My name is Christine Paterson Deacon and I am one of Sara Davison’s accredited Breakup and Divorce Coaches. In May 2025, I made one of my best decisions when I started training with Sara to become a Breakup and Divorce Coach. I threw myself into the content, engaging in all aspects of the course and very quickly gained my accreditation as a Practitioner in August 2025.
I felt that I had found my tribe and my purpose, and it lit a fire in me.
I very quickly decided to continue my journey and started the training to become a Master Practitioner in September 2025. Choosing the Master Practitioner training really was a no-brainer, with so many divorces and breakups experiencing incidents of domestic abuse and toxic behaviours, I wanted to ensure that I was able to help and support everyone on their journey to a new future.
Discovering My Niche
Serving for 16 years in the RAF shaped me profoundly. The military environment teaches resilience, adaptability, flexibility, teamwork and responsibility, but it also comes with unique pressures that are often invisible to anyone outside of the military bubble.
- Frequent moves and periods of separation
- Feeling isolated when living away from friends and family
- Living on a married patch and feeling like you’re in a goldfish bowl
- Operational shift work and high stress environments
- A rigid rank structure and the unspoken expectation to just “crack on”
I have lived that reality, I understand the culture, the language, the hierarchal structure and the expectation that service personnel apply to themselves. Asking for help can be extremely hard for many who are trained to adapt, cope and carry on.
How To Provide That Support
Divorce in the military is not uncommon and though the divorce rate is no higher than civvie street, it can often be complicated by other factors unique to the military:
- Fear of career implications, reputational damage or future progression through the rank structure
- Housing issues once separated
- Relocation issues surrounding co-parenting
- Isolation when friends and family may be far away
- Financial complications including pensions, education allowances and loss of earnings through frequent moves leading to low prospects for future employment by dependents
By combining my professional training and accredited coaching skills with my lived experience of the military, I can offer support that is grounded, relevant, authentic and empathetic. My own divorce experience means that I don’t just understand the trauma and emotional impact of a breakup, I also understand fully the context it happens in.
Ready To Support You
Whether my clients have military experience or not, I am ready to support them.
My goal is simple but personal, to support people through one of the hardest periods of their life, to give them hope for their future and see them fly again.