About
rising minds coaching
✳︎
rising minds coaching
✳︎
rising minds coaching
✳︎
rising minds coaching ✳︎ rising minds coaching ✳︎ rising minds coaching ✳︎
I’m a teacher, a playwright and theatre director, a parent, a mindfulness practitioner and a positive psychology coach who has spent more than 25 years working alongside young people in schools and communities.
I’ve been in the rooms where teenagers feel stuck, misunderstood or written off - and I’ve watched them discover they’re capable of far more than they or anyone else believed.
That lived experience is what makes Rising Minds different.
I've spent 25 years working with young people in some of the most challenging environments in Hull. What I've learned in that time has shaped everything about how Rising Minds Coaching works and why it gets results.
I’m not just a coach
What 25 years looks like
I started my career as a drama teacher in one of Hull’s most deprived areas - one of the most challenging school environments in the city.
Over 14 years, I learned something that has underpinned everything since: when young people are truly seen, believed in and given the right tools - they don't just cope, they transform.
I watched students who had been written off discover purpose, belonging and a belief in themselves that changed the trajectory of their lives.
I raised £150,000 and took 60 teenagers to Australia - students who had never left Hull, some who had never imagined a future beyond their postcode. The ripple effect of that experience touched not just those students but their teachers, their families, the entire school.
One of those students became a professional wrestler. He told me years later: "If you hadn't believed in me the way you did, I wouldn't have pursued my dream."
That moment confirmed what I’d always known: young people rise when someone believes in them and gives them the tools to believe in themselves.
I've spent every year since proving it.
From teacher to coach
After leaving teaching, I trained as a licensed mindfulness teacher and began taking that work into schools. I quickly realised I needed to go deeper - to understand the psychology and neuroscience behind what I was seeing with young people.
So I embarked on a two and half year journey to gain my Masters in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. One of the best decisions of my career.
It gave me the academic framework to understand what I'd been doing instinctively for years and the tools to do it with far greater precision and impact.
Today, I bring together 25 years of frontline experience with rigorous academic training to offer a method that is both deeply human and evidence-based.
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MSc Positive Psychology & Coaching Psychology
EMCC Accredited Coach (international standard)
Licensed Mindfulness Teacher (MiSP trained)
Qualified Educator
14 years classroom experience
25 years working with young people across schools, communities and coaching
What makes this work
Everything at Rising Minds is built on one core belief: young people don't disengage because they're broken. They disengage because they're developing and are not given the space or tools to understand and make sense of what's happening inside them.
When they gain that understanding, everything changes.
I've developed The Rising Minds Method™ - a five-foundation coaching framework grounded in positive psychology and adolescent brain development - to give young people exactly that.
It helps them know who they are, understand how their brain works, recognise the tools they already have, see the choices available to them and - critically - make it stick in the real world.
Because insight in a coaching session means nothing if it doesn't hold up when life gets hard.
What this looks like
The ripple effects reach far beyond the individual - changing how teachers experience their classrooms, how parents experience their children, how schools experience their culture. This isn't anecdotal. It's a tried and tested method, refined over 25 years, backed by academic research and delivered by someone who has never once sat with a young person and thought they weren't capable of change.
For parents
If you're looking for someone to work with your teenager, you want to know one thing: can this person actually help?
The answer is yes - but only if your young person is ready to be in the driving seat.
Rising Minds isn't about fixing your teenager. It's about helping them understand themselves, build their inner resources and develop the confidence to handle whatever life throws at them.
The works last because the work is built to last - with you involved as a key part of making it stick.
For schools
If you're looking for someone to work with your students, you need someone who understands your environment and won't add to your team's workload.
I've spent 25 years working in schools. I know what it takes to reach young people who have disengaged. And I know how to build the work into your existing systems so the impact continues long after sessions end.