What I do

Soon after I trained as a life coach, I thought I knew where my life and career were going. I was happily married to Pat and our lives with our 2 children, Clare and Simon made our life complete. My parents lived near us and I saw them daily as they helped us with childcare. I still remember how content and fulfilled I felt.

I was delivering motivational workshops for primary 6 and 7 classes and the feedback was incredibly positive. I did this because my children were still at school and the age range to my mind was an important transitional one. I encouraged the school children to dream big and I still have letters from some of them who wrote to tell me the amazing things that happened as a result of them believing in themselves.

I felt so fulfilled and set up for life….

Then, having noticed changes in my mum for months, with advice from my GP, following 3 memory tests, my beautiful mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers.

Moving on a few years, my lovely dad became unwell. Apart from being heartbroken about his wife, following 6 months in acute hospital setting where they were unable to find out what was wrong, a brain scan diagnosed dad with vascular dementia.

I was overwhelmed with grief. Following many fights for their rights, dad moved into the same care home as mum and we developed a new normal.

I know first hand what it is like to support loved ones with dementia. It impacts the whole family. I volunteered with Alzheimer Scotland in various ways, out of desperation trying to make sense of something I still can’t. A few years down the line, I found myself developing training, based on my own and others experiences.

I love doing this work, bringing people affected by dementia together, sharing my own learning and providing a safe space for others to share their experience and help them plan for a positive future, despite challenges they face. This work is personal to me. I know I can support you in your own journey, both practically and emotionally and how difficult it can be.

Please get in touch to let us discuss the unique one day training programme I deliver.

I think I was around 14 when my first relative died.

I still remember the experience vividly, seeing my aunt in her coffin, not knowing what to do or say. From there, I had very few losses.

This changed in 2012 when my dad died of bowel cancer. Then in 2014 following a head injury, my husband died. Mum then died in 2015. I have also since lost 6 friends to cancer and dementia. Again, I didn’t know where to turn. There seemed to be loss everywhere. I found myself struggling to accept what had happened. I knew deep down I had a choice. To drown in grief or to dig deep and do something positive. I chose the latter.

Again, I know what it is like when grief swallows you up. It can stop you living. I can help you develop strategies if you are or have experience loss in your life. This can be done on a one to one basis or in small groups within your organisation/care home etc. There is a big focus on advanced planning and end of life care.

Having been a volunteer for 14 years in a hospice and experienced losing many people close to me in a short space of time, I feel very strongly about encouraging people to have conversations about end of life. I provide a safe space to encourage such conversations and support people to consider making plans and having these recorded somewhere safe. Feedback from such sessions told me the relief that people felt following initial anxiety about broaching such a subject.

The truth is we are all going to die and if we can take the step of talking about what really matters to ourselves and our loved ones and planning what each of us wants, we may not need to talk about it again, once it is done it is done.

I first became aware of ACES, Adverse Childhood Experiences over a year ago. The whole ACES agenda got into my bones and I felt compelled to become involved. Essentially awareness worldwide is being raised around supporting the resilience of children and adults in overcoming early life adversity in education, health, justice and social work. My belief is that we all have a story involving experiences that have made us the way we are today, the good and the bad. Many of us never get the opportunity to tell our story therefore the impact of such experiences are carried with us for the rest of our lives. If we are given the opportunity to tell our story in a safe environment, it can promote healing.

I have been privileged to work alongside young people who live in secure care over the past 6 months. I have developed a format whereby I meet one to one with young people and I hand write their story as they tell it. I then read it back to them for accuracy before typing it up and presenting this as their own lifestory book alongside a large graphic where I draw the significant events in their life which includes their dreams hopes and aspirations for their future. This way, they have spoken, heard and seen their story, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding

You can find more information about ACES from:

Adverse Childhood Esperiences (ACES) – gov.scot – The Scottish Government

Facilitation uses a number of structured processes helping an individual or group to discover their goals/objectives using creative techniques and to plan how they will achieve them.

I can graphic various events, which captures what is being said in real time. This allows people to ‘see what they say’ and can encourage creative thinking within teams and individuals. The graphic is completed by the end of the day and handed to the individual or team.

This is a one day course where I deliver how to become a graphic recorder, this includes a workbook and ongoing support. It is much easier than people think and like anything, practice makes you better.

Graphic facilitation is a powerful way of capturing information and involves drawing coloured pictures of conversations, goal setting, meetings and conferences as they happen.

​The graphic is always completed by the end of the session and left with the person/group.

I have completed graphics on a sheet of paper 8’ x 4’ for hundreds of people, for teams and at conferences.

Here is a sample of some of the graphics I have completed.