What are Mad Studies and the mad movement that you refer to?

Wikipedia offers a succinct description: “Mad studies is a field of scholarship, theory, and activism about the lived experiences, history, cultures, and politics about people who may identify as mad, mentally ill, psychiatric survivors, consumers, service users, patients, neurodivergent, and disabled.” I have undertaken two modules of Mad Studies at master’s level, at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, and I identify as a mad scholar and activist. Much of my current work centres on Mad Studies and I write about this topic in my madreality blog on substack.

Do I have to identify as mad to sign up for your coaching?

Not at all! I will coach anyone who is interested in working with me. My specialisation arises from my own lived experience as a psychiatric survivor and my experience as mental health carer as well as a keen interest in Mad Studies as an academic subject. But the foundational values of my coaching practice are the same for all my clients: warmth, creativity, authenticity and perseverance.

Is this just another form of counselling?

No. I am a certified transformational life coach and this is what I practice. I do not offer advice, diagnosis or treatment. I like to describe it this way: in counselling one receives support for mental and emotional issues, often delving into the past and extensive relationship analysis. In coaching, one receives support for addressing one’s goals, focusing mainly on the present and future, and on shifting mindsets and expanding viewpoints. While we may explore mental health experiences within the context of coaching, it is not in my training nor in my ability to address mental health problems in and of themselves.

How long does coaching take?

It depends on what you want to bring to coaching. I work one-to-one in hour-long sessions. We can discuss your needs and aspirations in a complimentary pre-coaching chemistry call, and decide if/when and how to work together, and how many sessions may be needed.

I also offer a one-to-one coaching intensive: three sessions of one hour each, which address one particular issue in a framework of beginning-middle-end. This is often helpful to inject concentration and momentum to the coaching process.