Gemma Drinkall
About Gemma
Gemma’s coaching begins with the principle of “Unconditional Positive Regard”. She knows that you are an amazing individual and tailors coaching to you; what you need and wish to move forward in your working life. Gemma empowers you to learn more about yourself, enabling you to develop strategies for time management, focus, organisation and more, so that you have the confidence and self-belief to thrive in your career.
Gemma North
PhD in Social Work, MA in Social Work, and MSc in Social Research Methods
About Gemma
Gemma takes a strength based and person-centred approach to coaching. With expertise in neurodiversity and emotional wellbeing Gemma draws upon evidence-informed approaches including trauma informed practice and theories of change.
With a sensitive and creative style, Gemma also bringing humour and lightness to coaching sessions. Clients may leave feeling calmer and more clear thinking about how to progress with their goals.
Gemma has a background in social work and academia. Previous roles include lecturer, researcher, social worker, and substance misuse practitioner.
Gudrun Stolzenburg
About Gudrun
Gudrun has around 10 years experience in coaching. She is passionate about helping clients finding their own unique ways to overcome challenges and achieve their full potential. She has worked with a diverse range of clients, both on an individual basis as well as in groups. She loves Clean Language because the deep respect it affords clients and for the amazing solutions they come up with when they are enabled to.
Gudrun’s calm approach to coaching and her sense of humour make it easy to work with her and relax into the sessions.
Gudrun has had bouts of depression and anxiety, including post-natal anxieties and has experience in how hard these periods are and how much energy it costs to work your way out of them
Gwen Tietze
About Gwen
Gwen is a coach rooted in the person-centred approach. She starts with where her clients are, adapting to their needs. She challenges and supports them to find creative solutions and build their resourcefulness, to achieve the change and growth they want.
Her work is neurodiversity-inclusive, trauma informed, anti-racist and LGBTQIA+ affirmative.
Her professional background is in the creative and cultural sector, third sector, and Higher Education. She is also a qualified integrative counsellor-coach and regularly works therapeutically with autistic clients and those with ADHD.
Gwen’s coaching approach draws on Egan’s Skilled Helper and Kline’s Thinking Environment. She is a particular fan of Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication. Gwen also coaches in German.
Helen Barnes
About Helen
Helen is a skilled and compassionate coach, coach supervisor and occupational therapist whose work is grounded in academic rigour and experience from working with a diverse range of clients. She has a deep curiosity and intuition about people and believes that a client’s narrative is the best way of getting to know them; where they are in the context of their lives and where they might be thinking about going.
Helen’s experience has been rich and varied working with all grades of staff across the European Commission in Brussels as part of their internal coaching programme, and more recently with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust on a project supporting adults with mental health conditions back into work. She continues to work with the NHS Leadership Academy as well as running her own coaching and therapy company.
Helen Jebb
ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching
About Helen
Helen is an experienced qualified coach supporting clients to see their potential and reach it. She has been enthusiastically working with neurodivergent clients in a wide range of employment settings with Genius Within since 2016.
She is passionate about professional development and personal achievement and has a real interest in difference and diversity. From a coaching perspective Helen is keen to develop ways of working which are client led and fit with their needs, focusing on strengths and using active reflective practice.
Clients describe the impact of coaching as “more capable, productive and happy than I was before” and having “made a massive impact on my life”!
Helen Johnson
PhD in the Social Psychological Process of Role Transition (Making Change) and Emotionally Intelligent Support and MSc in Public Policy
About Helen
Helen is an ICF credentialised coach to PCC level with 10 years coaching experience and an extensive background in coaching neurodiversity. She also has a Diploma in Integrated Energy Techniques (tapping and NLP) and offers ICF coach training for coaches, leaders, and change-makers.
Helen coaches by finding the hidden blocks to getting exactly where you want to be. She goes deep, but also focuses on making things lighter for you, creating more ease and enjoyment in what you are doing.
