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.
Lynne Tapper
About Lynne
Lynne is a credentialed coach with The International Coach Federation and specialises in working with autistic and ADHD clients. She recognises the wide variance in how people think, perceive and express themselves and works to promote understanding, appreciation and acceptance (including self-acceptance) of difference.
Lynne came to coaching having worked as a Speech and Language Therapist with adult clients. She is particularly interested in communication and how people communicate well with people who communicate differently to them, especially in family and work situations.
Lynne supports people to gain more understanding about how their brain works, recognise and develop strengths and find ways to mitigate challenges.
Lynne has been using coaching skills for many years in her Speech and Language Therapy work with adults. She trained as a coach in 2018 and since then has been working primarily as an independent coach with autistic and ADHD clients and parents of autistic and ADHD children.
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.
Nicole Etienne
MSc Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology
About Nicole
Nicole, an EMCC-accredited Senior Practitioner with over a decade of expertise, empowers professionals to thrive. Nicole specialises in supporting busy professionals who seek to maximize their potential and overcome obstacles. Her coaching extends to both neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals, working effectively in both 1:1 and group settings.
Trauma-informed and holistic in approach, her focus lies on fostering well-being, managing stress, navigating transitions, and building confidence. Drawing upon a diverse background encompassing teaching, care, administration, accounts, HR, sales, and marketing, Nicole brings a well-rounded perspective. For those already engaged in therapy, Nicole offers coaching that aligns with existing therapeutic goals.
Nicole guides individuals toward flourishing with a holistic, solutions-focused approach. Her calm, warm, and supportive presence, weaving evidence-based positive psychology and coaching practices into personalized sessions, helps clients tap into their strengths and navigate challenges with confidence. Nicole offers supervision to coaches.
Penny Heater
About Penny
‘Everyone working at their best’ has long been a mantra of Penny’s and is why she loves coaching. She believes wherever you began in life, coaching can help you to achieve your goals. Penny specialises in coaching for performance, leadership, recovery, resilience and personal development. Her aim is to create an environment to help people work at their absolute best and with real purpose.
Penny has over 4000 hours of 1-2-1 coaching over 15 years working with a wide diversity of clients including SME, entrepreneurs, executives, academics, OT’s & therapists, medical professionals, IT specialists, artists, creatives, offenders, those in mental health recovery and substance misuse.
Rachael Wallace-Lane
About Rachel
Rachael is passionate about helping others create the life they want.
Coming from a neurodivergent family, Rachael has personal experience and understanding of navigating society and the workplace.
Partnering with individuals, teams and businesses to maximise their personal and professional potential for over 20 years Rachael is an Accredited Coach Rachael using a strengths based, coach approach to uncover what’s most important to her clients, exploring the significance of their values and discovering how these can help support and drive ambition.
Rachael Ward
ILM Level 5 in Coaching and Mentoring
About Rachael
Rachael is an experienced Executive Coach who has been a Genius Within associate since 2016. Rachael’s coaching practise focuses on effective communication, well -being and personal effectiveness. There is often crossover in these areas when clients are feeling overwhelmed and are seeking a way of improving focus and productivity and rediscovering what they enjoy about their working life.
With a background in senior leadership in the voluntary sector and lived experience of neuro diversity, Rachael is passionate about supporting Genius Within clients to identify and use their strengths and develop a range of strategies and tools to take them forward in their future careers.
Rachel Birchmore
MBA
About Rachel
Rachel works with leaders, managers and their teams to become confident leaders, competent managers and be more effective communicators. She has a calm, friendly style and helps her clients to identify and build on their unique strengths and so thrive in the workplace.
She works extensively with architects, engineers and others in the property, design and construction sectors which is where she has spent her 30-year career leading teams prior to training as a coach in 2016.
She is a qualified business and workplace coach and PCC accredited with the International Coaching Federation.