My Journey
How workplace adversity and Personal Recovery became a movement for change.
The origins of Hope People Culture and Recovery at Work (RaW) talks.
Personal Recovery Transforms
Then I found my way to a Recovery College — the catalyst for the transformation that followed.
In just four months of learning personal recovery priciples, my depression completely lifted. I had moved forward more in weeks than I had in ten years.
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Personal Recovery gave me language for what I’d been experiencing, tools to understand myself and the confidence to rebuild. It gave me back my power, the ability to make choices, communicate clearly and believe things could be different.
Before accessing personal recovery, I often thought:
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“Can’t they see how they affect me?”
Recovery-informed thinking helped me ask instead:
“What do I need to communicate what I want and need?”
Recovery didn't change the workplace; it changed how I moved within it. That changed everything, including how I shaped the cultures around me.
Personal Change. Workplace Impact.
When I began to rebuild myself, the effects didn’t stay internal — they reshaped how I showed up at work.
As my sense of agency grew, I spent less energy managing negative thoughts and more on learning, contributing, taking opportunities, and navigating challenges with greater confidence, curiosity and courage.
The value I brought to my role and organisations changed too. They finally saw the version of me that had been burried under stress and uncertainty for years.
Clearer communication, stronger relationships, more intentional contribution and smoother collaboration followed. Using recovery-focused tools, I became more engaged, action-driven and better able to manage my emotions and overal health. Feeling more confident, I began to influence my working environment in ways that benefited both colleagues and the organisation.
After years of feeling stuck, my career began to move too.
And most significantly, I found my voice.
Turning Experience Into Purpose
From barely speaking in team meetings to teaching, presenting, leading and supporting others — including becoming a Freedom to Speak Up Champion.
One thought stayed with me throughout:
I wish i'd known about Personal Recovery sooner.
During my first year as a recovery College student, and seven more years working in the NHS at the same Recovery College supporting thousands of other students, I heard the same message countless times — and it hit me.
My challenges and wishes were not unique. But I have something powerful to offer.
The combination of:
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personal challenges,
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workplace adversity,
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professional recovery work,
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and lived experience of applying recovery principles
Have given me the skills and knowlege to bridge the gap so many people fall through.
Hope People Culture and RaW Talks
My Mission
Personal recovery is a well-established, internationally recognised approach that has shaped recovery practice and mental health for decades. And I have witnessed first hand how it's principles can transform the lives of people around the globe.
Yet many people only discover Personal Recovery after reaching a significant point of difficulty, if they are lucky enough to find a Recovery College — most people never discover it at all.
Despite the role work plays in our lives, and the impact mental health can have on how we function there, Personal Recovery principles are rarely explored in everyday working life.
That is why I created Hope People Culture and Recovery at Work (RaW): to bring Persoal Recovery to the people, by intergrating it into workplaces around the world, one RaW Talk at a time.
When people discover that hope is real and recovery is possible...
the impact can reach far beyond the individual — into teams, culture and organisations.
From Eager to Overwhelmed
"Ready to take on the world". Young, enthusiastic and expecting to progress quickly.
This was me before a few years of difficult experiences, inside and outside of work, gradually reshaped how I saw myself, others, and the world. My thoughts and experiences eroded my confidence, heightened my anxiety, and made me doubt whether I belonged in the corporate world — or, at times, the world itself.
Sound familar?
Across 25 years and multiple industries, the same patterns followed: strained relationships, poor boundaries, stress and missed opportunities. I was let go more than once, left jobs I loved and was forced to take sick leave. Each setback reinforced the belief that I simply wasn’t cut out for working life.
In hindsight, I simply lacked the tools to manage my mental health or ask for what I needed — and my workplaces weren’t equipped to bridge that gap.
I was surviving, but not thriving.
The impact stretched far beyond work.
The Cost of Surviving
Without Support
Eventually, the pressure became impossible to hide.
Over time, my coping became destructive, my wellbeing deteriorated and my sense of identity and hope faded.
Yet at work,I kept smiling
I became skilled at appearing fine. The struggle was invisible, but its effects were not.
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My colleagues experienced a more withdrawn, negative and uncertain version of me. I held back, avoided difficult conversations, struggled to see opportunities and contributed less than I was capable of. Much less.
For the organisations I worked for, that meant less of my energy, ideas, confidence and capability reaching the work, the team and the opportunities around me.
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For a decade, while living with deep depression, I worked relentlessly, desperate for things to change, yet never moving forward. By my early thirties, I was overwhelmed, burnt out and barely recognised the hopeful, spirited person I had once been.
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