About me
My aim is to help individuals to reach their true potential by identifying barriers to their progress and removing them, building self-belief and self-confidence along the way. I have had a long career in education, leading two schools in England and Scotland as headteacher, working in school improvement and inspection and lecturing in education and applied linguistics/academic writing in a local university, whilst developing and refining my professional skillset, through the pursuit of numerous qualifications embracing a range of mental health-related themes, including Mental Health and Social Work, Life Coaching and counselling (Level 5) , CBT (Level 5 NCFE) , NLP (stress consultant), Professional Hypnotherapy, Clinical Nutrition and Mood Management (Level 5). During the past eight years, I have run my own coaching business, supporting individuals through preparations for IELTs and PTE/OET, Undergraduate and Postgraduate degrees in a range of subjects. Most of my time now is spent preparing individuals across Health Education South West for clinical/viva exams that provide entry to the various professional organisations of each speciality, such as the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians, (MRCP), Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners Applied Knowledge Test and Clinical Skills Assessment (AKT/RCA), Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych), Membership of the Royal College of Paediatricians (MRCPCH) and Membership/Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS and FRCS). I also work with candidates for anaesthesia exams (FRCA) and those taking critical appraisal exams such as FRCPath.
Using a mixed approach that includes building self-confidence and removing the fight or fight response to exam rooms, analysis of questions linguistically to help to identify clues to the answers and patterns of language that will trigger the memory to locate a solution, diagrams and mnemonics to improve retrieval, I will help the individual to recall information more rapidly under pressure and thus improve exam performance. For viva exams, I work on performance skills, helping the individual to overcome nerves when faced with a panel of judges, and this is also applicable to interview technique practice and preparation for auditions.
Strategies from NLP, such as Rewind and Swoosh, Progressive Relaxation, Hypnotherapy and positive affirmations (all of which can be applied to all of the above situations) are equally effective in helping those who wish to overcome general anxiety and phobias that prevent them from doing things that they want to do, such as taking up a particular hobby like swimming or rock climbing, starting a new career, or just making a life change such as moving to a new area or giving up a bad habit. These strategies can also be applied to the refinement and improvement of communication skills in the workplace to reduce stress and build self-esteem.
Communication skills coaching is a particular specialty, helping individuals to become more assertive and to become more effective communicators.
My aim is simple and clear: to help individuals to remove barriers to their achievements so that they can fulfil their true potential.
Using a mixed approach that includes building self-confidence and removing the fight or fight response to exam rooms, analysis of questions linguistically to help to identify clues to the answers and patterns of language that will trigger the memory to locate a solution, diagrams and mnemonics to improve retrieval, I will help the individual to recall information more rapidly under pressure and thus improve exam performance. For viva exams, I work on performance skills, helping the individual to overcome nerves when faced with a panel of judges, and this is also applicable to interview technique practice and preparation for auditions.
Strategies from NLP, such as Rewind and Swoosh, Progressive Relaxation, Hypnotherapy and positive affirmations (all of which can be applied to all of the above situations) are equally effective in helping those who wish to overcome general anxiety and phobias that prevent them from doing things that they want to do, such as taking up a particular hobby like swimming or rock climbing, starting a new career, or just making a life change such as moving to a new area or giving up a bad habit. These strategies can also be applied to the refinement and improvement of communication skills in the workplace to reduce stress and build self-esteem.
Communication skills coaching is a particular specialty, helping individuals to become more assertive and to become more effective communicators.
My aim is simple and clear: to help individuals to remove barriers to their achievements so that they can fulfil their true potential.
