Abigail Hunkin
MSc in Occupational Psychology
About Abigail
Abbie is a Chartered Coaching Psychologist and an EMCC accredited Senior Practitioner. With twenty years of corporate experience gained across the UK, Australia and the Middle East, Abbie combines an understanding of the pressures and challenges of a broad range of work environments with a deep psychological understanding.
Abbie looks to take a strengths-based, solution-focused approach in her coaching, however she may look to uncover unhelpful cognitive patterns and emotional obstacles as led by the client. Abbie is trained in a range of coaching methodologies and can flex her approach to suit the changing needs of the client, always with compassion and sensitivity. Abbie’s coaching has been described as a ‘Positive and empowering experience’.
Adam Gill
About Adam
Adam is an experienced ILM Level 7 Executive Coach skilled at supporting clients in understanding and building resilient skills around their neurodivergent self. With over 15 years of experience in the corporate, charity and public sectors, Adam has first-hand experience of the pressures and challenges facing ambitious people.
Adam works with diagnosed or self-identified neurodivergent executives, leaders, entrepreneurs. He helps people to discover clarity around the impact of neurodivergence, their purpose in life, and walk alongside them as Coach to move forward effectively. Through greater clarity comes a clearer path. Coaching with Adam has been described by his clients as safe, non-judgmental, clear, and robust.
Aileen Carson
MBA
About Aileen
Aileen helps people identify their strengths, ambitions, and values so they can become clear on their goals and aspirations and pursue these with confidence. She helps people create strategies so they can make best use of their strengths to enable them to thrive in the workplace and progress with their careers.
Prior to becoming a coach, Aileen worked in the public, private and third sectors from entry-level roles to senior management. Her experience has given her a good understanding of the stresses of each level and the importance of finding a balance in all areas of life.
Anna Whitehead
MA Honours in Psychology
About Anna
Anna is keen to use her coaching skills to help people improve their mental wellbeing and to create more inclusive communities for neurodivergent individuals.
Clients have described Anna’s coaching as calm, non-judgemental and honest. Her warmth and empathy enable her to quickly build relationships of trust. Anna designs with clients how they will work together. She creates a safe space for whatever arises during coaching sessions. Coaching exercises can help clients explore stress, anxiety, overwhelm, burnout, self-criticism and inner dialogues. Coaching approaches which resonate most for Anna focus on the whole person, evoking awareness and being in the moment.
Bansri Dodhia
About Bansri
Bansri is passionate about helping people to bring their unique selves forward in all their interactions. She works in partnership with clients to discover their hidden strengths and talents and maximise these to achieve their full potential. Bansri helps clients to dig deeper to work on breaking down barriers that are often stopping them from taking action.
Her background is in Learning and Development, as well as being an ICF Coach. She helps individuals develop or improve their communication and have increased self-awareness and self-confidence with (or without) their neurodivergent traits. Bansri has worked across Professional Services, the NHS, and the Public Sector.
Beth Hughes
ILM level 7 in Executive Coaching
About Beth
Beth has been working in private practice since 2016, coaching people in teams and leaders and specialising in neurodiversity. Before this, Beth was a careers coach working with adults and young people.
Beth passionately believes that everyone can thrive in work and life and that we just need to work out the conditions we need for that to happen. Beth uses a range of techniques focusing on individual strengths to create the conditions for sustained change. Beth is an accredited coach and group facilitator of over 20 years helping navigate change in careers and work-based and professional development coaching.
Gaining a recent diagnosis in later life and having a neurodiverse family has given Beth a deeper understanding of the challenges in the workplace and society for those who think and experience the world differently.
Bex Harper
PhD in Modern Languages and Cultures, MA in Research German and BA in German and Portuguese
About Bex
Bex helps neurodivergents and chronically ill people to conquer stress, burn out, overwhelm and disorganisation so that they can get back to being in control of their lives. Harnessing the power of nature, Bex nurtures clients back to thriving!
Bex supports those with neurodiversity, chronic fatigue and chronic pain to have a better quality of life. They are also LGBTQIA+ and coach people who struggles with their identity are affecting their health, energy levels and zest for life!
Briony Craig
About Briony
Briony is a qualified solution focused coach who specialises in using a strengths-based approach, with over 4 years coaching experience. She enjoys working in partnership with people, enabling them to gain clarity on their unique strengths, overcome challenges, explore the solutions that work best for them and to successfully reach their desired future way forward.
Caroline Cooper
BSc in Psychology and MSc in Nutrition
About Caroline
Caroline is an experienced, qualified coach with a Diploma in Transformational coaching and is accredited with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. She is a member of the British Psychological Society’s Coaching Division and a Mental Health First Aider.
Prior to becoming a coach, Caroline held leadership roles in business including Managing Director, where she led senior teams, managed operations and business development, and directed organisational change.
Caroline supports clients in understanding and celebrating their neurodivergent ways of being in the world, in connecting with their purpose and gaining clarity around their strengths and challenges. She aims to create a safe and empathetic coaching relationship with her clients, guiding them to explore their ways of being in the world, and seeing themselves with greater clarity and compassion. It is from this new vantage point that change is possible. Caroline prides herself on being able to meet clients where they are, helping them feel truly seen and fully accepted for all that they are.
Caroline Heard
CPsychol
About Caroline
Caroline has worked as an associate coach for Genius Within since 2013, which is before discovering the extent of neurodivergence in her own family. Funnily enough she was always drawn to the idea of unusual and original minds!
Caroline is a Chartered Psychologist with over 25 years’ experience working in a range of private, public and third sector organisations. Over the years she has coached at all levels and different stages of careers. She also currently lectures on the Industrial and Work Psychology MSc programme at the University of Hertfordshire.
