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.
Emma Wee
About Emma
Emma champions the resilience and self-reliance that understanding one’s own neurodiversity can bring an individual, and has seen many clients find a new sense of purpose by being able to embrace fully who they are, rather than being defined by a label. Her own neurodiversity has allowed her to thrive on different spheres because of the way her brain works, not in spite of it.
She is also keen to support women who are peri and post menopausal in giving them strategies and a space to be heard at a time of both physical and mental upheaval.
When Emma is coaching at her best…..She is like a spaghetti sorting device; able to untangle the different strands of clients’ conditions , circumstances and personality traits to unknot problems and streamline their working process and emotional resilience.
Gilda Westermann
BSc in Psychology
About Gilda
Gilda has an intensive coaching background and has worked with Genius Within for many years. In her private practice, she supports clients with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and attention challenges to overcome their issues and unfold their talents. She brings together a wide range of coaching and mentoring skills, with mindfulness practice and experience.
Gilda has 15 years of coaching and training experience in private practice and 5 years private practice as a specialist for Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and ADHD. Understanding dyslexia and neurodiversity has long been her focus. Since joining Genius Within in 2012 she has worked with a variety of individuals from age 6 to retirement age.
Gilda is passionate about neurodiversity at work, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, Health and well-being, organisation and prioritising.
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.
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.
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.
