"Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it? They fall, and falling, they are given wings."

Barbara Lemke: My history of career changes and transitions

I was born in 1956 in Duesseldorf, Germany. After my high school graduation in 1975. I started to study media, philosophy, and German language and literature at University in Cologne until 1980. I worked as a shop assistant, as a hostess on numerous conventions and fairs, and in different publishing houses in order to earn the money for my independency. In 1979 I became a part-time editor for a consumer health magazine. In this position I was offered a chance for a trip to Mexico and to write a travel feature. I fell in love with Mexico immediately and decided to quit my job (after writing the feature) and to explore Mexico more thoroughly.

The early Mexican years

After a 3 months trip I had made the decision to live in Mexico. The beauty of the state and people of Michoacan and the colonial charm of Patzcuaro had me under their spell. I worked as a freelance writer covering international medical conferences in Central America and the US, worked as a foreign correspondent for the Central America-branch of dpa (German press agency), writing broadcasting and print-media features. Nowadays I am proud that I managed to make a living in this field before the Internet was invented and modern telecommunications installed in Mexico.

The biggest personal change during that time was giving birth to my daughter in 1985. When she was 3 years old I removed to Germany. Back home I resumed my work as an editing and free-lance journalist for medical scientific magazines, women's journals, tabloid papers, and PR agencies.

Consultancy and strategic marketing

In 1990 I founded "Lemke, Peters and Partner" an agency specializing on medical communication concepts. As managing partner I was responsible for consulting, strategic planning and copywriting for clients such as Beiersdorf, Eli Lilly, Schering, Organon, Johnson & Johnson. I became a guest teacher at the West German Academy for Communication (WAK) in Cologne, Germany, on pharmacy and health marketing. In 1997 the interests of my business partner and me went astray and we hired a coaching company to lead us through a process of changing our attitudes and finding common ground again or splitting the agency. We mutually agreed on the latter.

In 1998 I founded the communication and advertising agency "health professionals" and did senior consultancy and international strategic concept development for clients and brands such as Pfizer, Beiersdorf (Eucerin, Nivea Baby, Curad, Futuro), Pharmacia, Whitehall-Much, Merckle, Schering- Plough. I was a foundation member of the "Women's Health Initiative, e. V." in Berlin, helped to develop the curriculum for ISSAM, the International Society for the Study of the Aging Male in London and started to give lectures at international medical conferences in Bangkok, Vienna, Geneva and Berlin on anti-aging, male and female menopause, health marketing, health coaching and physician-patient communication.

Professional Coaching

Still fascinated by the coaching process, which helped our company to a transition and substantial change, I decided to get additional professional training myself. From 2001 to 2002 I attended the Vienna Coaching and Training Academy and became a certified business coach and trainer. I complemented my coaching skills with workshops and seminars in generative coaching and trance work with Stephen Gilligan, Bill O'Hanlon and Charlie Badenhop, in brief therapy with Steve de Shazer and with outdoor coaching at the Esalen Institute in California.

Since 2002 I enjoyed giving

• Individual coaching sessions, especially for professionals seeking change in their career,
• Coaching workshops for health professionals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• Corporate coaching and training for international marketing and sales manager

A transitional voyage... and Mexico again

In 2004 I was ready for another major change in my life. I sold the advertising agency "health professionals", fulfilled for myself the dream of going on a yearlong trip through the U.S., Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, with my daughter, and started the next personal and professional adventure in May 2005 by moving to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

New concepts in San Miguel

Here I am recently developing two new workshop-concepts

• change coaching of individuals, who want to realize their dreams and find new meaning and inspiration in life
• "art-coaching" (integrating the creation process in fine arts) for senior managers, who want to implement change and innovation within their organization, product or marketing strategy.