Caroline is passionate about supporting neurodifferences in the workplace and the higher education sector. She uses a strengths-based approach in all her coaching to help clients identify their and achieve their full potential. When she is coaching at her best, she is using active listening to get to the heart of what they want. Caroline thrives on facilitating her clients to see their clear way forward.
Christoffer DeGraal
About Christoffer
Christoffer has built his career in helping people from all walks of life discover, understand and implement best practice changes. He is a coach, facilitator and musician with over 20 years experience in both personal development and group coaching, with qualifications in relational dynamics coaching.
Christoffer has experience in banking, professional services, defence, education, NHS and homelessness. Christoffer has lived experience of neurodivergence, managing long covid and supporting those seeking to destigmatise mental health. Christoffer has long been a proponent of the social model of disability, from his days creating art projects as a form of inclusive activism, touring Europe and South America. Christoffer uses creative tools to facilitate coaching conversations, as well as technology.
Christoffer believes we can all work at our best, but it sometimes requires a mind-set shift and strategies that are a close match with how we think. He also believes we need to be able to navigate and discuss the often unspoken limiting rules, behaviours and environment we may face in today’s workplace. When Christoffer is coaching at his best, he is like a terrier, friendly but rigorous about making sure people know what they are doing and why they are doing it, checking and tweaking to make sure that outcomes are making a difference.
Claire Jackson
About Claire
Claire discovered a lot about herself on the journey she took with her neurodivergent son and received her own dyslexia diagnosis later in life. She has learned to truly value and play to her strengths and, as such, is passionate about supporting neurodifferences in the workplace.
Claire values whole-person and strengths-based coaching approaches to help her clients achieve their full potential. She facilitates space for her clients to reflect, discovers new perspectives, develops strategies, builds confidence and create new opportunities. Claire has a calm, empathetic, and reflective coaching style and uses various coaching tools that complement her clients’ learning styles and development needs.
Prior to setting up her private coaching practice, Claire gained extensive experience in leadership and management roles within large and complex organisations, where coaching became core to her leadership style.
Clare Broadhurst
MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and in Coaching Psychology
About Clare
Clare is an EMCC Accredited Coach. Clare uses her knowledge from her MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology to help individuals, teams and organisations flourish.
She has a warm and flexible approach to her coaching and helps her clients uncover their strengths to build effective strategies to flourish and thrive at work and at home.
Clare has over 25 years of working in the education sector as a teacher and a senior leader. During this time Clare coached a wide variety of individuals and supported organisations to develop a coaching culture.
Clients describe Clare as a compassionate and kind coach who creates a safe space for them to think and reflect.
Claudine Charles
MSc in Human Resources Development
About Claudine
Claudine is an accredited executive coach, who is passionate about supporting people to operate at their best, and enjoys partnering with her clients to stimulate those “eureka moments,” where they reflect, generate insight, and are mobilised into action with enthusiasm.
Claudine thrives on creating a safe space for clients to be comfortable and transparent, where they can work through any challenges, grasp their attention, or capitalise on a change or opportunity. She strongly believes that people are “response-able”, whole, and creative, so she regularly partners with clients to support them in leveraging their strengths, unraveling any limiting beliefs, as well as “holding up” and simplifying their options, resources, and possibilities. Claudine uses a range of coaching styles and methodologies with clients based on their needs, goals, and preferences.
As a result, clients find her warm, authentic, supportive, encouraging, open, frank, and highly skilled in her area of expertise.
David Rendle
Level 7 Diploma in Executive Coaching and Mentoring
About David
David is an Association for Coaching accredited executive coach and a qualified coach supervisor. He had a long career in secondary teaching and subsequently in teacher training and school improvement.
David has coached with Genius Within for six years. He has his own coaching business and has coached teachers and other professionals, and he delivers academic coaching to younger students.
David has had a long experience of supporting neurodivergent students through his teaching and he has enhanced these skills and awareness through his coach training and subsequent CPD.
Ermine Benjamin
About Ermine
Ermine is also a teacher and she has been teaching dyslexic children for many years. When she is working with them, she uses her active listening skills to really hear what they are saying and adjust her teaching style according to their learning styles. Ermine also worked with individuals from the health and finance sector as well as education.
What Ermine likes about coaching is supporting people to move towards their goals, seeing those special moments when people get an insight that helps them to move forward in their journey and giving people the opportunity to set their own agendas. But most importantly, it’s the forward focus where clients are not dwelling on the past where things have gone wrong, they focus on their strengths to move forward.
When Ermine is coaching at her best she gives her clients her undivided attention, she is an active listener, asks questions that will encourage them to look more deeply at the issues they are discussing, feedbacks on what she has heard so she is sure of her understanding and they are reassured that they are being heard.
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.
Gizem Gokcimen
BSc, MSc, MBPsS
About Gizem
Gizem joined Genius Within in 2019 as a coach in our employability team. She has a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and is completing her ILM Level 7 in Professional Workplace Coaching, as well as training to be a Chartered Coaching Psychologist. Gizem has worked with a wide range of clients from those looking for work right up to senior Exec Directors and Clinical Leads. She has experience of various industries including healthcare, finance, sales, consulting, pharma, technology, manufacturing, academia, marketing and more.
As an ADHDer herself with a late diagnosis, Gizem has really found coaching beneficial personally for understanding herself, for learning about when she works at her best and understanding herself more.
When Gizem is coaching at her best she is an active listener, she loves thinking on the spot and responding to her clients in the moment. She really enjoys watching her clients thrive, progress and taking action on their goals.
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”!