Ealing Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'UP CLOSE in Ealing.'

Today we caught up with Michelle Alexander, the Ealing mum-of-one and founder of AKA Life Coaching.

Michelle Alexander, 40, has lived in Ealing for many years, having grown up in Greenford and is now based in West Ealing.

Alexander has 23 years of experience working with children and families, 18 years working in early years and education – of which 14 were as a manager - and five years working in early intervention, which is a tier of social care for children and families.

In July 2019 she decided to start her own business, AKA Life Coaching, which is a life coaching, family support and early intervention service for both women and men too.

Alexander told Nub News: "I lost my father at a young age and my mother worked so hard to provide for and raise me and my siblings, so I thought, 'what can I do to give back to parents in general'".

The 40-year-old believes there is a gap in the market for exploring what parents want from their lives and how to juggle work with parenting.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, AKA Life Coaching offered in person group workshops, while also offering online one-to-one sessions too.

Since March however, everything has had to move online, including group sessions, in order to halt the spread of COVID-19.

"I would call myself a family life coach, I support parents that work long hours but have to go home and then take care of their kids.

"Times have changed since we were kids, the things our parents did to raise us are a bit out-dated, at AKA Life Coaching we want to help parents modernise with the times.

"For example, the Internet is something we didn't have growing up, so our parents didn't have to deal with that, but parents nowadays have to deal with their children's online activities."

Alexander's dream is that one day all businesses, no matter their size, will work with life coaching businesses, such as AKA Life Coaching, to help their staff deal with family issues.

She said: "Family issues enter our life whether we want to or not.

"During my 14 years as a manager, the vast majority of issues people were dealing with had to do with their family."

You can find out more about AKA Life Coaching on their website.