PAULA
ADULT & TEEN ADHD/ASD COUNSELLOR
COUNSELLING & YOGA COMBINED THERAPY
FORMER SENCO & DEPUTY HEAD TEACHER
PARENTING SUPPORT & SCHOOL
LIAISON
REASONABLE ADJUSTMENTS FOR STUDENTS
SEN PATHWAYS ADVISER
EDUCATION & HEALTH CARE PLANS & SCHOOLS ADHERENCE LIAISON
TRIBUNAL SUPPORT
REFLEX YOGA TEACHER
DIAGNOSED COMBINED ADHD
PROBABLE ASD
DAUGHTER INATTENTIVE ADHD
SON COMBINED ADHD & DYSLEXIA
LOCATION ~ DA14
Paula had, up until 2020 lived her whole life with undiagnosed ADHD and an Anxiety disorder. She had been constantly misdiagnosed throughout her life with depression. It was only when her son was going through his ADHD assessments that she realised she had ADHD too.
Paula has worked as a Teacher in education for more than 20 years, in mainstream and specialist settings. She has extensive experience of working with young people with ADHD and ASD.
She has worked with students with moderate learning difficulties, as well as profound and multiple learning difficulties and severe learning difficulties most of whom had dual diagnoses of ASD and ADHD.
Her last two roles were as a Deputy Head Teacher in secondary special schools.
Paula is an experienced SENCO and has attended tribunals for school placements and Section F appeals. Paula has extensive experience of liaising and often ‘battling’ with local authorities in order to secure the appropriate funding for students and trying to ensure students are placed within the right school for them as individuals. She also has the insight of how schools run from the inside.
It was whilst meeting with a parent in school whose son had been excluded, hearing the horrendous journey and toll it had taken on her health, that Paula realised she wanted to help parents directly. In order to do this, she changed roles to support adults, parents and young people who are neurodivergent, therapeutically and individually by training as a counsellor.
Her experience has been that the parents who ‘shout the loudest’ are the parents who the school and the local authority will actually listen to. Sadly, for many reasons, not all parents are able to advocate for their children. This is where Paula believes she can really help.
Paula has been practising yoga for 25 years, which has always helped to ground her and soothe her nervous system. Paula has taught Yoga for autism within schools and qualified as a Reflex Yoga Teacher in December 2022. Reflex Yoga is a therapeutic yoga practice and is particularly beneficial for young people and adults
with neurodiversity.
Paula has witnessed tangible results for the young people she has taught yoga with. One of the hardest things for neurodivergent people is to be able to relax, and this is a gift that through yoga she can help you to achieve.
Paula would have loved it if there had been someone she could have talked to when her son was an undiagnosed adolescent, school refusing and self-medicating making her now keen to help other parents going through this.
She also wished her daughter’s inattentive ADHD had been picked up at school so she wouldn’t have had to mask at school through to adulthood masking and being exceptionally hard on herself.
She is sad and angry that nobody noticed what was going on for her when she was at school. If they had it may have prevented her masking symptoms, always feeling different, suffering frequent burnout and being misdiagnosed.
Paula really wants to make a difference to clients living with ADHD and ASD, both young people and adults. She has hugely benefited personally from having an ADHD Coach and Counsellor, who could empathise with how her brain worked and has allowed her to be truly authentic for the first time in her life.
Her desire is to share her knowledge and experience of how to help ADHD clients in their life going forward. To support them to identify their strengths, and work with the huge potential they have, as well as give them the tools they need when things aren’t going so well.
Paula firmly believes that although our brains are wired differently, and there is no doubt this can be challenging – through learning about ourselves and becoming more self-aware, our brains are indeed a gift that should proudly be shared with the world. The more neurodivergent people are able to do this, the more positive changes will come in the future.
