Executive and Relationship Coach: Mary Ovenstone

25/06/2026

Life can change in an instant.

The loss of a loved one, a health crisis, financial hardship, or an unexpected life event can leave us feeling shaken and uncertain about the future.

In Episode 3 of my radio series, The Journey of Healing – Finding Strength After Life's Difficult Seasons, I explore how healing is possible even after life's most difficult moments.

Healing is not about returning to who we were before. It is about finding the strength, resilience, and hope to move forward, one step at a time.

If you are navigating a difficult season, I hope this conversation offers encouragement and perspective.

Warmly,
Mary
082 730 0317

22/06/2026

Menopause is often spoken about as a physical experience.

But for many women, it can also be a profound life transition.

Changes in energy, sleep, mood, confidence, relationships, and even a sense of identity can leave you wondering why things no longer feel quite the same.

At the same time, many women are navigating other changes too... ageing parents, children leaving home, retirement planning, changing relationships, or questions about what comes next.

This stage of life can be challenging, but it can also be an opportunity to pause, reflect, and reimagine the next chapter.

You do not have to navigate it alone.

Contact me for a session.

📞 082 730 0317
📧 [email protected]

15/06/2026

In Episode 2 of my radio series, The Journey of Healing – Finding Strength After Life’s Difficult Seasons, I explore what it means to begin again after the breakdown of a marriage.

The end of a marriage can be one of life’s most painful transitions.

It often brings grief, anger, uncertainty, and a deep sense of loss. Not only of the relationship, but of the future you thought you were building.

Healing is not about forgetting. It is about gently rebuilding yourself, and opening to what comes next.

If this resonates with you, please get in touch to book a session with me.

Mary
082 730 0317
[email protected]

10/06/2026

Are you navigating a life transition?

Whether it involves retirement, health, relationships, or a new stage of life, I offer a supportive space to help you find clarity, purpose, and direction.

If this resonates with you, please contact me for a session. Online (global) or in person (Overberg area)

📞 082 730 0317
📧 [email protected]

08/06/2026

In Episode 1 of my recent radio series, The Journey of Healing – Finding Strength After Life's Difficult Seasons, I explore the often-overlooked emotional and psychological aspects of recovery.

Healing is not always complete when the treatment ends.

For many people, illness leaves behind more than physical symptoms. There can be fear, uncertainty, loss of confidence, and the challenge of learning to trust your body again.

Healing is rarely about returning to who we were before. It is often about discovering how to move forward with greater self-compassion, resilience, and hope.

If you are navigating recovery, a life transition, relationship challenges, or simply need a space to think things through, I offer coaching for individuals and couples in the Overstrand and online.

📞 082 730 0317
📧 [email protected]

Warmly,
Mary

05/06/2026

There is something that years of experience teaches you...

Not how to give better advice, but how to ask better questions.

For decades, I have worked with leaders, couples, and individuals facing complex decisions, difficult relationships, and important life transitions.

My role is not to tell people what to do.

It is to help them think more clearly, understand themselves more deeply, and find a way forward that feels right for them.

If you are facing a challenge, a transition, or simply a question that feels important, you are welcome to reach out.

📧 [email protected]
📞 082 730 0317
📍 Hermanus & Online

20/05/2026

The recent storms across the Overberg have been a reminder that life can feel uncertain and unsettled at times.

Even when the weather clears, many people are still carrying things quietly... Worry, change, loneliness, grief, relationship strain, or simply the feeling that life has shifted in ways they did not expect.

I offer thoughtful, supportive coaching for individuals and couples navigating change, later life transitions, relationships, and personal growth.

Based in the Overstrand, with in-person and online sessions available.

Warmly,
Mary

DM me or contact me on 082 730 0317

www.maryovenstone.com

18/05/2026

5 Ways To Improve Your Relationship

1. Plan a date once each week. Romance each other like you did in the beginning. Tip: Don’t talk about any of your relationship problems or it will become hard work.

2. Plan on a relationship meeting once a week. Discuss relationship issues, make important decisions and resolve any conflicts.
Tip: Agree on an agenda and be on your best behaviour to really hear each other.

3. Avoid reasons to argue. Discuss and make difficult decisions so you don’t have to keep going over the same issues.
Tip: Plan on a schedule for weekly household chores so no one has to act like a cop. Set a budget and pay bills by stop orders at the beginning of the month so you don’t have to keep deciding how to pay bills.

4. Practice ‘active listening’, repeating back your partner’s statement of concern until they feel heard and understood. Then take your turn to make your own statements on the topic.
Tip: Take turns in discussions rather than jumping in on the other’s comments. Slow the discussion down and focus on listening rather than arguing.

5. Don’t use hyperbole–extreme language–in your discussions. Example. “You always…”, “You never…”, “That is the worst…”.
Tip: Extreme language shifts the focus of your partner onto finding the exceptions to your absolute statement rather than to hearing your core concerns. Example. “I don’t always …. Last week I ….” or “I sometimes….” Now your concern is lost.

07/05/2026

Twenty years ago, the Mail & Guardian published an article about part of my journey and the work I was exploring at the time.

Reading it again recently, I was struck by how certain questions seem to stay with us throughout life. Questions about identity, meaning, relationships, and what it means to live well through periods of change.

Over the years, my work has evolved in many ways, but the heart of it has remained much the same: creating thoughtful spaces for people to reflect, reconnect with themselves, and navigate important life transitions with greater clarity and understanding.

As I spend more time working locally again in the Overstrand, I’ve found myself reflecting on how deeply these conversations still matter, particularly in later life transitions, when roles shift and familiar identities begin to change.

It feels meaningful to revisit where some of these ideas first began.

If you’d like to read the article, I’ve shared it below.

Warmly,
Mary

My search is over – The Mail & Guardian

What I can say with assurance is that the journey has defined my life choices. I've lived a life eager and expecting to encounter God. I've been willing to go a

05/05/2026

Retirement is often expected to feel simple.
A long-awaited rest. More freedom. More time.

But for many people, this later-life transition doesn’t feel quite that straightforward.

After years of getting up, showing up, being needed, and having a clear role in the world, stepping away from work can quietly bring something unexpected... a sense of “What now?” or even “Who am I without all of that?”

It can feel strange to lose the structure that once gave life its rhythm.

I work with people who are moving through this transition, or already in it, and finding that the shift away from working life is more emotional and complex than they anticipated.

If this resonates, you are welcome to reach out. I would love to work with you and explore what this new chapter means for you.

I offer in-person sessions in the Overstrans and online sessions globally.

Warmly,
Mary
082 730 0317