About

Courage to Thrive exists to help unlock thriving with individuals, teams and communities, particularly where those individuals & communities face barriers to their thriving.  We do that by opening up spaces where transformation can happen – spaces for both personal and systemic transformation.  We are a not-for-profit Community Interest Company with a particular focus on the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) conurbation in Dorset (UK).

Our work seeks to unlock thriving by:

Investing in individuals who face barriers to their thriving to build confidence, self-compassion, self-worth, proactivity, healthy communication, wellbeing & connection.  We do this through our community workshops: Step out of the Traffic.

Resourcing & equipping leaders who serve those on the margins to be their best selves in their professional settings in line with their own values & vision.  We do this through one-to-one coaching, coaching circles, workshops, team facilitation & our resource to develop a reflective response to COVID: Calling out Courage, a Journey beyond COVID. 

Questioning & challenging systemic injustices which hurt those already marginalised in society.  We do this through the hosting of a Poverty Truth Commission for the BCP conurbation.

Take a tour of our website to explore some of the things we offer and what people have said about us.  We’d love to hear from you if you’d like to find out more & explore possibilities for partnership.

As the Founder and Director of Courage to Thrive I believe passionately in the value, worth and potential of each individual.  And that we were made to thrive.  To thrive, as individuals & communities, we need to learn to exercise profound courage and to challenge and rehumanise systems that often work against those they seek to help. That needs us to come together.  To build resilient communities of support and mutuality with the help of tools and practices that help unlock our thriving.  My gifts lie in opening up spaces where our status quo can be challenged & disrupted, enabling the possibility of profound transformation.

I know life to be beautiful and joyful, and at times deeply cruel and challenging.  I know too that we have not all been dealt the same cards.  Whatever our circumstances I believe that together, we need to find courage in order to thrive.  The issues we face on a personal, family, community and global scale are immense and complex – our world desperately needs us to work together to be the change we need, to call out courage in ourselves, our communities and our workplaces.

With over 25 years of experience in the voluntary and community sector, a Social Sciences Masters degree from Edinburgh University and experience of the everyday joys and challenges of family life, Courage to Thrive is born out of the rich compost of ‘joining the dots’ and making connections.  I have a holistic approach to life with an open, vibrant Christian spirituality which underpins my belief in how brilliant people are.  I hold a Diploma in Performance Coaching with NLP, am a personal development trainer and Art of Hosting Facilitator with experience of Transactional Analysis, the Thinking Environment and Theory U.  My deeply humbling experience as a facilitator on BCP’s Poverty Truth Commissions has further grown my conviction that there are better ways to be and work if we truly want to make thriving for all a reality.

I joined as a Director of Courage to Thrive in 2024. Born in Bournemouth I have lived in the BCP area my entire life. I worked in public libraries for 27 years and subsequently served as a local councillor for 4 years. I was a single parent for 15 years and know the struggles of living on the breadline. I have also faced being made homeless (twice). I have family members who are neurodiverse and understand the difficulties of burn-out, depression and anxiety personally. Life is full of difficulties but has many joyous times too.

Along the way I have volunteered in a church-based youth group; a community organisation ‘Bridging Communities’, Harbour Ambition (a Community Benefit Society Community Land Trust) and a local independent political organisation. I am passionate about supporting our local communities to thrive whether in a paid or voluntary capacity. In these times, after years of austerity (as finance to support vital local services is decreasing), individuals and families are ever more dependent on community organisations to offer a helping hand to enable them to build resilience in order to thrive and achieve their full potential in life and re/discover joy.

I see my role within Courage to Thrive as that of a ‘critical friend’ and supporter, bringing my wealth of lived experience and knowledge of how challenging life can be. I am excited by the work of the local Poverty Truth Commissions, which vitally ensure that the wisdom of those who struggle against poverty is heard and drawn upon by decision makers in organisations that deliver services that impact everybody. I believe we shouldn’t just be surviving life but thriving both individually and in our communities, and I love that Courage to Thrive seeks or creates opportunities to help make that happen.

I came on board as a Director of Courage to Thrive in early 2021, with a particular interest in the development of a Poverty Truth Commission for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, which is taking place under Courage to Thrive’s beautiful multi-coloured umbrella.

I am a systemic psychotherapist, now working in independent practice, after many years of working in the NHS in children’s mental health services. Every family I work with teaches me something about resilience and courage, and reminds me of the importance of those of us who work in the so called ‘helping professions’ continuing to call out that resilience, and resist the temptation to create and maintain cultures of dependency upon services provided. I believe in the power of people coming together in communities to bring about change, and overcome structures of oppression, and it is this that is motivating me to work with the Poverty Truth Commission.

I am registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy as a systemic therapist and supervisor, and a member of the Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice, and in that way I am grounded and held in the work, but also I am here as a human being, and hope I bring my whole self, with all my vulnerability and daily need to learn.