Rukshana Horwood
BA (Hons) in Psychology
About Rukshana
With a background in Psychology (B.A Hons), Rukshana has a passion for supporting individuals, teams and organisations to understand and build awareness around their own or colleagues neurodiversity.
Rukshana is fortunate enough to work with neurodivergent individuals to support them, help managers and individuals to understand each other better through co-coaching as well as raise awareness across organisations and diverse industries spanning both the private and public sectors. Rukshana is extremely fortunate to work on some projects for CJS, our Criminal Justice System, supporting ex-custodial clients who are neurodivergent.
Sarah Walsh
MSc in Psychology
About Sarah
Sarah thrives on helping others to overcome problems so they can succeed, particularly neurodivergent individuals and those with chronic health issues, as she has personal experience in both these areas. She decided to train as a coach after having coaching herself, which helped her to achieve things she’d thought were impossible. Her coaching style is firmly embedded in an evidence-based approach (she gives a serious side-eye to “positive vibes only” messages) as well as a lot of humour.
Sarah has a rich and varied career history, including work across the Tech, Healthcare, and Education sectors. Having had a “later in life” diagnosis of ADHD herself, she is
particularly keen to support recently diagnosed adults and those exploring the possibility of being neurodivergent.
Sarah Young
About Sarah
Sarah is passionate about developing people to be the best they can be. She is a highly experienced and enthusiastic mentor, coach, facilitator and workplace needs assessor. With extensive experience of working with neurominorities, and in the fields of mental health and social isolation. Sarah has a particular interest in supporting and enabling those most vulnerable to make the most of their abilities by understanding their unique qualities and strengths. She is highly adaptable and experienced in working in a variety of environments and applying various styles to best meet the needs of my clients. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach for Sarah.
Sean Manning
About Sean
Sean coaches from lived experience. He has learned to live with stress, anxiety, depression, and moderate ADD since he was in high school.
He had a haemorrhagic stroke (Acquired Brain Injury) at 22 while getting his Masters in Accounting at Boston College. He finished his Masters while learning to walk and use his left arm again. Sean went on to work at PwC for a year as an Accountant, leaving to have his seventh brain surgery in 2022.
And now, he coaches using all of that lived experience, hoping to connect on a personal level with his Genius Within clients.
Sophie Doel
About Sophie
Sophie has been working at a coaching for genius within since 2014, working with the client to explore their neuro-diverse traits and support the client in understanding their strengths in the work place.
Sophie takes a whole person approach and blends from her experience in Coaching as well as Counselling to ensure the client is supported and the approach fits for the individual. In a post-pandemic workplace she will assist in helping the client to improve their self-awareness, personal confidence to reach their full potential.
Stephanie Benfield
About Stephanie
Stephanie is an ICF-accredited PCC coach with her neurodivergence of autism and dyspraxia. She specialises in supporting introverts, creatives, neurodivergent and quietly ambitious individuals to achieve their goals, increase confidence, manage stress and anxiety and gain clarity to move forward.
Stephanie’s coaching style is holistic, delving deeper to support understanding and awareness. It is also practical and focused, helping you get from here to where you want to be most effectively. As well as goal setting and planning, she will implement the accountability methods that really motivate!
Steve Gardner
MA in Education
About Steve
Steve’s approach to coaching is client-focused i.e., start where the client is; identify needs and offer suitable strategies. It gives him a buzz when he sees people making strides to tackle their issues. He encourages a positive approach, recognising you can’t control others, but you can control your own responses to situations.
Steve has over 6 years coaching experience with Genius Within, and over 20 years senior management experience at 3 different colleges, so he brings extensive experience of working with people at all levels of an organisation. He also has significant teaching experience so enjoys working with groups.
Stuart Hasell
About Stuart
Stuart’s passion is to help and support neurodivergent people and overcome barriers, challenges and sometimes stigma, both personally and professionally. It’s a question of unlocking the potential, find the right application, focus on what the person is good at and support them to excel.
