Bethany Rose Thomas

Hey, welcome and thank you for being here!

As a combined ADHDer myself, I understand how much it sucks to feel like your condition is in control of you.

Neurodiversity runs in my family, so I’ve spent a lifetime experiencing this from all angles….

…the endless yet unfinished to do lists…

…the seemingly random emotional outbursts…

…the doom piles of disorganisation…

I get it!

Frustrated with family members’ and my own personal presentation of symptoms (which I had previously attributed to character flaws, anxiety and depression), I found myself not hitting my childhood potential and forever annoyed I could never understand why.

It wasn’t until I began working with a consultant psychiatrist as a PA that we discovered I hit every marker for ADHD. This completely re-contextualised my entire life! At last an answer for why I never felt ‘quite enough’ or ‘too much’, why I had all the potential and none of the skills as an adult to reach it.

Following this clarity, I became frustrated with the lack of provisions available to people with neurodivergent brains to help them successfully manage their challenges in a sustainable manner. I spent nearly 4 years noticing the pros and cons of typical treatment for ADHD, also seeing how much clients would thrive if they tried coaching. Now, I am very excited to offer these coaching services to you!

In conversation with Beth

www.unboundmindadhdlifecoaching.com

Lesley de Meza

Location: Stanmore, Middlesex.HA7 4NH

Lesley de Meza: A teacher, consultant, trainer, counsellor and writer with over 40 years’ experience in education, health and media. Respected nationally and internationally, having worked across the UK, in mainland Europe and with the USA.

In March 2022, Lesley was awarded an Honorary Degree in Education in recognition of her work.

Lesley is well known for her input to education about Drugs; Sex [& relationships], HIV, Equality & Diversity, Mental Health & Wellbeing and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE).

She is a regular contributor to “www.MensRadioStation” (An international, networked station that specialises in covering Mental Health issues).

She has worked with a wide range of organisations including: NICE, DfE, DoH, Terrence Higgins Trust and co-facilitated (Civil Service Learning) Courses for Westminster Explained.

She has co-written numerous books (on PSHE &SRE) including a range published by Hodder Education & Franklin Watts.

She was a Trustee of Manor House Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling; was Vice Chair of Trustees for a sexual health charity (JAT) and is an Associate Trainer for the National Children's Bureau and Brook. In a voluntary capacity she spends one day a week working with the charity, “Norwood”.

The ‘learning provision’ she offers is: High quality, dynamic, modern, vibrant, interactive and delivered with positive energy.

Lesley de Meza – Publications List - With Stephen De Silva

• “Exploring PSHE” – Separate publications for each of Key Stage 3; Key Stage4 and Key Stage 5 - Hodder Education 2020
• Alcohol Education Lessons for “Drinkaware” – primary and secondary versions -2015 Awarded: PSHE Association's Quality Assured - Best Practice Award
• ‘PSHE for Key Stage 3’ co-written with Stephen De Silva. Hodders 2014 Awarded: PSHE Association's Quality Assured - Best Practice Award
• A-Z of Growing Up, Puberty and Sex co-written with Stephen De Silva. Franklin Watts 2013
• PSHE Education 1, 2 3, and 4 co-written with Stephen De Silva. Hodders 2008, 2009 , 2010 & 2011 respectively – PSHE 4 (covers the whole of KS4 ) ‘Awarded: PSHE • Association's Quality Assured - Best Practice Award
• Drugs Education Whiteboard Active for Key Stage 2 BBC Active /Pearson 2008
• Sex and Relationships Education Whiteboard Active for Key Stage 2, BBC Active/Pearson 2007
• Understanding Drugs: Drug Education Pack for schools (KS3), Home Office, DfES, DoH 2006
• Your Choice, Your Life – Attendance and Behaviour (KS3), DfES 2006
• PSHE in Practice co-written with Stephen De Silva.DfES/Home Office PSHE CPD Certification. 2004
• All About Life and More About Life: Sex and Relationship Education co-written with Stephen De Silva, Rapport Group 2004
• Be Lifewise co- written with Stephen De Silva, for Age Concern, The Rapport Group 2002

With others

• Values Pyramid – co written with Hilary Dixon & Stephen De Silva 2010-11 ( now published by http://www.sexualhealthsheffield.nhs.uk/
• Risk Taking co-written with Paul Law- in the PSHE Strategies and Skills series, Me-and-Us Ltd 2008
• Body Image co-written with Liz Swinden – in the PSHE Strategies and Skills series, Me-and-Us Ltd 2007
• Lifesize co-written with Liz Swinden for Forbes Publications 1999

Single Author publications

• Are you getting it right? : SRE Consultation Toolkit. Sex Education Forum for NCB 2008
Growing Through Adolescence (chapter contributor), Health Scotland with Healthy Living, • WHO Europe, University of Edinburgh 2005
• Towards PSHE’ Key Stage 1 &2, Pat Cole, CPHVA and ICNA 2001–2002

Please contact info@ayanay.co.uk to reach Lesley

Fiona Wright APA PAL

Location: Exeter, Devon

Hi, I’m Fiona, a fun-loving and caring Mum of 7, Nanna of 2, SEND Teacher, Relationship Coach, Aromatherapist, and ADHD specialist.

