Registered nurse. Dairy farmer. Farmstay host. Mother of three.

These are just some of the roles Katherine Gillespie has fulfilled. Her children are adults now and Gillespie and her husband Lance have moved from the Āpiti dairy farm to just outside Palmerston North.

Gillespie is a PreKure certified mental health coach. PreKure is a social enterprise designed to inspire the medical profession to focus more on disease prevention.

It was founded by Aucklanders Grant and Louise Schofield in 2018 and provides training in the latest science and practice in lifestyle medicine.

Gillespie’s business is GrowForte. Forte is Italian for strong and it is also a musical term. She used to play the piano, clarinet and flute, plus sing.

Most people know what makes a difference to our wellbeing but can’t always put it into practice, she says.

There are many tools that can make a difference to a person’s wellbeing and a mental health coach will help you find the ones that work for you.

They can introduce ideas, educate and support you with behavioural changes.

Gillespie says living so far from town led to a lot of personal growth through the situations she found herself in. She stepped into roles she would never have if she had been close to a big pool of people.

She has navigated her own physical and mental health challenges. She knows the difference her everyday choices make for her wellbeing and the value of connection with others when life is feeling hard.

Gillespie helps people ditch the busy mentality, slow down, and listen to their bodies.

She helps people recognise the chemical changes in their bodies when they connect with others or move their bodies differently.

She wants people to know it is not scary to seek support and talk to someone. GrowForte provides a safe space to explore issues, she says.

For four years, Gillespie facilitated St John’s mental health first aid courses.

Katherine Gillespie facilitating a mental health first aid course for St John in 2021.

Next month, she is running a teen connection workshop for parents and guardians. It will cover how the adolescent brain works and how to recognise signs of mental health issues.

She also runs courses on how to monitor your wellbeing.

Gillespie loves helping people and passing on her knowledge. She often feels energised after talking with someone as she has connected on a deep level.

She is a facilitator and coach for Agri-Women’s Development Trust’s Know Your Mindset Lead the Recovery Programme and the You Matter Programme. These programmes were developed in response to the adverse weather events of 2023.

Gillespie grew up in Palmerston North. She did her nursing degree in the city and has also nursed in England and the United States.

Her father, John Ayers, is a retired organic chemistry lecturer and her mother, Lesley Ayers, a writer and counsellor.

Judith Lacy has been the editor of the Manawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001 and this is her second role editing a community paper.