Helen has a wide range of knowledge and skills to bring to the table. Helen’s experience includes coaching and training executives, as well as working extensively with neurodivergent individuals to help them leverage their strengths while addressing their challenges.
Joe Ruddock
About Joe
Joe’s coaching starts with you, and understanding your unique strengths and challenges. From this basis, he works with you to create personalised strategies that empower you to thrive – personally and professionally.
Joe is an ILM accredited coach, specialising in working with neurodivergent clients – particularly Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia, to explore strategies and set goals which make a lasting difference to the individual’s life.
He also brings to sessions his background in sports psychology, teaching, and training to support clients in unlocking a powerful mindset of growth and change.
Joshua Okunlola
About Joshua
Joshua Okunlola is an accomplished Coach, with a wealth of expertise spanning over 15 years. Joshua is deeply committed to fostering the growth and empowerment of individuals across the neurodivergent spectrum. His extensive experience encompasses collaborative work with young people, community members, and school leaders.
As a passionate advocate for neurodiversity, Joshua leverages his background in psychology to create a supportive and inclusive coaching environment. Joshua Okunlola is dedicated to helping professionals unlock their full potential. His coaching approach emphasizes building confidence, resilience, and essential life skills, equipping neurodivergent individuals to thrive in today’s dynamic world.
Joshua Okunlola is a Qualified Coach (ILM) with a strong foundation in Transactional Analysis, a field of study he has immersed himself in for the past 8 years. This deep understanding significantly informs his coaching practice, allowing him to tailor his approach to the unique needs of his clients. Additionally, as a proud member of the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA), Joshua upholds the highest standards of professionalism and ethics in his coaching journey, ensuring a supportive and transformative experience for each individual he works with.
Jules Sander
About Jules
Jules brings 25 years expertise in the creative industries where she was Head of Production and chaired industry body EVCOM. Her work has ranged from coaching and mentoring newcomers to the industry to guiding senior leaders of global corporations.
Jules has familial experience of autism and is dyspraxic, a discovery which led her to re-qualify in psychotherapy, counselling and coaching. She’s currently running an academic study focused on autistic individuals’ experiences of workplace counselling and coaching, enriching her understanding and practice. Her approach integrates techniques encompassing the whole person and the methods that will work best for them.
Katie Wilde
MSc in Occupational Psychology and ILM Level 5 Coaching and Mentoring (on going)
About Katie
Katie has over a decade of experience supporting Neurodiverse adults across a variety of sectors, job roles, and levels of business. Coming from a background in Psychology, Katie specialises in supporting Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD, and Autism and works creatively with her clients using a variety of resources, strategies, and skills.
She uses a strength-based approach and treats her clients as equals helping them to achieve what working at their best feels like. She coaches in the way the client needs, adapting where she needs to for the client. She has a bespoke approach based on the needs of the individual and believes with the right coaching that each client has the key inside to unlocking their true potential.
Katie’s soothing, welcoming, and compassionate approach as well as her sense of humour make her coaching sessions relaxed and enjoyable for her clients.
Kelly Bristow
MSc in Occupational Psychology
About Kelly
Kelly is a Chartered Coaching Psychologist with a strong background in Psychology and evidence-based practice, combined with lived experience of neurodivergence.
Kelly adopts a person-centred, flexible approach, informed by strengths-based Positive Psychology to co-create with her clients.
Kelly’s approach is described as providing a safe, non-judgmental space to enable reflection, and empower individuals to make changes they wish to make in their lives. She is authentic, affirming, and enables her clients to better understand themselves, and to unpick the barriers they experience.
Ken Smith
MEd in Learning and Development
About Ken
Ken has been working as a coach for well over twenty years. During this time he set up and ran a pioneering national coaches’ network for 5 years, for clients from a wide range of Government organisations.
Over many years of working as a coach, Ken has seen his clients take two things from their coaching with him. The first one is clarity on the practical actions to take in order to achieve their desired changes. The second is a refreshed and re-energised sense of what what’s important to them in their work.
