Born without arms, not without attitude! Nicky Abdinor is an expert on doing MORE, with less. Nicky is a registered Clinical Psychologist, international speaker, and founder of the non-profit organisation, Nicky’s Drive. Nicky has a passion for challenging our perceptions of ABILITY. S he is a firm believer that it’s not our situation, but how we THINK about our situation, that determines our emotional well-being. Nicky is a sought-after inspirational keynote speaker who gained international rec...
Dec 28, 2022•36 min
Tammy is Canadian and moved to Scotland in 1989. She is trained in adult massage and when she had her first child it just felt logical to massage her. She then discovered research about the benefits of massage for preterm babies and became passionate about massage for all, especially babies/children. She began teaching parents, mid-wives, health visitors, early years practioners and the Scottish School of Child & Baby Massage was born 28 years ago. She ran her business while having and raisi...
Dec 21, 2022•33 min
Jaz Ampaw-Farr is a ‘resilience ninja’, international speaker, coach and author. Hailed in the US as ‘The British Oprah’, Jaz has travelled the world advising governments, educators and helping tens of thousands of people with her bespoke leadership development programmes, training courses and motivational speeches. As a successful entrepreneur, mum of three, and former teacher - she knows a thing or two about galvanising people into taking action! With a passion for resilience, positive disrupt...
Dec 14, 2022•33 min
Andrea Rainsford –Andrea had an extensive career in the corporate world, working as a Business Development Manager for Ernst & Young and Eversheds. A career change beckoned following a stroke and in 2009, Andrea graduated with a BSc in Computing Science. A need to help and guide small businesses followed and SEO Angel was born in 2014. SEO Angel aims to de-mystify SEO, to help small and micro businesses with their visibility and watch them thrive! Some key points from our interview: · How sh...
Dec 07, 2022•35 min
As a professional speaker, author and resilience coach Steve’s mission is to deliver his story that took him from wheelchair to world champion and beyond. He explains how he fixed his broken life and the learnings he gained which he now shares to empower people with the right mindset to go confidently on their journey in the direction of their dreams, their GOLD. He’s passionate about everyone experiencing the happiness and fulfilment of achieving the life that they have imagined and truly deser...
Nov 30, 2022•37 min
Joan Kane (director, writer, performer, educator) recently performed her script of Almost 13 in the Edinburgh Festival Fringereceiving a five-star review. She also got favourable reviews for her direction of Safe and what do you mean in New York and Edinburgh. She is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus Theatre Company. Off Broadway, she directed Sycorax at HERE, Play Nice! at 59e59 theatres, and I Know What Boys Want at Theatre Row. She directed Six Characters in Search of an Author in O...
Nov 23, 2022•32 min
Arno Michaelis is a speaker, author of My Life After Hate , co-author of The Gift of Our Wounds , Filmmaker, and Peacebuilding Consultant. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arno was a leader of hate groups, and frontman of the hate-metal band Centurion before single parenthood, love for his daughter, and the forgiveness shown by people he once hated helped to change his world, bringing love for diversity and gratitude for all life. Arno has appeared on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360”, “The View”, t...
Nov 16, 2022•41 min
He says he’s just a bloke that runs ultra-trail marathons in his spare time…16 now!! He lives just outside of Glasgow with his awesome wife Nikki who has been and is his total rock. He’s 48 years young and passionate about running, cycling and all things motorsport and if he’s not in trainers, he’s on a bike or driving a car. ‘Anxiously chilled out’ describes his approach to stuff now after suffering a catastrophic stroke, out of the blue, in February of 2017 at 42, that changed his life and set...
Nov 09, 2022•33 min
Deborah Henley has over 20 years in psychology and personal development Formerly a competitive oarswoman, sailor and swimmer, with qualifications in neurolinguistics, hypnotherapy and the expressive arts - she draws on some extraordinary life experiences, a keen commercial sensibility and a quirky and creative perspective on life Her book, ‘Your Leadership Story’, was shortlisted in the Business Book Awards and has become a transformational programme for speakers to find their message and story ...
Nov 02, 2022•33 min
Roxy Rhodes is a psychotherapist and business coach with a private practice in Derbyshire who works predominantly with women who are ready to make some life changes. Her no BS, filter-free and empathic approach makes her a force to be reckoned with. She'll call you out on your excuses and hold your hand to make the changes. Her sarcastic humour will immediately put you at ease and you'll find yourself feeling like you've known her for years. She genuinely loves to watch women grow and says that'...