Having lived the first 45 years of my life with abuse trauma, grief and undiagnosed ADHD, it’s been a roller coaster ride. Add in an undiagnosed ASD husband, 7 kids with varying combinations of neuro-divergence and several international moves and you get a whole travelling circus, complete with the tears behind the clown masks.

After moving to the States, I couldn’t work out why our family was unravelling at the seams and struggling so much more than our friends to have a ‘normal’, life. I was a volunteer parent & family educator, yet every day seemed to bring a new drama, call from school, or the police. Eventually the extreme behaviours of my teens took their toll, and I experienced a complete breakdown. This was the turning point for me. My own ADHD was identified, and I connected with an amazing therapist who not only counselled me but educated me to understand how the brain worked and how to become my own therapist. I then studied with her for 4 years, learning how to coach others through personal and relationship challenges. I certified in 2018.

Since then I have continued to research and study mental health, wellness, and neuro-divergence. I have taught courses and seminars and worked with 1:1 clients on 3 continents. My passion is taking my experience and using it to help other people make sense of their struggles and achieve personal growth and success in life, relationships, and careers.

I take an intuitive and holistic approach with clients depending upon their individual needs and preferences. I work from a humanistic base drawing on education, CBT, NLP, IFS and coaching techniques, supported, where desired, by aromatherapy.

I still live with ADHD every day and my children continue to present frequent challenges. However, I now understand them and myself so much better. Having knowledge and tools has been a game changer for all of us.

I have a very broad skill base for work with a wide variety of clients. My specific areas of interest are Late ADHD diagnosis support, ADHD and menopause, ADHD in a religious environment, Parenting ADHD and PDA children and teens, and Identity & Belief work.

I am fluent in BSL.

Sonya Wren

Location: Essex

Sonya only received her diagnosis of ASD in recent years, and recently discovered she also has ADHD. Her epiphany came after years of working to support children and young people with ADHD and ASD within a school setting.

As a mum of three teenagers with ADHD and ASD, she began to identify and recognise that she experienced the same things that they were experiencing, and sought a diagnosis to confirm what she already knew.

Early life was difficult for Sonya, who struggled to maintain friendships and was often impulsive and seen as different from her peers. As her mental health declined, she dropped out of school aged 15. Sonya had been labelled as ‘highly gifted’ at school. Her ADHD and ASD prevented her from reaching her potential and she found herself unable
to meet the demands and routines of school life.

As a young adult, she managed to find work and complete her education at evening classes. Eventually working as a successful I.T manager before becoming a full-time mother. When Sonya had her first daughter it soon became apparent that she had ASD and when her twins were born two years later, history repeated itself with one twin having ASD and ADHD and the other ADHD. Sonya learned as much as she could to best support her wonderful girls, attending courses and lectures to become an expert in supporting challenging behaviour.

These skills were soon put to use when Sonya took up work as a learning support assistant where her compassion and drive to be a support and voice for children labelled as ‘naughty’ or ‘different’ became a mission. Too many times her children had been let down by the education system, with schools refusing to support or understand her
bright-minded girls. In the work environment, she saw how schools were failing children and made sure that she shared her skills with colleagues and became a positive voice who advocated for the rights and needs of children. Sonya navigated the EHCP system for her own daughter putting in many hours to secure the support that school had
told her she would never get. Her daughter became the first child to attend their highly selective grammar school with an EHCP, proving that even children with ASD and ADHD have a place and deserve a chance to shine.

After many years working as an LSA and pastoral carer in schools, Sonya pursued a Psychology degree which she is in the final stages of, achieving distinctions and a certHE psychology. Counselling has been a real passion and took up a whole year of the degree. Sonya also has completed training in counselling skills, understanding mental health in
children and young people. Sonya even volunteered as a crisis counsellor for SHOUT, a mental health text line service to help young people in crisis, talking young people through bereavement, stress, suicidal ideation, and many other issues.

Sonya has worked with children as young as 4 up to teenagers and also has an affinity with adults of all ages. ASD and ASD are her areas of expertise and she also has first-hand experience of eating disorders, stress, self-harm, depression and LGBTQ+ / gender identity issues through her children. Sonya is very supportive and understanding
and firmly believes there are no bad children, just behaviours that result from a lack of support and understanding.

