Helping leaders move the conversations that move organisations.
When priorities compete, influence matters more than authority, and progress feels slower than it should, we help leaders find clarity, create alignment and move things forward.
Trusted by leaders navigating healthcare's toughest conversations
✔ 40+ years combined leadership experience
✔ National NHS leadership programmes
✔ Executive coaching and consultancy
✔ Complex healthcare and business environments
Progress feels messy when the conversations that matter aren't happening.
Strategy isn't the problem.
People are.
Not because they don't care.
Because priorities compete.
Influence is limited.
Relationships become difficult.
Meetings become repetitive.
And the elephant quietly grows.
That's where we help.
Does this sound familiar?
The vision is clear. The goal is agreed. The effort is there. Yet progress feels slower, harder, and more frustrating than it should.You're in the messy middle and need some help navigating the way through to progress.
Meetings happen. Actions are noted. People nod in agreement. But the difficult conversations, competing priorities, and unspoken tensions keep getting in the way. Everyone is busy, but meaningful progress feels just out of reach.
If that sounds familiar, you're not dealing with a strategy problem.
You're navigating the human side of leadership.
The Praxis Way provides the solution......
We work best with...
BUSINESS OWNERS
executive teams
healthcare leaders
senior leaders
Clinical Directors
medical directors
Our Services
Develop Influential Leaders
Leadership Workshops
Engaging, evidence based sessions that build practical leadership skills - from decision making and communication to emotional intelligence and resilience.
Focused, high impact sessions designed for experienced clinicians stepping into complex leadership roles.
Grow Your Influence
Executive Coaching
One-to-one applied leadership development for business leaders and clinicians operating in complex environments.
Targeted one-to-one work addressing live leadership challenges, decisions and system dynamics.
Untangle complex problems
Consultancy
Support for organisations seeking to strengthen leadership capacity and deliver ichangethat is sustained beyond initial implementation.
Build Leadership Capability
Partnerships
Partnering with established providers, we deliver advanced sessions that embed influence, authority and behavioural precision.
Meet the Founders of The Praxis Way™
The Praxis Way™ was born from a simple observation. Organisations rarely get stuck because they don't know what to do. They get stuck because leadership is complex, priorities compete, and the conversations that matter are often the hardest to have.
After more than two decades each leading, coaching and developing people across healthcare, Catherine and Karen recognised the same patterns appearing time and again. They combined their experience to create a practical leadership approach that helps individuals, teams and organisations move forward with greater clarity, confidence and influence.
Together they bring complementary strengths. Catherine helps leaders uncover what's really holding progress back. Karen helps leaders navigate the uncertainty that follows, building the confidence, relationships and leadership needed to create lasting change.
Together, they created The Praxis Way™ to help leaders find the elephant, understand it and move it.
Catherine Withers
Co-Founder | Leadership Advisor & Executive Coach
Catherine has a talent for helping leaders untangle complex problems that have become stuck. Whether it's a difficult conversation, a team that's lost momentum or a strategic priority that never seems to gain traction, she quickly identifies what others often miss and helps leaders move forward with clarity and confidence.
With more than 20 years of senior leadership experience in the NHS, Catherine has led operational services, regional improvement programmes and national transformation initiatives across urgent and emergency care, elective recovery, diagnostics and organisational performance.
Alongside her leadership career, she has coached senior leaders and directors, combining practical experience with executive coaching, behavioural science and leadership development.
As co-creator of The Praxis Way™, Catherine specialises in helping leaders uncover the hidden barriers that quietly slow progress. Her approach is thoughtful, practical and appropriately challenging, creating the conditions for honest conversations, better decisions and meaningful action.
She believes the greatest breakthroughs often begin with the courage to face the elephant in the room.
Karen Heng
Co-Founder | Leadership Advisor & Executive Coach
Karen helps leaders bring clarity to complexity by combining strategic thinking with practical action. She works alongside individuals and teams to shape direction, build confidence and create realistic plans that turn ambition into meaningful progress.
With more than 20 years of leadership experience across healthcare, Karen has led service improvement, organisational change and leadership development in complex environments. Her experience combines operational leadership with coaching, enabling her to balance long-term strategic thinking with the realities leaders face every day.
As co-creator of The Praxis Way™, Karen specialises in helping leaders step back from the immediate pressures of today to see the bigger picture. She helps teams develop clear direction, strengthen relationships and create practical plans that people genuinely commit to and deliver.
Karen believes great leadership is about more than solving today's problems. It's about creating clarity, building capability and giving people the confidence to navigate whatever comes next.
Her approach is thoughtful, strategic and grounded, helping leaders move from uncertainty to purposeful action.
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
Speaking
'Catherine's story was both inspiring and thought-provoking. It genuinely resonated with the audience and left many of us reflecting on our own lives long after the session'
Getting headspace and clarity after just one coaching session.
We've supported leaders across healthcare and business, from frontline operational managers to executive teams, helping them navigate complexity, build influence and create lasting change.
Russell J
DL Networking Lead and MD
CP
Managing Director
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