Creating minds with levelled, rational thinking with true accountability from learning, then implementing knowledge. One of my personal mottos is

Change starts with the truth

Which is where my own change came from, which I will tell you about shortly, but my working experience comes with over 20 years working across various sectors and providing excellent service and care. Now in my early 40s I can firmly say my standards remained the same regardless of the sector or opportunity that stood before me. While I had many different footprints of growth that created change in my life in my early 30s, a 12-year-old put me on a road of facing a mirror of my life, personal development and learning. This path supported me to grow in ways that I never thought were possible. The road was filled with fear, sadness and excitement and through it, I understood the importance of psychological safety when learning, implementing new habits or changing ideologies.

We all want change for the better. The problem is often how to do this, fighting our own unhelpful thinking styles most importantly admitting that we contribute to our unhelpful actions, and it is not all down to our adverse experiences.

My passions are about people not sectors

In a world that drives high performance, too often we have missed the learning and implementation that comes with that. The space to break down mistakes and make progress in areas of growth, recovery and connection.

Where am I now? Living life on my own terms, I work hard, embrace all that life gives as well as ensuring my habits move me closer towards my goals, but it wasn't always this way....... My resilience, advocacy, and transformation gives me first-hand knowledge of the challenges posed by cultural complexities, family disconnect, and systemic bias. My professional expertise in customer service, pastoral care, welfare and safeguarding, as well as profound understanding of trauma and healing, empowers individuals to navigate the hidden layers behind at-risk and self-sabotaging behaviours. Mental agility is the focus of my work, creating psychological safety, awareness as well as accountability through facilitation, training, mentorship or speaking. Offering invaluable insights and supporting individuals with empathy, ethics and trauma-informed practice.

Learning and development consultant, psychological mentor/coach, facilitator, speaker, youth advocate and champion, advisory member and research contributor. As you can see, I wear many hats but consider myself as a psychological, therapeutic practitioner who understands the fundamentals needed to thrive both personally and professionally. Passionate about social change, I engage in projects that support better practices and reform in different sectors, improvement in welfare, leadership, mental health or mentoring.

While working in different sectors, reaching middle management level across fields but experiencing this glass ceiling effect that I didn't have the words for but made me sad, angry and frustrated with systems and structures that were not equal nor fair. I have experiences that my age, gender, race and more recently, disability were barriers that should never be there. With not having the language to understand or describe my experiences, I found myself always challenging ideologies, poor work practices, organisation culture and the lack of support in personal development. For the past 4 years, I've dedicated my time to improving sectors by raising awareness of trauma, trauma-informed practices, the power of using coaching and mentoring in sectors, using facilitation to aid learning in others. My mentorship is designed to offer a safe and confidential space for self-motivated individuals that need a sounding bound, accountability and space to ensure they keep thriving.

Personal Development

Philosophy

Mental Agility

Personal development comes from a personal responsibility and commitment. I describe mental agility is the ability to adjust through life regardless or the circumstances. The way to achieve mental agility is through digging deeper at your guiding philosophy. Many are living from philosophies that were passed to us both personally and professionally, and too often those same philosophies are unhelpful to the very objective we are trying to achieve.

If you read this, and it hits home, you have two choices to keep doing the same things and expect different results or make a change to connect to yourself and try another path one of pride, passion and connectivity.

Within my practice I use the 4rs trauma-informed framework to encourage empowerment, inform decision-making as well as adjusting our responses to adversities in a way that embraces emotional intelligence and awareness.

I have undertaken various certified courses on ACES, Trauma and Trauma-informed practice to ensure high standards in knowledge as well as delivery. My Bronze, Silver and Gold standard is from training delivered by Nicola Lester who is a registered mental health nurse by background, specialising in working with psychological trauma and developing trauma - informed approaches to practice across a range of contexts, both in the UK and overseas.

I support individuals in achieving or maintaining their psychological growth and control. From the educator, athlete, police officer or the retail staff, "your practice starts with you"

Creating minds with levelled, rational thinking with true accountability from learning, then implementing knowledge. One of my personal mottos is

Change starts with the truth

My passions are about people not sectors

In a world that drives high performance but misses the mark too often, we have missed the learning and implementation that comes with being able to be a high performing individual, both personally and professionally. The space to breakdown mistakes and make progress in areas of growth, recovery and connection. This was lacking in most of my sectors and something I want to ensure we dig deeper into why our sectors and personal lives are not thriving and controlling the things we can control and do those things very well.

