About Eva

I have had a long career in music and academia and have faced and overcome some formidable, life-changing hurdles that have led me to my present life and career path. My early music career in Greece involved both performance (I played the piano) and academic activities, and extended across public performance, conservatoire teaching, and university education. In my mid-twenties, I left my Greek world and career there and went to England to pursue postgraduate studies. And a whole new world opened up in front of me! I gained two Masters degrees and a PhD from the University of London, whilst simultaneously working as a music teacher in schools, and following my PhD, as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader in Musicology and Honorary Research Fellow at various British universities. And more importantly, I built a nest, and a consummate explorer, I travelled the world.

LIFE TRANSITIONS – MY JOURNEY INTO COACHING

Despite some challenging experiences in both academia and my personal life, I was for a long-time content to keep living and working within my academic ivory tower. Life, however, had other plans, and although it steered me into uncharted waters, it challenged me to set off on a new journey of self-discovery, which revealed strengths I didn’t know I had, and gave birth to dreams that had lain dormant for a long time which led me to my present life and coaching career path. C.P. CAVAFY’S “ITHACA” can be read as a poetic representation of my life’s journey, and it has also been the inspiration behind my company’s name.

Looking back, I realise my coaching journey started early on in life. While still an undergraduate student, after a session discussing life and work issues with a group of colleagues, one of them said, “You have a good Socratic (maieutic) questioning technique”. This observation touched a chord and shaped my approach to teaching and dealing with people for the rest of my life. After all, Socrates himself thought that questioning was the only defensible form of teaching.

MY WORK ETHIC

I have always been passionate about nurturing individual potential and talent, challenging received wisdom, and empowering, inspiring and supporting individuals to achieve their personal and professional goals and improve their circumstances. At Ithaca Global Coaching Academy, I can help illuminate the road you decide you take, support you step by step on your journey and make the change manageable, exciting, and fun, in a secure environment where empathy, honesty, reliability and confidentiality are the guiding principles and values in our joint adventure. And through my training programmes, I can equip you with the knowledge, tools and techniques that will help you to master the process of change and goal achievement, so you can be happier and more successful at work and enjoy an even better and more fulfilled life.

ACCREDITATIONS

CREDENTIALS

Dr Eva Mantzourani is a Personal Performance Coach, Coach in Education, Licensed NLP Master Practitioner and Licensed Trainer of NLP, Lecturer and published author.

COACHING QUALIFICATIONS

• Accredited Coach of Excellence with the CPD Standards Office
• Licensed Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming – NLP Life Training – with Dr Richard Bandler
• Licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming – NLP Life Training – with Dr Richard Bandler
• Licensed Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming – NLP Life Training – with Dr Richard Bandler
• Diploma in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP Practitioner programme) – ANLP / The Coaching Academy
• Diploma in Coaching within Education (distinction) – The Coaching Academy
• Diploma in Personal Performance Coaching (merit) – The Coaching Academy
• Certified Goal Mapping Practitioner – Brian Mayne’s Lift Academy
• Accreditation in DISC Personality Profiling – The Coaching Academy

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• PhD in Music – King’s College, University of London
• MMus with distinction in Historical Musicology – Goldsmiths, University of London
• MMus in Music Theory and Analysis – Goldsmiths, University of London
• BA (Hons) – Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

• Founder and CEO of Ithaca Global Coaching Academy (previously, Ithaca – Achievement Coaching and Mentoring)
• Visiting Lecturer in Coaching and NLP at The Aegean University (Greece)
• Visiting Lecturer in Music at Kingston University – Hong Kong University (SPACE)
• Honorary Research Fellow in Music at City, University of London
• Visiting Lecturer in Music at City, University of London
• Senior Lecturer in Music (Academic) and Course Leader for the Postgraduate Programmes in Music (MMus, MA, PGDip) at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
• Reader in Musicology at Canterbury Christ Church University
• Senior Lecturer in Music at Canterbury Christ Church University
• Associate Lecturer in Music at The Open University

ACADEMIC BOOKS

The origin of “Ithaca”

“Ithaca” is based on Homer’s account of Odysseus’s (Ulysses) legendary journey home to the Greek island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea. It has been used ever since as a metaphor for a person’s destination or goal, and the journey to Ithaca symbolises the human journey through life.

At various stages of our lives, we are all looking for our own Ithaca, our own personal goal. And we set out on journeys full of experiences, wonders and discoveries, difficulties and setbacks, learning opportunities and spiritual awakenings to reach our destination.

C.P. Cavafy’s poem “Ithaca” has always fascinated me since I first read it as a child. I consider it as a poetic representation of my own life’s journey, and it has been the inspiration behind my company’s name. 

As you set out for Ithaca
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind–
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.

(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)