Her knowledge of the school system from both parents and insider view is invaluable.

www.headstuffadhdtherapy.co.uk

Fran Stalley

Location: Nottingham

I finally overcame C-PTSD from parental and religious childhood abuse when I was in my 40s. I first started having therapy aged 19 and had 15 therapists over 25 years in my desperate attempts to heal. Until I managed it, the trauma led me to believe that healing from early childhood abuse was not possible. I was further hampered by not being able to remember anything, and the therapy I kept receiving wasn’t suited to treating complex, pre-verbal trauma. Instead, it simply reinforced my learned helplessness: as nothing I’d done as a child had made any difference in stopping the abuse, repeatedly experiencing ineffective therapy simply reinforced the belief that nothing I did now as an adult would make any difference.

I grew-up in a household where I was lied to and gaslighted so often that I ended up not knowing what was real, and what wasn’t. Stumbling across philosophy aged 22 saved me from the insanity of this kind of upbringing: it made the world knowable and understandable to me, that things happen in life due to cause and effect and not for superstitious reasons. Learning philosophy prevented me from degenerating into a criminal, because it gave me an internal moral compass that I had been lacking before. A coherent, guiding philosophy was frequently missing from the psychotherapy I received and yet it was essential in the development of my mental health.

The C-PTSD left me unable to relate to others and develop meaningful relationships. To counteract this, I’ve been working on my communication skills the whole of my adult life. I stumbled across Nonviolent Communication (NVC) over 20 years ago, from which I discovered that I had feelings and needs. This enabled me to develop my emotional intelligence, and empathy and listening skills. I have now completed over 100-days of self-funded training accredited by the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC). Through NVC I learned how to create win-wins in my relationships. My conflict resolution skills were transformed when I did further NVC training specifically in this, and then a one-year foundation training in Open Dialogue. Conflict per se isn’t destructive to relationships; it’s how it’s handled. Handled well and it can nurture a secure attachment.

Joining Toastmasters in early 2018, enabled me to develop my public speaking and leadership skills, and I now speak professionally on my experiences of C-PTSD to psychology students and mental health professionals through live talks and webinars. I also share my experiences of psychotherapy for C-PTSD: what helped, what hindered my progress, and what re-traumatised me, via live and pre-recorded webinars, and books.

I help others with a history of C-PTSD to rebuild their lives, after they’ve received trauma therapy. I know what it’s like to have to start from scratch, and typically decades later than when most people start out. I do this through one-to-one coaching and Open Dialogue-informed group work.

I am the author of the book, Childhood Trauma Recovery: The Email Conversations that Helped Me Overcome Childhood PTSD, available on Amazon.

I am the author of the article New Therapist, New Hope published on The Psychologist’s website, the British Psychological Society’s magazine:

bps.org.uk/psychologist/new-therapist-new-hope

I was interviewed by clinical psychologist, Dr Naomi Fisher, for a chapter about service users’ lived experience of the mental health system for an undergraduate psychology primer that’s being published by Oxford University Press.

linkedin.com/in/franstalley-traumaexpertbyexperience

Kathryn Winborn

Location: Bexhill, East Sussex

Kathryn is a qualified Coach and Mentor with extensive experience in leading and developing others. Working at a management level within Policing for over 20 years, Kaj loves to use her skills and experience to assist others from a whole range of backgrounds.

Kathryn describes herself as Neurodiverse and she lives with ADHD. The discoveries linked with understanding how ADHD affects herself and others have been life transformational and have fuelled a passion to secure additional training as a Coach and Counsellor. Kathryn seeks to work with adults who themselves identify as Neurodiverse who wish to secure more successful outcomes in their daily lives. Kathryn uses techniques with clients which work far beyond the diagnostic label approaches of disorders and deficits, through identifiable and tangible growth in self-awareness, confidence and self-advocacy abilities.

Kathryn also specialises in workplace coaching for those working in the Blue Light Services, in particular for those affected by workplace trauma and mental ill-health.

Conact via info@ayanay.co.uk

Jo Liveston

Location: Kent - will travel

MA/dipSW. BA (hons) social sciences. Certified training practitioner-cipd. Post graduate advanced practice- best interest assessor. Certificates in counselling practice and theory.

Jo has been a qualified social worker since 1996 and has worked in a wide range of services. She is passionate about her role, thorough, dedicated and skilled.

Jo began working partially independently in 2007 and has been wholly in private practice since 2013. Jo has particular interest and expertise in the following areas:

Adoption - assessment, post adoption support with therapeutic parenting strategies, safeguarding, support groups second opinions.

Fostering - initial visits, assessment, supervision of foster parents, independent reviewing officer, complaint investigation, standards of care investigation.

Mental capacity- best interest and deprivation of Liberty safeguards assessment, court expert opinion work, chairing of best interest meetings, complaint investigation, second opinion, legal reports, mental capacity assessment.

