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 & I believe that we were made to thrive.  To thrive, as individuals & communities, we need to learn to exercise profound courage. That needs us to come together – to build resilient communities of support and mutuality with the help of tools and practices that rehumanise us and unlock our thriving.  My gift lies 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.  Whatever our circumstances I believe that together, we can find courage to thrive.  The issues we face on a personal, family, community and global scale are immense and complex – our world desperately needs us to be thriving to work together to be the change we need.  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 a 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.

I joined Courage to Thrive as a director in early 2021, with a particular focus on facilitating and developing Courage to Thrive’s Step out of the Traffic workshops. My passion is to see individuals and communities  grow and change through acknowledging their beauty and potential and by developing self-belief, compassion and resilience. Step out of the Traffic is a powerful and creative way of supporting people to find their courage to make lasting positive changes in their lives. It is a huge privilege to be able to deliver these exciting workshops.

I trained as a teacher and spent 15 years working alongside students with additional needs making the curriculum accessible and supporting them to achieve their potential. I then moved into an advocacy role with adults as an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate – ensuring the voices, views and values of people who were often overlooked were heard in decisions being made about them.  I am a life coach with a diploma in life coaching with NLP.

I’ve lived in Poole for 20 years and am married with 2 grown-up sons. I believe we are all invited to the incredible journey to wholehearted living and I know I need deep connection with others and my Christian faith to journey well.

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.