Harrogate coach turns to the business of relationships

With three marriages behind him people may think that Steve Potiphar may not be the best person to give relationship advice.

On the contrary says the professional business coach who is launching a new service aimed at helped people looking for a relationship.

“This is not a dating service,” stresses the father of two from Harrogate. “I just started to realise that there was a need to put people back into the centre of finding a new relationship which had really got lost in the world of online dating.

“There is a place for technology in this process, but you need to be in charge of it.”

Steve has been divorced twice and widowed in his early 30s when his second wife died of breast cancer.

“People say that I am not the best person to give relationship advice, but I’ve had the fortune (or misfortune) to have experienced the changes in how we meet potential partners and dated through three periods.

“Firstly there were those comparatively care free days of my youth that stretched into my 20s, when meeting someone, going out and starting a relationship largely just happened. We didn’t have reality TV programmes or blogs to refer to for “inspiration”. Then after my wife died, coming up to the end of the last century (that makes it sound longer ago than 19 years), we were in the era when the internet was just truly getting going – it was clunky and we didn’t have broadband or smart phones, so using it for anything was much slower than nowadays. Then, after getting divorced seven years ago I found myself in the current era, and how things seem to have changed.”

Steve will launch his new business, Gabriel, named after a character in Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd, on St Valentine’s Day at Hotel Du Vin In Harrogate.

“It is hard to get across to people exactly what my new business is and so I thought having a launch party would be the best way to get people to understand,” says Simon.

“Often when people come to me they tell me about themselves and then what they want out of a relationships but often the two just don’t fit together, Friends can be supportive but they don’t necessarily make you look at your self and reassess what it is you really want from a relationship.”

Steve is aiming his new business at the 40 plus age group,

“Gabriel’s vision is to bring a new, personal method to how individuals of a certain age group approach dating; focussing on sharing valuable advice and coaching to those who are likely to have experienced long-term relationships that didn’t work out, are maybe divorced or widowed,” explains Steve.

“The service will work to guide its members with all the tools available in the modern world, however, with a real emphasis on building the human skills and confidence that may be lacking after a prolonged period of out of the dating world.”

On Wednesday February 14, Hotel du Vin in Harrogate will host the very first event from new relationship coaching service, Gabriel. Specifically designed not to be a matchmaking or dating event, the Harrogate party style evening will introduce singles to a new way of approaching relationships.

For more information and to book tickets visit http://gabrielbyyourside.com/