The holidays can stretch too many of us bringing heightened stress and surface-level conversations, even with those we love. Paris, France-based Coach Marie-Louise Pereira knows how to bring coaching skills and Competency No 5 (maintaining presence) into our daily flow and to our relationships with those we love.

In a lovely conversation with a dear friend and peer coach, we unpack how we use our active listening skills and clear boundary setting (and even our ability to say 'no' vs 'yes' to things that drain us) to stay calm, even amidst the holidays.

If you find the skills and tips from one New Zealand coach and one Parisian coach help you, please forward this episode on to another person needing more calm, flow, and fewer disconnects with those they care for.

You can find Marie-Louise on LinkedIn.

Your show host, D G McCullough, is a communications coach for Fortune 100 leaders, a former reporter for the Guardian, the Economist, and the FT of London. Find her on LinkedIn. Join her communications and active listening workshops on Maven here and here. Blank page to Byline, write your annual review like a global business reporter, her newest writing workshop is on Luma, click here.