Originally Posted on The Coaching Tools Company as Coach FEATURE: Gamze Senfer
We continue to meet our fellow coaches, get inspired and build coach community with our “Meet the Coach” features! This month we meet Gamze Senfer, an English Communication and Mindset Coach.
Interview with Gamze
About Gamze
Lives In: Southampton, England
Company: Mind Heart Lingua
Type of Coach: English Communication and Mindset Coach
Describe your coaching business in one sentence: I work with professionals who want to feel clearer and more confident when speaking English at work, especially in high-pressure moments.
Meet Gamze
Gamze Senfer believes one of the most meaningful moments in coaching happens when someone begins to recognise themselves again.
Many of her clients already understand English, contribute in international workplaces, and have the knowledge and vocabulary they need. Yet when a conversation becomes faster, less predictable, or more important, they may become quieter, less precise, and less able to express themselves as they normally would.
In a recent conversation with Dr Steve Jeffs, Gamze shared how her work brings together language, communication, mindset, and professional presence. Rather than helping clients pursue perfect English, she supports them in finding an English voice that feels clear, confident, and authentically their own.
Helping People Recognise Themselves Again
When asked what she loves most about coaching, Gamze spoke about the moment a client expresses something clearly in English and recognises themselves in what they have said.
Her clients may already understand meetings, write emails, and possess a strong vocabulary. The difficulty often appears when they need to respond live, communicate under pressure, or contribute in a high-stakes professional setting.
In those moments, something can change. They may hesitate, become quieter, or feel less like themselves.
Gamze helps clients close the gap between what they know and how confidently they are able to express it.
For her, the goal is not perfect English.
It is professional presence.
Closing the Gap Between Competence and Expression
Gamze particularly enjoys working with international professionals who already use English in their careers.
They may be managers, finance professionals, engineers, or HR professionals. They are often capable, experienced, and thoughtful, but their expertise does not always come across as strongly as it should in English-speaking professional environments.
Some understand everything being discussed in a meeting but hesitate when it is time to contribute. Others overprepare because they do not trust themselves to respond in the moment, worry that disagreement may sound rude, or lose access to what they know when faced with an unexpected question.
Gamze describes her work as addressing the gap between competence and expression.
She helps clients communicate what they already know in a way that allows their expertise and professional capabilities to come through more clearly.
Finding Your English Voice
Gamze’s work is also deeply personal.
English is her second language, and she has experienced what it means to live and work in another language. Through that experience, she became increasingly aware that language is never simply about language.
It can affect how intelligent, warm, assertive, or capable someone feels able to sound.
This is why she believes many communication challenges are not purely linguistic. They may also involve identity, confidence, culture, or visibility.
Gamze refers to the process she went through as finding her English voice.
She now helps clients find a way of communicating in English that feels authentic to them, recognising that a person’s voice in one language may not sound exactly the same as it does in another.
Communication Within a Cultural Context
One book that has strongly influenced Gamze’s thinking is The Culture Map by Erin Meyer.
Although it is not a traditional coaching book, it has shaped how she understands communication within international professional environments.
Her clients are not only speaking English. They are also trying to interpret the culture around them and understand how their communication may be received.
They may wonder whether they are being too direct, how to disagree respectfully, or how to sound professional without sounding unnatural.
Gamze believes this awareness is equally important for coaches.
A communication challenge that appears personal or linguistic may also be cultural or relational. Understanding the wider context helps the coach avoid assumptions and explore what may genuinely be influencing the client’s experience.
Understanding What Happens Under Pressure
One of Gamze’s most frequently used tools is a Fluency Roadmap that she created herself.
At the beginning of her work with a client, she explores their real communication situations, habits, and patterns under pressure.
She looks at whether they overexplain, apologise too much, soften a message until it loses its power, rush, ramble, repeatedly correct themselves, or freeze when asked an unexpected question.
This helps both Gamze and the client understand what is actually happening when communication becomes difficult.
Rather than treating the issue as a simple lack of vocabulary or grammatical knowledge, they can identify the behaviours and responses that emerge when the client feels nervous or under pressure.
Practising Real Professional Conversations
Gamze also uses simulations based on the situations her clients encounter at work.
They may practise opening a meeting, giving an update, disagreeing politely, responding to a senior stakeholder, or handling a challenging question.
She uses language frames to help clients organise their thinking, but not as scripts that must be memorised. She wants clients to communicate naturally rather than sound rehearsed.
Gamze recognises that different languages can encourage different ways of structuring thought. The frames provide enough support to help clients organise their ideas in English while still speaking in their own voice.
Alongside this practical work, she uses reflective coaching questions such as:
What happens to you in that moment?
What would you say if you trusted yourself a little more?
These questions help clients explore not only what they say, but what may be affecting their ability to say it.
A Coaching Approach to Language Development
Gamze’s academic and professional background is in English language teaching.
As her work developed, she began exploring how coaching could offer a different approach to language development for adults. She later completed training in Neurolanguage Coaching and combined that approach with her own knowledge and experience.
She believes adults are already surrounded by teaching and opportunities to learn.
Coaching opens a different window.
Rather than focusing only on acquiring more knowledge, it helps people understand how they respond in real situations, access the capabilities they already have, and communicate more effectively under pressure.
In Conclusion: Communicating as Yourself
Gamze Senfer’s approach reminds us that effective communication in another language is not simply about knowing more words.
It is about being able to access what you already know, express your thinking clearly, and allow your professional capabilities to come through when the moment matters.
By bringing together communication, mindset, identity, and cultural awareness, Gamze helps international professionals close the gap between competence and expression.
Because the goal is not to sound perfect.
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LEARN MORE about Gamze here:Visit Gamze’s Website here >> |
