Hello!
Drawing on a decade of supporting individuals and businesses with neurodiversity and nervous system regulation, executive leadership, strategic diversity & inclusion consulting, coaching, yoga and lived experience of ADHD in a neurodiverse family, I help people move from confusion and overwhelm to clarity, confidence and sustainable change.
Together, we’ll develop the understanding, tools and confidence to make decisions that are intentional, more sustainable, and feel more like you/your organisation and where you want to be.
Neurodiversity
In December 2022, at the age of 34, I received my ADHD-Combined diagnosis.
Despite working in neurodiversity, having autistic siblings, ADHD family members, coaching autistic/ADHD adults every day for four years, teaching organisations about cognitive profiles, relating to my clients but never wondering why, I was totally blind to the fact that I was neurodivergent myself.
I don't think I'd know I had ADHD even now if I hadn't had my daughter, if the lack of sleep and hormones hadn't wreaked havoc with my coping mechanisms, if the ability to meet my regulation needs I didn't know I had weren't taken away from me, and if a whole new way of life wasn't created that my brain wasn't prepared for.
Systems Change
When you realise something isn’t quite working, that you might be neurodivergent, or when things aren't feeling the way you planned, or you just have a knowing that you could be happier, the first year(s) hits hard. You can’t help but re-write your past, present and what the future will look like.
I've had to practise what I preach to others and learnt about my own cognitive profile, nervous system and needs. I know and lean into working with my strengths rather than staying too long with the challenges.
As a family and in our marriage, we have new structures, communication and ways of doing things that work with and for my ADHD brain.
These are all system changes that take a while to figure out, but with someone to guide you, I am living proof that life won't always feel this hard!
I've been coaching, teaching yoga, supporting anxiety and nervous system regulation for over ten years, while working in global senior leadership positions across Consulting, Learning & Development, Inclusion & Culture, Product & Technology.
Despite a low-level underlying anxiety my whole life, I held it all together.
Anxiety
Until 2016, when I was offered a more senior role than I had applied for in a totally new industry (PR Agency), I started having secret panic attacks in the bathroom. I was in a job that didn’t fit my skills, morals, my anything, and I thought I was covering it up and it would all get better in time. Until there was a meeting with my manager and HR, who told me I had a month to turn things around.
In that meeting, I dug deep to find some vulnerability and shared the level of anxiety and panic attacks I was having, and they offered me gardening leave. The company that still to this day wins “Best Place to Work” and”Workplace Wellbeing| awards gave me zero support, no listening and left me without income.
I now needed to sort my health out but didn’t want to take medication, so I turned to yoga. It was the one thing I practiced everyday that I can say now ‘saved me.’
I’m never happy just acquiring new knowledge and skills for myself; I always have to go one step further to share it. I packed my bags and left for a month in India, Rishikesh, to complete my yoga teacher training. And I did my coaching qualification so that I could support others in a way that I needed support but didn’t have.
Postnatal-Transition
My life turned around and I was the happiest I’ve ever been, coaching autistic technology consultants full-time, setting up a global coaching team, and launching a global million-euro neurodiversity inclusion consultancy for businesses.
And then the postnatal period after having my daughter in 2021 floored me once again.
The traumatic birth, sleepless nights, endless crying (thank you, Colic!), routine repetition, lack of brain stimulation, hyperfocus on her needs and lack of time to regulate my own, broke me in a way I’d never experienced.
The fog lifted after sleep training, and I began to notice …
Waking up at 2am, and my head physically sinking into my pillow with sheer overwhelm at the fast pace and number of thoughts I was having as soon as I opened my eyes. I looked over at my husband, "there’’s no way he wakes up with this going on in his brain!"
My husband coming home from work and making the kitchen spotless in ten-minutes. I cried so hard because I'd been "cleaning the kitchen all day and it never looked this clean," why?
Seeing other people packing their baby bags without a list, no stress, no overwhelm, no dashing around from room-to-room, no worries they might forget something or intrusive thoughts about what will happen if I do.
It was the following year that I realised why life seemed so much harder for me during this life transition. Why the ‘easy’ things were impossible. Why was the everydayness grinding me down?
There’s no cookie-cutter strategy to support a person or an organisation in a way that results in real sustainable transformation.
Every experience and its impact, every profile and setup and every need that’s gone unmet has a story behind it.
It deserves a thorough understanding before launching into big ideas and solutions (trust me, I always have lots of them!).
Listening to Understand
I know that being truly heard and understood can change everything.
Our lives and our businesses need a holistic approach to understanding what’s really going on, everything is interconnected.
Where you feel comfortable to, we talk about your background, your motivators, your ambitions, your challenges and your strengths - often, the people I work with need the time, space and curious questioning to finally understand this about themselves.
Experiments to
Find What Works
We don’t want or need to make life harder than it already is or make your goals feel even further out of reach. But what we do need is to figure out what works and what doesn’t work for you.
Through small experiments, honest conversations, and practical tools, we learn what genuinely works for your mind, your body, your relationships, your preferences, your communication style and the realities of your own everyday life.
Trust & Safety to
Lead Your Life
Fundamental to leading your own life, leaning into your own power and using your strengths, is learning to trust and find safety in yourself, your needs and your cognitive profile.
Only then can you confidently make decisions, believe you can reach your goals, advocate and take care of yourself in the way your body & mind deserve, so you can put your time and energy to better use.
Sustainability to
Manage Curveballs
Life is never as consistent as we’d like it to be. And sometimes, it’s us that change - the ‘me’ we used to know, suddenly doesn’t make sense.
Everything we do in our coaching sessions or consulting is working towards being able to keep ourselves grounded in these moments of flux, and navigate change calmly.