Where am I now? Living life on my own terms, I work hard, embrace all that life gives as well as ensuring my habits move me closer towards my goals, but it wasn't always this way....... My resilience, advocacy, and transformation gives me first-hand knowledge of the challenges posed by cultural complexities, family disconnect, and systemic bias. My professional expertise in customer service, pastoral care, welfare and safeguarding, as well as profound understanding of trauma and healing, empowers individuals to navigate the hidden layers behind at-risk and self-sabotaging behaviours. Mental agility is the focus of my work, creating psychological safety, awareness as well as accountability through facilitation, training, mentorship or speaking. Offering invaluable insights and supporting individuals with empathy, ethics and trauma-informed practice.

I also share my lived experiences to give a contextual understanding about differences, intersectionalities and overcoming trauma/adversities. I want to use my experiences to not shame anyone but to show the impact when we do not stretch ourselves to embrace change, having healthy work cultures, working through our personal experiences and having ethics in front of all we do.

Psychological mentor/coach, facilitator, speaker, youth advocate and champion, advisory member and research contributor. As you can see, I wear many hats but consider myself as a psychological, therapeutic practitioner who understands the fundamentals needed to thrive both personally and professionally.

Passionate about social change, I engage in projects that support better practices and reform in different sectors, improvement in welfare, leadership, mental health or mentoring.

My working background is made up from over two decades working across education, social care, retail and hospitality sectors. Reaching middle management level across fields but experiencing this glass ceiling effect that many speak of. Age, Gender, Race and more recently, disability are barriers that should never be there. With not having the language to understand or describe my experiences, filled with challenging ideologies of poor work practices, culture and personal development. At 32, I decided to make a personal change that aligned with my values, passions and a desire to grow in understanding of the impact of my adversities.

I want to use my experiences to not shame anyone but to show the impact when we do not stretch ourselves to embrace change, having healthy work cultures, working through our personal experiences and having ethics in front of all we do.

Personal Development

Philosophy

Mental Agility

Personal development comes from a personal responsibility and commitment. I describe mental agility as the ability to adjust through life regardless of the circumstances. The way to achieve mental agility is through digging deeper at your guiding philosophy. Many of us are living from philosophies that were passed to us both personally and professionally, and too often those same philosophies are unhelpful to the very objective we are trying to achieve.

Personal Development

Philosophy

Mental Agility

Change is often slow, why? - "Most people are living in their ego, held by fear or trapped behind traumatic experiences.

Giving a celebratory speech at an MPS passing parade for almost 400 recruits with their family and many others.

What others say"

Gemma's professional nature always comes across in her work, she is fun, supportive and flexible in how she approaches reaching outcomes. While her adversities were hardships that provided many barriers, they gave her the desire to work hard, focus on the objective and be evidence-based in her mindset. Many will say she is raw and authentic in how she now shares her adversities and how she navigates these challenges, but Gemma will always say life did not always look like that.

This was an opportunity that will live with me, I have become passionate about policing for various reasons and committed to the change which I call a generational piece.

THE PERSONAL STORY - Adversities Are Only One Part Of my Story

My adverse experiences started at an early age, with my biological mother suffering with poor-ill mental health, abusing drugs and alcohol as a result of all of her children being taken into care. I don't have many memories of my early childhood, but I was classified as a child at risk, and let me say my layers of adversity are complex, but connecting to them is where things changed.

Looking back, not growing up and speaking about my biological mother had a profound impact on me, it impacted my sense of belonging and understanding of self. The layers of this are complex because of some of my cultural teachings are both positive and negative but not wanting to hurt my dad or sept mother by asking questions and them not speaking about things in the hope of protecting me (which I didn't understand until I was much older), meant I developed a response of getting on with things rather than addressing them. In my early childhood I spent some time in Jamaica and my education experience of school was harsh, disciplined and exciting in many aspects.