Together this means they can be more effective in the workplace and still true to themselves. Ken’s clients have told him that they feel “seen and heard” when working with him, while experiencing a helpful level of challenge.
Kevin French
About Kevin
Kevin supports individuals in gaining a deeper understanding of themselves, empowering them to thrive in both their professional and personal lives. He believes in helping people reconnect with their authentic selves rather than reinventing who they are. Through a combination of powerful insights and practical strategies, Kevin enables clients to unmask their strengths and unlock their potential.
Linda Curran
About Linda
Linda’s background is in the social care sector, working to empower and advocate for and alongside neurodiverse adults. During her career she has mentored social work students, and coached and supervised teams these experiences developed her coaching skills.
Her passion lies in empowering people to reach their full potential by examining their strengths with them and enabling them to develop practice and use strategies in the workplace. She uses various coaching methods to connect with clients in a positive way.
Lynda Freeman
About Lynda
Lynda is an ILM5 certified coach, mentor, and facilitator and has been an associate coach with Genius Within for over 10 years. During that time, she has worked with hundreds of neurodivergent individuals, helping them to identify their strengths and understand their challenges. Lynda has helped them to create long lasting strategies to support them through their constantly changing, fast paced environments they find themselves in.
Lynda began her working life in finance. Her love for coaching came whilst working in Learning and Development and as a performance coach for First Direct. Coaching in a women’s open prison and in women’s refuges took her in a very different direction but gave her an alternative lens to understanding the complexities and nuances of life.
Malcolm Tydie
ILM Level 5 Diploma in Coaching & Mentoring in Management
About Malcolm
Malcolm enjoys the challenge and satisfaction of personal development through structured coaching and mentoring programmes. This focused approach allows his clients to develop their skills in specific areas. As a preference, he uses experiential learning techniques to maximum effect and believes that all development programmes must be quantified through evaluation of the return on investment.
Marguerite Farmer
MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology
About Marguerite
Marguerite is an experienced coach who enjoys helping people uncover and make best use of their strengths and talents to build effective strategies and increase self-confidence. Previously in school senior leadership, she now coaches leaders across a variety of industries.
Marguerite has a flexible approach to her coaching, adapting how she works to her clients’ preferred ways of thinking. If they think best whilst moving around, drawing on large sheets of paper or jotting ideas on post-its; then that can happen.
Marguerite’s clients say that she is calm, friendly and creates an environment where thinking time and reflection come naturally.
Martina Foreman
About Martina
Martina finds coaching incredibly rewarding. Seeing her clients unlock their potential and find new ways of doing things to reduce stress and improve productivity is her goal. With the use of targeted exercises and coaching techniques she guides and facilitates change. Her knowledge and experience as well as her sense of humour make her easy to work with. As a freelance associate coach for neurodiverse adults in the workplace, as well as working with young offenders in prison, the role Martina plays in the transformation and well-being of her clients is her passion.
In her years of coaching Martina has delivered over 2000 hours of 1-2-1 coaching to those who are neurodivergent. She came to Genius Within with a broad range of skills from a background in customer services, conferencing, and also some time as a wellness therapist.
Miranda Pretorius
M.A. in Clinical Psychology
About Miranda
Miranda has been a Clinical Psychologist for the last 30 years. She can deal with all mental health issues as part of her qualification. This includes Major Depression, Bipolar Mood Disorder and Anxiety Disorder. She is particularly interested in helping people with addictions (alcohol and other substances). She also enjoys doing marital therapy as well as family therapy. Her approach is solution-focused, eclectic, and grounded in psychological science.
Miranda also started working for Genius Within as a Life Coach in January this year, dealing with clients who experience workplace difficulties due to ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, and other disorders under the Neurodiverse umbrella. She previously worked in the EAP field and is au fait with dealing with clients and managers in the workplace. She aims to assist clients to function optimally in the workplace and in general, everyday life.