Oct 26, 2022•33 min
Peter Paul Parker is a Dahn Master in the mind-body-spirit arena, a musician and sound healer. He works with both the energy and physical body. Peter is a Ki Gong champion, winning the international competition with the British Team in Korea in 2016. Peter runs a successful coaching business achieving amazing results with highly sensitive people and empaths using the Dream Method. He has set up a local charity called Brighter Living helping the elderly with their health and well-being using Ki G...
Oct 19, 2022•37 min
Charlotte Rush is a Marketing Director with a career spanning over 20 years. In recent months she has started to embark on a journey of becoming a lived experience speaker, telling her story, which details how she has been shaped by grief, and how she's now playing an active role in moving beyond it. An orphan by the age of five, Charlotte is currently writing a book about her life, which was initially merely a form of therapy for herself. Charlotte now hopes that by sharing her story she can he...
Oct 12, 2022•30 min
After a lifetime spent caring for her disabled parents, Helen had her own children, and began to suspect her mum was deliberately pretending to be unwell She began reading her mother's 55 years’ worth of diaries after her death in 2016 and discovered her mum’s deception went far beyond anything she had imagined She wrote My Mother, Munchausen’s, and Me in the aftermath, piecing together the truth about her parents, her childhood, and her identity Some key points from our interview: • How Unbroke...
Oct 05, 2022•40 min•Ep. 111
Winnie M Li is an author and activist. Her debut novel Dark Chapter is a fictional retelling of her real-life stranger rape in Belfast, from victim and perpetrator perspectives. Translated into ten languages, it won The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize, and was nominated for an Edgar Award and the Best First Novel Award. She is currently adapting it for the screen. Her second novel Complicit was published in Summer 2022 and selected by The New York Times for their August book club. Winnie is also...
Sep 28, 2022•35 min•Ep. 110
Richie is an entrepreneur, film producer and actor. His entrepreneurship spans successful businesses across property development; sport; and education. As an actor Richie has appeared in many TV, Feature films on Netflix and Amazon, and has recently completed a number of international Bollywood films. Richie believes everyone in life can act and we all take on the role of a character in life. He has found acting to be a successful way of tackling and dealing with deep personal matters. We wear m...
Sep 21, 2022•34 min•Ep. 109
Lynn is a mental health awareness champion, counsellor, film producer and author of four books that give advice and hope to sufferers of mental illness and their families, including Hope with Eating Disorders 2nd Edition, Hope with OCD, Hope with Depression and Hope with Anxiety, all published by Hammersmith Health Books. A mother to grown-up twin daughters, Charlotte and Samantha, and Grandma to Charlotte’s 6-month-old twins Georgia and Reggie, Lynn’s passion for mental health awareness came th...
Sep 14, 2022•31 min•Ep. 108
Jennifer Fraser is the founder of The Bullied Brain. She's an award-winning teacher, best-selling author, and unlikely whistle-blower. And key in mental health awareness. Her new book The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health tells the story of her journey to repair after battling to protect students from teacher abuse and failing. With a PhD in Comparative Literature, she believed that there must be research that could help her recover. That's when she discovered what scientist...
Sep 07, 2022•33 min•Ep. 107
David Mark is recognised as a 'master of the dark psychological thriller', drawing upon his 15 years of experience as a crime journalist. After a decade as a full-time novelist and Sunday Times bestseller, David penned the critically-acclaimed memoir PIECE OF MIND, detailing his lifelong battle with depression, mania, OCD, addiction and hallucinations. The book has been labelled 'a life-saver' and 'essential reading' by readers, contemporaries, and mental health professionals. How he feels that ...
Aug 31, 2022•51 min•Ep. 106
#howtowriteabook #sexualabuse #healing Laura Davis is the author of The Burning Light of Two Stars, the story of her loving yet tumultuous relationship with her mother, and six other non-fiction books, including The Courage to Heal, Allies in Healing, I Thought We‘d Never Speak Again, and Becoming the Parent You Want to Be. Her groundbreaking books have been translated into 11 languages and sold 1.8 million copies. In addition to writing books that inspire and change people’s lives, the work of ...
Aug 24, 2022•34 min•Ep. 105
Meet the man who, like a giraffe, stuck his neck out for what he believed. Like Nelson Mandela, Siya Twani was imprisoned for making a stand against injustice in South Africa. Siya is a Resilience and Mental toughness motivational speaker who speaks in schools and businesses across the country Siya is a motivational speaker on a mission to empower, educate and enthuse people, especially children and young people, with resilience skills. With over 30 years’ experience of speaking in the education...