His full-time job is in the Railway sector, where he advocates for the neurodivergent community, champions diversity and inclusion, and advocates for mental health.
He undertakes coaching support with clients from multiple sectors, helping them to achieve higher performance in the workplace.
His previous career spanned 30 years in management consultancy and supply chain where he developed broad and deep expertise in many sector-specific, corporate, operational and performance management disciplines.
Sue Sharp
ILM Level 5 Workplace Coach and Mentor
About Sue
With over 10 years’ coaching for Genius Within, Sue happily coaches any neurominority client, and her core experience is working with clients who have dyslexia, stress and anxiety. Sue also has strong experience in management development and executive coaching within businesses, and life coaching in her private practice.
Sue’s coaching approach is strengths based and person centred, believing that we all have unique talents to share. Her coaching is a mix of helping clients to discover solutions that are bespoke and perfect for them, and sharing ideas, models and concepts that may be of value to her clients.
Theresa Quinn
MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology
About Theresa
Theresa is a passionate coach who partners with coaching clients so they can use their strengths to establish a flourishing work and home life.
Theresa has had a varied background in education and in running her own business and has experienced many of the highs and lows that life can bring. Being able to draw on her strengths and reframe her thinking has enabled her to thrive during difficult circumstances. Now, being able to bring that experience to coach others to do the same, is what she loves to do.
Theresa particularly enjoys bringing the fun into coaching, especially using nature and Lego. After all, it’s easier to thrive and flourish when we enjoy what we do and are having fun.
Toby Higson
About Toby
Toby’s approach to coaching is centred on positive psychology and the belief that you have, within you, a huge potential to make changes. Toby is an ICF accredited coach who has worked for over 10 years helping his clients communicate more effectively at work.
He is passionate about working with clients in helping them unblock and move forward. He coaches and writes extensively on what it means to be professional in today’s working environment and in helping people who feel anxious or blocked or different to find ways to move forward in the workplace.
Tracy Prentice
Master's in Health Information Management and Bachelor's Degree in Psychology
About Tracy
Tracy is committed to empowering individuals to be their very best selves. From a place of honesty, openness and connection, Tracy gives individuals the space to be truly seen, heard and understood. This supports individuals to feel more confident, appreciate their value and grow from challenges.
Vic Brookes
About Vic
Vic Brookes is a qualified counsellor and coach and is currently working on a qualitative post-graduate thesis exploring how ADHD adults experience engagement with professional support.
Vic took a break from work when their daughter was born, and works part-time around her in order to home-educate. Vic has learned a lot about demand avoidance and working with it rather than against it, situational mutism, speech and language differences such as difficulty processing abstract questions (blank levels 3 and 4), gestalt language processing, monotropic thinking, and sensory differences – including interoception. They also have an interest in poly-vagal theory and find that it really helps people understand themselves better.
Wes Wade: USA Only
PhD in Candidate, ELPHD, Counseling & Counselor Education, MA in Career Counseling and MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
About Wes
Wesley has a background in business, higher education, mental health, and substance use work. While working as a career coach at a land grant university in the U.S., Wesley co-created and led a career-focused program for autistic students, led 3 statewide career summits for autistic students, and served on planning committees for state-government programs offering paid internships for autistic college students. Wesley is a trained coach, a licensed clinical mental health counselor, a licensed clinical addictions specialist, and a Ph.D. candidate at NC State University in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development with a concentration in Counseling and Counselor Education.
Zoe Farmer
About Zoe
Zoe joined Genius Within as a career coach and case manager in our employability team in 2018 after working in administration since leaving school. She is currently studying for her degree in psychology and her level 5 professional workplace coaching.
Zoe has lived experience of being unemployed, of masking, of having to pretend she was someone she wasn’t. She understands at a personal level the experience of marginalisation and exclusion. In her own journey, as a single mother in a mixed-race family, she has learned to share with her clients her understanding of how we get misunderstood and how to walk the talk.