For years, Christine Kearney was the woman who seemed to have it all together.
A successful senior director in banking for more than two decades, a respected leader, a high performer, a single mum and the person trusted to drive transformation, culture and people strategies at the highest level.
From the outside, she was thriving.
But behind the polished corporate image was a woman slowly running herself into the ground.
Today, Christine is the founder of Chapter 22, a coaching business dedicated to helping ambitious women recognise the warning signs of burnout before they reach breaking point.
But the journey to creating the business came after one of the most painful and transformative experiences of her life.
Christine spent 21 years working in banking, holding director-level positions for much of that time. Her roles focused heavily on transformation, people and culture, helping businesses evolve while also supporting teams and colleagues.
“I genuinely loved what I did,” Christine explains. “I didn’t intend to stay for 21 years, but the roles were so diverse and meaningful that I just kept growing with them.”
As someone known for her work ethic, Christine became the person who never stopped.
Long hours, constant pressure, leadership responsibilities, motherhood, perfectionism and a relentless drive to succeed became normal life.
“I was the woman who never took sick days. I survived on caffeine, worked ridiculous hours and just kept telling myself to get through one more meeting, one more deadline, one more week.”
Looking back now, Christine can see the signs had been building for years.
She was barely sleeping, constantly anxious, emotionally exhausted and physically unwell, but like so many high-achieving women, she ignored the warning signs because slowing down simply didn’t feel like an option.
Then came the moment that changed everything.
In November 2014, after weeks of feeling physically and emotionally broken, Christine drove to work for an early breakfast meeting knowing deep down something wasn’t right.
“I remember sitting there thinking, I physically cannot do this anymore. It wasn’t dramatic or explosive, I just closed my laptop, picked up my bag and walked out.”
The next day, Christine was diagnosed with severe burnout, anxiety, sleep deprivation and dangerously high blood pressure.
“The doctor told me I was days away from a stroke. I’d lost a huge amount of hair, I wasn’t sleeping, my body had completely shut down.”
What followed was five months away from work rebuilding her entire life from the ground up.
“At the time, I genuinely believed my life was over. I didn’t think I’d ever feel successful again, happy again or like myself again.”
Yet during that recovery period, something important happened.
Instead of hiding what she had gone through, Christine made the brave decision to speak openly about burnout and mental health within the corporate world.
“I thought if this could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. I didn’t want people to feel ashamed to admit they were struggling.”
After sharing her story internally, the response was overwhelming.
Hundreds upon hundreds of people privately contacted her saying they recognised themselves in her experience.
“So many people messaged saying, ‘Oh my God, that’s me.’ It made me realise just how many people were silently struggling while pretending everything was fine.”
That experience completely changed the direction of Christine’s life.
Following her recovery, she became deeply passionate about mental health advocacy, workplace wellbeing and helping people understand burnout properly.
She went on to complete a Masters degree in Psychology, studied counselling and became involved in mental health campaigns and initiatives designed to break the stigma around burnout and anxiety.
“I became obsessed with understanding why it had happened. I didn’t ever want to find myself back in that place again.”
Years later, after eventually leaving corporate life altogether, Christine finally decided to take everything she had learned and create something of her own.
And fittingly, the idea for Chapter 22 arrived while flying home from Mexico with her children.
Somewhere between Manchester and Mexico, unable to sleep on the overnight flight, Christine suddenly sat up and began writing notes on her phone.
“I just knew. I wrote the whole thing out there and then on the plane. I knew I wanted to create a business helping women before they reached total shutdown.”
The name came naturally.
After 21 years in corporate life, this would become Chapter 22.
Today, through Chapter 22, Christine works primarily with high-performing women who appear successful on the outside but are privately overwhelmed, emotionally stretched and quietly struggling.
Her clients are often women juggling senior careers, motherhood, caring responsibilities and impossible expectations, women who feel like they have to hold everything together while slowly losing themselves in the process.
“My ideal client is me before burnout. The woman who looks successful externally but internally feels exhausted, anxious and completely disconnected from herself.”
What makes Christine’s coaching approach different is that it is rooted in lived experience as much as professional expertise.
She understands first-hand the behaviours that often sit underneath burnout, people pleasing, perfectionism, fear of failure, guilt and the inability to switch off.
“One of the hardest things to accept was realising that some of my own behaviours were contributing to the problem too. You can change jobs, but if you don’t address the behaviours underneath, they’ll follow you wherever you go.”
As part of Chapter 22, Christine now offers both longer-term coaching programmes and intensive reset-style sessions for women who feel close to breaking point and need immediate support.
“I wanted to create something for the woman who knows she’s close to the edge but isn’t necessarily ready for a huge transformation programme yet. Sometimes people just need somebody to catch them before they completely shut down.”
Alongside Chapter 22, Christine also runs a language tutoring business teaching Spanish and French, works with children struggling with anxiety and school, and volunteers as a listening volunteer with Samaritans.
And while life today looks very different to the corporate world she once knew, Christine says she has never felt more fulfilled.
“There are still moments of financial fear, of course there are. But now I wake up knowing the work I’m doing genuinely matters.”
For Christine, success is no longer about titles, performance reviews or climbing corporate ladders.
It’s about helping women recognise they don’t have to lose themselves in order to succeed.
“If I can stop even one woman reaching the point I reached, then everything I went through was worth it.”
And perhaps that is exactly why Chapter 22 resonates so deeply.
Because Christine isn’t coaching from a textbook.
She has lived through the pressure, the exhaustion, the fear and the rebuilding process herself , and now she’s helping other women realise they do not have to wait until total burnout to change their lives.
To contact Christine please visit – https://chapter22.org.uk/
Instagram @chapter22_wellbeing