Qualifications
- Higher National Diploma Integrative Counselling 2004 With Ayanay Psychological Accreditation
- BA Hons Applied Professional Studies (Education) 2009
- Qualified Teacher status 2011
- National Award for SEN Coordination 2015
- Post Graduate Certificate in Autism Children 2014
- Master of Education in Special Educational Needs & Disabilities MEd 2018
- Yotism Yoga for Autism Foundation 2015
- Yotism 200 Hour Reflex Yoga Teacher Yoga Alliance 2022
- Place2Be. Senior Leader Mental Health Training 2020
- Healing Together – Trauma Practitioner 2021
- Mental Health School Award – Silver 2021
- Unconscious Bias Training 2022
PAULA
ADULT & TEEN ADHD/ASD COUNSELLOR
COUNSELLING & YOGA COMBINED THERAPY
FORMER SENCO & DEPUTY HEAD TEACHER
PARENTING SUPPORT & SCHOOL
LIAISON
REASONABLE ADJUSTMENTS FOR STUDENTS
SEN PATHWAYS ADVISER
EDUCATION & HEALTH CARE PLANS & SCHOOLS ADHERENCE LIAISON
TRIBUNAL SUPPORT
REFLEX YOGA TEACHER
DIAGNOSED COMBINED ADHD
PROBABLE ASD
DAUGHTER INATTENTIVE ADHD
SON COMBINED ADHD & DYSLEXIA
LOCATION ~ DA14
Paula had, up until 2020 lived her whole life with undiagnosed ADHD and an Anxiety disorder. She had been constantly misdiagnosed throughout her life with depression. It was only when her son was going through his ADHD assessments that she realised she had ADHD too.
Paula has worked as a Teacher in education for more than 20 years, in mainstream and specialist settings. She has extensive experience of working with young people with ADHD and ASD.
She has worked with students with moderate learning difficulties, as well as profound and multiple learning difficulties and severe learning difficulties most of whom had dual diagnoses of ASD and ADHD.
Her last two roles were as a Deputy Head Teacher in secondary special schools.
Paula is an experienced SENCO and has attended tribunals for school placements and Section F appeals. Paula has extensive experience of liaising and often ‘battling’ with local authorities in order to secure the appropriate funding for students and trying to ensure students are placed within the right school for them as individuals. She also has the insight of how schools run from the inside.
It was whilst meeting with a parent in school whose son had been excluded, hearing the horrendous journey and toll it had taken on her health, that Paula realised she wanted to help parents directly. In order to do this, she changed roles to support adults, parents and young people who are neurodivergent, therapeutically and individually by training as a counsellor.
Her experience has been that the parents who ‘shout the loudest’ are the parents who the school and the local authority will actually listen to. Sadly, for many reasons, not all parents are able to advocate for their children. This is where Paula believes she can really help.
Paula has been practising yoga for 25 years, which has always helped to ground her and soothe her nervous system. Paula has taught Yoga for autism within schools and qualified as a Reflex Yoga Teacher in December 2022. Reflex Yoga is a therapeutic yoga practice and is particularly beneficial for young people and adults with neurodiversity.
Paula has witnessed tangible results for the young people she has taught yoga with. One of the hardest things for neurodivergent people is to be able to relax, and this is a gift that through yoga she can help you to achieve.
Paula would have loved it if there had been someone she could have talked to when her son was an undiagnosed adolescent, school refusing and self-medicating making her now keen to help other parents going through this.
She also wished her daughter’s inattentive ADHD had been picked up at school so she wouldn’t have had to mask at school through to adulthood masking and being exceptionally hard on herself.
She is sad and angry that nobody noticed what was going on for her when she was at school. If they had it may have prevented her masking symptoms, always feeling different, suffering frequent burnout and being misdiagnosed.
Paula really wants to make a difference to clients living with ADHD and ASD, both young people and adults. She has hugely benefited personally from having an ADHD Coach and Counsellor, who could empathise with how her brain worked and has allowed her to be truly authentic for the first time in her life.
Her desire is to share her knowledge and experience of how to help ADHD clients in their life going forward. To support them to identify their strengths, and work with the huge potential they have, as well as give them the tools they need when things aren’t going so well.
Paula firmly believes that although our brains are wired differently, and there is no doubt this can be challenging – through learning about ourselves and becoming more self-aware, our brains are indeed a gift that should proudly be shared with the world. The more neurodivergent people are able to do this, the more positive changes will come in the future.
Qualifications
- Higher National Diploma Integrative Counselling – 2004 – with full Ayanay
Psychological Accreditation - BA Hons Applied Professional Studies (Education) 2009
- Qualified Teacher 2011
- National award for SEN Coordination 2015
- Post Graduate certificate in Autism Children 2014
- Master of Education in Special Educational Needs & EHCP
- Disabilities MEd 2018
- Yotism Yoga for Autism foundation 2015
- Yotism 200 Hour Reflex Yoga Teacher Yoga Alliance 2022
- Place2Be. Senior Leader Mental Health 2020
- Healing Together Trauma Practitioner 2021
- Mental Health School Award Silver 2021
- Unconscious Bias Training 2022