Cate Robinson

About Me

I am Cate, a dedicated coach and consultant with a deep commitment to those touched by the world of alternative care, including adoptees, foster carers, adoptive parents, and adult care leavers. My journey into this field started when I lived and worked in a residential home in Santiago, Chile at the age of 18. This experience ignited my passion for creating positive change and led me to study Social Work in Residential Child Care at Strathclyde University in Scotland.

Over the past decade, I've worked as a social worker, focusing on improving the lives of those in alternative care. In 2015, I returned to Chile to assess and help in the transformation of residential childcare services, and later managed a girls' home. These experiences underscored the urgent need for systemic changes.

Since 2018, my focus has been on foster care, and I've collaborated with prestigious organizations like UNICEF and the Chilean National Minors’ Service (SENAME) to support change in practices and policies. In 2020, I founded the Association for Foster Care Families of Chile (AFAC), the first of its kind in Latin America*. AFAC provides foster care families with listening groups, training, and support.

More recently, I have collaborated in a government-funded project to reimagine the Chilean adoption system (Fondecyt: Repensando la adopción with Irene Salvo Agoglia) and also in my role with AFAC, I have been appointed as a civil society member working with Mejor Niñez in Chile to influence public policy. In 2024, I will be collaborating with the Spanish National Association (ASEAF) to enhance foster care.

My qualifications as a life coach, earned from one of the top coaching schools, Achievement Specialists in London in 2014, enable me to provide a specialized coaching and consultancy service. I've witnessed how coaching can be a transformative way to help clients find balance, prioritize their needs, and enhance overall well-being for themselves and their families. I am a coach who empathizes and instills confidence.

In our coaching sessions, we will explore your strengths, and it's important for you to understand mine as your coach:

My signature strengths include gratitude, honesty, hope, spirituality, zest for life, and an appreciation for beauty and excellence.

On a personal note, I maintain balance through nature, meditation, and a strong faith.

* To date: October 2023 there are no other associations.

To end this section about me I will share a poem that I love by Mary Oliver. It seems to reflect all the complicated ruminations that we might go through and yet if we are present, things might be far more simple.

The Gardener

Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I
come to any conclusions?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?

I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.

Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,
is tending his children, the roses.

My CV