Where are you based? Muswell Hill, North London - but there's no need for you to navigate the Northern Line or the hilly terrain of N10, as I run my sessions online, so you can join me from wherever you are!

What do you love about The Thrive Programme? I am so impressed by how much impact it has, for really what's relatively little time commitment. Yes, it absolutely takes effort and if you're going to do it, you want to REALLY do it - the programme will challenge you, as your coach I will challenge you, and most importantly you will challenge yourself. But considering how long we put up with our symptoms, the programme gives you a really straightforward, predictable framework (which is evidence-based and developed from years' of scientific and psychological research), in which to make change.

I lived with Emetophobia for 33 years, and I got rid of it in 7 weeks. I'd have never thought it was possible. I know how empowering it has been for me, but also for the students, colleagues and clients I've worked with - and I know it can be for you, too.

What did you do before you became a Coach? I trained as a theatre set and costume designer, and freelanced in that industry before going into teaching - a couple of design and making jobs where I was working with young people showed me I got a lot of fulfillment from that aspect, so alongside having several jobs on at once I spent almost a year in and out of different schools: volunteering in their art departments, working one-to-one with a boy who had just emigrated from Albania to make sure he felt connected despite the initial language barrier, helping out wherever individuals needed, and doing lots of observing.

Upon completing my PGCE in 2010, I was recommended for an Art & Design teaching job in the school I still love working in today! It's been a joy and a privilege getting to work with hundreds of brilliant people over the years, and supporting them not only in my subject but in navigating those often complex teenage years. I remember my teacher training mentor saying ‘remember you’re not just teaching them art, you’re teaching them how to be people in the world’, and that very much stuck with me - I really appreciate the importance of the pastoral element of my job. It's been increasingly apparent that there is a greater need for support for our young people - with their mental health, with understanding themselves (and others), and with helping them to really thrive in all aspects of life.

Having completed the programme myself in 2020, as we emerged from the first lockdown and returned to teaching face-to-face, that need felt even more pressing, and what I’d learned from the programme really fitted in with the ethos of our school, so I recommended our SLT take a look at it. Over the subsequent year a partnership was formed, I trained up as a coach, and now I have an additional role in our school focused on sharing the tools of The Thrive Programme with students, staff and parents - I’ve done, and continue to do this, through group sessions, one-to-one coaching, assemblies, webinars, shared resources and presentations, and finding any opportunity I can to embed it all into our wonderful school community.

What do you do when you're not working? I like to take advantage of living in London (well, if you’re paying London rent prices…), so I love going to live music gigs, theatre, comedy… Free from the anxiety of late night tubes now (emetophobes, you'll understand), I set myself a target this year to book a ticket to one live event each month of this year. We are just approaching October at the time of writing this, and I have just booked my 32nd ticket! So that goal is definitely ticked off. During daylight hours I enjoy wandering around Highgate Woods or Hampstead Heath. I appreciate that I live in close proximity to such lovely greenery, and I’m inspired by those spaces, so though between teaching, coaching, and commuting from one side of London to another for work (plus all those gigs, of course) I don't always have as much time as I'd like to make my own art these days, in recent years I've turned my hand to printmaking. I’ve been challenging myself to develop my skills in drypoint and linocut to capture some of my local scenery and favourite woodland views, whilst sat at my kitchen table.

I have the best (lots of us think we do, but mine really are the best) family and friends, and they even appease my slightly competitive nature when it comes to games and quizzes. With lots of my friends moving away from the city, another leap which came from doing The Thrive Programme was joining a local Meet-Up group, and though it could have been intimidating walking into an event with a group of complete strangers, I made some really good friends there, and two years later we still do a weekly pub quiz. It is a source of great pride (and sometimes embarrassment) how quickly I can guess the intro in the pop round!

An interesting fact? Before I committed my loyalties to the visual arts, my English teacher tried to encourage me to aim for a career as a writer of some sort. By then I'd probably already passed my literary peak, however, when aged 10 I won a Sega Master System 2 for a poem I wrote about milk - not a bad morning's work, really!

What year were you born? 1981.

What languages do you speak? English.

What time zone are you in? UK (GMT/BST).

What are your working hours? Thursdays daytime and evening, with some availability at weekends.