Aug 17, 2022•34 min
Jermaine Pennant had a 25 year career as a professional footballer. A product of the Notts county and Arsenal FC youth and becoming a Liverpool FC legend. His talent is undeniable, yet this was often overshadowed by his behaviour off pitch. From scandalous headlines to stupid mistakes. Jermaine wants to open up and talk in depth about his childhood which left him unguided and unable to understand who he was. Now thirty nine years old he has started to unpick the destructive cycles and really fin...
Aug 10, 2022•36 min•Ep. 103
Richard is a Times No1. Bestselling author and has now written 4 books. His first, Just a Boy, sold close to half a million copies and is translated into eleven languages. He’s the founder of the iCan Academy and has worked with organisations across the globe for the last 15 years sharing his personal story of resilience. He’s also an award winning speaker and a Fellow of The Professional Speaking Association and in 2019 was awarded the PSAE (Professional Speaking Award for Excellence) He was ju...
Aug 03, 2022•35 min•Ep. 102
Sarah is now one full year clean from cocaine addiction and has been using the 20 years of lived experience and her subsequent training as a recovery coach to help bring others out of the darkness of addiction to dance with her in the light. Sarah is a single mum to a 3-year-old boy who has been the catalyst for massive transformation in her life. She strives to be her best for them both. A born leader, Sarah is using her skills, knowledge and experience to create a new recovery community to bri...
Jul 27, 2022•34 min•Ep. 101
Jacob Dunne is an author and consultant facilitating important conversations around criminal justice, education, and mental health. He presented “The Punch” series for Radio 4 which won best factual series at the national radio academy awards 2021. Which followed Jacob’s personal experience of Restorative Justice, how it has benefitted other perpetrators and victims of crime, and what the benefits might look like if we were to adopt Restorative approaches more broadly throughout society He is a ...
Jul 20, 2022•39 min•Ep. 100
Christopher Morris is a Hypnotherapist from Bristol who works online with clients in the UK and abroad. He spent 30 years in the performing arts industry as an actor, director, and teacher before training as hypnotherapist. He changed career after struggling with his own mental health, partly due the death of his daughter Aoife and son Lucas in 2014. Chris is passionate about bringing out the best in people and has a wealth of experience helping clients deal with problems and finding solutions. ...
Jul 13, 2022•37 min•Ep. 99
I recently read Duncan’s book “Get Over Indulgence” and was really looking forward to interviewing him. His writing is funny, honest and very accessible to everyone and I sat down and read it in one go. Duncan has done his fair share of overindulgence, strictly speaking he’s drunk more than his fair share of wine and eaten more than his fair share of cake. Along the way he found himself in some interesting places like on stage with S-Club, a stint as Mayor of his hometown and Morris dancing in W...
Jul 06, 2022•34 min•Ep. 98
I met Gloria Masters through social media and although our stories are different, there are so many similarities too. At times when I was interviewing her it felt like my words were coming from her mouth! She is an author, advocate and activist for all things child sexual abuse (CSA) She speaks from sixteen years of lived experience and has managed to turn the final corner of healing into giving back She does this through highlighting the issue of #csa to help other survivors. She is currently w...
Jun 29, 2022•33 min•Ep. 97
I met Amy at my Karate club and have witnessed her personal growth and achievements over the years and always been inspired by her grit and determination. I think you will be too! She earned her first Scottish National Team cap at 14 and has been following her passion with the sport around the world since. She started an online business at 18 to allow her to pursue her passion and build an income alongside travelling and competing as a self-funded Karate athlete. In 2015, she suffered a career t...
Jun 22, 2022•29 min•Ep. 96
Sometimes we meet people in life for the first time that we feel like we’ve known for years. That was exactly what it felt like when I met my guest, Lou Lebentz, a few years ago through the PSA (Professional Speaking Association) She is a well-known UK psychotherapist, EMDR specialist, trauma clinician and Founder of “Trauma Thrivers” a hugely popular trauma informed Facebook community for those in recovery from trauma and addiction. Previously, Lou worked in rehab at the Priory Hospital Roehamp...
Jun 15, 2022•39 min•Ep. 95
Anna Dravland reached out to me via social media when she heard about the show as she loved the idea of it and when she shared her story with me, I knew I had to interview her! She has been through so much both physically and mentally but what I love about her is her honesty and her refusal to be defined by her experiences. She has a daily routine of staying grounded, practising gratitude and sharing goodness She is a disabled stroke survivor, among many challenges she has endured, and Founder o...
Jun 08, 2022•38 min•Ep. 94