Training- various social work related events

Other - family group work, support for and assessment of carers, bereavement support, preparing for end of life with children and carers, support of witnesses in court, safeguarding investigations, no recourse to public funds, legal, case management, human rights

In coversation with Jo

Conact via info@ayanay.co.uk

Ingrid St. John APAPAL

Location: Kent

I offer support and guidance on all things related to children, families and the social care system. Having qualified as a social worker at Bristol University and specialising in Systemic Practice Solution Focus with Families, Individuals & Children, at Birkbeck College, London.

My experience of reviewing issues of concern, risk assessments, home visits, meetings and reviews, as well providing clear supportive guidance on the impacts such interventions can have on parents, children, young people, foster parents and other professionals.

I am also experienced in working with different cultures and diversities both personally and professionally.

Mari Bezer APAPAL

BSc(Hons) Dip(SocPolCrim) IntCert(Counselling) CCCReg

Location: Essex

I have spent many years helping people move forward from difficulties affecting their lives and no matter how you feel right now, I promise to give you the time and space to talk freely.... at your own pace and in confidence.

www.ne-essexpsychologies.co.uk

Michelle Philips APAPAL

Location: Swindon

I am a Psychologically Alert Dog Walker that specialises in helping reactive dogs achieve a calmer life. I'm successful because of my empathy & understanding of a ethological dog's needs. My approach is truly unique because like your dog, I am truly unique.

I began coaching aged 12! The journey has seen me coach a variety of subjects including team building, life transition, business coaching to break new markets, coaching start-ups, executive coaching with horses, and horse riding too in the early days! I began training in human behaviour change for animals where I discovered the crossover between animal and human psychology, behaviour, and learning.

Bringing together this knowledge and understanding I have shaped a truly responsive, caring and supportive environment delivered through my dog walking business. So if your dog, like me, loves being out in nature, enjoys being in a calm balanced and nurturing space, then please check out Bailey's Dog Walking on Facebook, Instagram or my website baileysdogwalking.co.uk.

Oh and when I'm not doing all of the above, you'll find me in my happy place, hanging out with my ponies so If you want to create a better connection and relationship with your dog or horse I'd love to hear from you.

www.magneticmindset.org

Carmine Carraturo

Location: Ely, Cambs.

Msc Computer Science

BSc Physics

20 years working in IT, specialising in Mobile Communications, developed the original GSM (2g) and 3g handsets.

15 years running an IT Support company

Worked for 6 years with Peter Fleming, Pellin Institute at first in the day-to-day running the organisation, but later as a student and co-author of the Pellin training material. Later, author of writings on the Pellin material

www.pellintraining.com

Teresa Denise Powell APAPAL

Location: Sacramento, CA USA

Teresa D. Powell is the CEO/Founder at Surrender The Mind, I am the owner of Surrender The Mind where I am a Self-Awareness Strategist and Personal Development Coach.

Over the past six years I have coached many, many people (both men and women) and provided them with the necessary tools and techniques to help them live a fulfilled and healthy life.

This involves weekly 1-on-1 coaching sessions, as part of my 10-week Breakthrough Program, during which you will learn a range of self-awareness strategies that will enable you to rediscover a happy, contented lifestyle.

I use the extensive knowledge gained from my psychology background to assist you in rebuilding your life, and as we work through the program together you will find that you are able to make decisions that will help you to be a truly successful individual.

In addition to the 10-week program you will also receive my ‘After Care’ package, which involves bi-monthly online meetings, over a period of four months. I also, provide one-on-one coaching session for individual who are only interested in coaching sessions.

www.surrenderthemindlifecoach.com

Margareth Van Steenlandt APAPAM

Location: Paris, France

Integrative Counsellor - Intercutural Life & Business Coach

Private Practitioner offering online and in person sessions in English & French throughout the world.

Founder of Polychromatic Life Design, I provide coaching and integrative counselling services on specific matters such as expatriation, loss and grief, separation, cancer, career change, anxiety relief, life transitions. I have personally and professionally been through these issues, my true desire is to offer a warm holding space to my clients helping them to express their feelings safely.

Based on my former corporate experiences as a real estate branch manager in Paris and founder of an events company in London, I also offer management coaching. The aim is to improve the company performance significantly by getting a better understanding of the management style and boost employee engagement. Pivotal topics and roles are addressed such as staff mobility, teamwork, leadership, recruitment, and use of social media.

I was raised in an international environment, lived in London for over 10 years and now works between Paris and London mainly. My passion for psychoanalysis started at quite a young age, when my mother got terribly sick. I tried to understand the psychological roots of her sickness. My father died of cancer in my early 20s. My move to London a couple of decades later was a turning point. I then realised I could be trained properly, learn, be supported and be helpful within the therapeutic and healthcare community. I then decided to dedicate my life to self-awareness and resilience and gave birth to Polychromatic Life Design.

www.polychromatic-lifedesign.com