While being in Jamaica, I experienced connection, culture, nuances of unspoken modes of respect, happiness alongside abuse and horror. How does a young child understand that? Well, at the age of 12 I tried to jump out of a window. A decision, I am so happy, didn't happen.

The truth is, most cultures don’t speak about things that seem difficult. However, those same things come back and manifest in our relationships later in life.

Growing up, none really spoke about their vulnerabilities, we spoke about how great we were and then whether it was in friendships or relationships, the impact of our adversities always reared their head in relationships, at work throughout daily life. My WORK JOURNEY WAS NO BETTER. Harmful professionals that didn't care about being nice and kind at work regardless of sector, I noticed how we all had self-destructive behaviours but no one spoke about these things. Not connecting to young people, being annoyed at clients in social car, or not bothering to be nice or kind in retail. My work journey was filled with always trying to prove my worth and experience, often bullied because I did my job well, and sectors hardly invested in my own development to ensure I carried out the best job I could. My personal change was untwined in my professional life, which came at the age of 32. Working with a student who has PSTD took me on a journey of learning about trauma and the impact, which only led me to a mirror of my own life and started a road of healing and upskilling my professional practice. This student did not trust anyone in the school, which took me a year to build trust with him and move my mentorship into therapeutic practice. Alongside this, I ventured into a world of study in my own professional discipline, therapeutic practices within my life as well as a set of values that connect with striving to be a better version of myself for me and others.

You either see the barrier or the opportunity!

I'm often referred to as a mentor due to the relationships I build, my nature to uphold high standards in any settings and provide a safe space for individuals to prioritise their development.

THE MISSION

Use Coaching, Mentoring and Sci-based Approaches in building clear, honest but integral conversations. Learning that supports us to dig deeper into personal and professional practice while recognising impact from adverse situations. The Change Starts Here! In a world of mass information, demand and the world context consistently changing, the ability to support your mental agility is vital. Gemma brings an approach of solution-based concepts blended with a therapeutic view.

To Build Hearts & Minds, YOU Need to Exercise those same muscles

"Life will always give you conflict, challenge or disruption, and how you respond to this matters in building or maintaining psychological control." - Gemma Watson

The approach is based on foundations of

Coaching, Mentoring Frameworks, Behavioural Neuroscience Knowledge, Trauma-Informed Approaches and Psychological Theories

FAQs

What Makes You An Advanced Facilitator?

An advanced facilitator is someone who has honed their facilitation skills to lead groups through challenging issues, set goals and come to agreements. With my years of experince, ability to work with small to large groups and mange conflict as well as ensure the aim of learning is paramount I have been successful in delivering engaging, open and honest topics while challenging poor work practices to bring both personal and systematic change.
Can You Tell Me More About Your Mentorship

My mentorship is made up of using both coaching and mentoring frameworks, psychological approaches and counselling skills. My understanding in Neuroscience allows me to dectect the brain science behind the actions you may take. My services is for professional athletes, entertainers and individuals in high peforming individuals. Session can be remote or face to face.
What Do You Speak About?

I talk about overcoming adversity, grit and resilience with the aim of inspiring others. I also do celebratory speeches
Are You A Charity Organisation?

I am not registered as a charitable organisation however outside of my mentorship my work is centred around bettering sectors that work with young people and highlight the importance of mental heath and overcoming adversity. I also am passionate about building mentoring and coaching understanding in sectors.

Facts About Gemma

Has a hidden disability that I don't hide - because in reality even with the changes to my life the surgery has saved my life. A burst appendix almost made me not see 40, but I am still here so me and Ricky (Stoma's name) will continue the work of showing people that your adversities don't have to be the barrier you think they are. By engaging in personal development to ensure you are maintaining mental agility and psychological control is where success is.

Has a deep love of track and field, art, gaming and reading. Call of Duty was her favourite game, although this has been replaced by reading. My reading allows me to execute one part of my principles of success which is learning. Learning is where my life has changed, and my advice is to everyone is to learn in your areas that you want to improve in. Make it relevant and commit to it, as it won't always fill fun, but it will always be worth it.

Given the chance, I can be found grounding in grass, sand or water. Being still is where I find the drive and desire to keep knocking on the doors of change. Life moves quickly, slowing down paves the way for gratitude which is a practice that changed my life and perspective.