Facilitators
Our Amazing Team
Get to know the team and meet the facilitators that makes up Transform your Training.
Aarti Kotecha
Facilitator
About Aarti
Aarti has almost 20 years’ experience as a practitioner, lecturer, academic researcher, and trainer within the field of domestic abuse. Aarti’s extensive experience of working with victim-survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and delivering community-based treatment programmes to perpetrators of intimate partner violence enables her to provide professionals with training that is grounded in current research and real-life case studies.
Aarti specialises in working with male victim-survivors of domestic abuse. She also has extensive experience of tackling female genital mutilation, founding Leicester’s first FGM awareness raising campaign, publishing resources for healthcare professionals, co-writing local safeguarding policies for FGM and pioneering innovative in-house risk assessment processes to identify FGM.
Alongside this, Aarti works with local and national organisations to produce academic research on domestic abuse for the purpose of informing evidence-based best practice. Driven by a strong passion for social impact to improve the lives of those who experience abuse, Aarti is passionate about empowering professionals to work effectively and compassionately with survivors.
Alongside being a Taye Facilitator, Aarti is the Founder of PAiPA (Promoting Action in Preventing Abuse) with a particular emphasis on marginalised or disadvantaged communities.
The course was fantastic, Aarti was a really brilliant facilitator, very engaging, knowledgeable and warm-gave everyone space to speak and feel heard.Taye Training Delegate
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Abi Junaid
Facilitator
About Abi
Abimbola is a global partnerships advocacy and voice manager for an International Development Organisation. She is also a life coach.
Abimbola grew up in a patriarchal society, coupled with her lived experience and intersectionality's of gender, race, and disability, which have all influenced who she has become, her passion and commitment to educate, enlighten and advocate for a just society, were everyone can thrive. This propelled Abimbola to challenge the status quo, and equally provide the space for dialogue and systems changes.
Abimbola Junaid is passionate about resilience and social justice, and therefore campaigns, facilitate training on anti-racism, equality and diversity and decolonisation.
Abi’s training was passionate, relatable and resourceful.Taye Training Delegate
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Alan Savill
Facilitator
About Alan
Alan had an extensive career working in frontline services before becoming a freelance trainer in 2019. Alan spent 15 years as a police officer before working in a children's home and prisons. Throughout Alan’s career he has always delivered training including as a police officer facilitating Street Duties courses and more recently through his Reducing Parental Conflict and Parenting Team Manager role.
Alongside his frontline roles, Alan has gained experience from a variety of sources over the years. Alan has sat on the Leicestershire and Rutland Suicide Prevention Panel and an Executive Board Member of the British Film Makers Alliance. Alan has written and facilitated various courses around suicide, including The Grief Path after Suicide for Children and Young People and Prevention of Suicide in the Workplace.
Alan is the founder of the charity Ian’s Chain and, alongside this, works with Taye as a facilitator, sharing his knowledge in relation to safeguarding and various other areas of his expertise. Alan is an award-winning facilitator winning ‘Making an Impact’ in 2023. He leaves delegates feeling empowered, excited and ready to use their new knowledge.
Alan’s training is energetic, compassionate and memorable.Taye Training Delegate
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Amanda McEvoy
Facilitator
About Amanda
Amanda is an experienced learning and development practitioner and has over 20 years' experience working within the NHS. She has worked across systems to deliver complex health and wellbeing interventions and has focussed on staff wellbeing with a passion for mental health and women’s health as well as marginalised groups.
Amanda designs and delivers bespoke coaching and consultancy solutions for individuals and organisations. Working in health & wellbeing, equality & diversity, mental health and women’s health she is passionate to reduce stigma and empower people to take control of their situation.
Amanda is a high energy, passionate and enthusiastic trainer of 24 years who brings fun to all elements of learning. Her engagement with delegates leads to meaningful conversations around the topic. She can connect and build rapport with delegates and coaches alike and explore difficult subjects with sensitivity and compassion.
Amanda’s training is entertaining, engaging, informative and thought provoking.Taye Training Delegate
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Andrea Lestar
Facilitator
About Andrea
Andrea is an experienced training facilitator with many years of expertise in designing and delivering impactful learning experiences. She has worked with various sectors, including charities, non-profit organisations, local authorities, and the corporate sector, specialising in subjects such as mental capacity, drugs and alcohol, domestic abuse, and lone working.
In addition to her role as a training facilitator, Andrea is a qualified mental health first aid instructor and a certified yoga instructor. She has also established a Community Interest Company (CIC) to support the local community's health and well-being, reduce social isolation, and promote a balanced lifestyle.
In her training sessions, Andrea creates an inclusive environment where all learners feel comfortable to engage and interact. She focuses on fostering opportunities for participants to learn from each other, encouraging mutual respect and collaboration. Her sessions are highly practical, enhancing the relevance and relatability of the training content. Andrea's approach involves understanding organisational requirements and delegate needs, enabling her to create high-quality, tailored training materials that are engaging and effective.
Fantastic facilitation. Assertive, yet gentle, encouraging and compassionate to the subject matter and those attending the training.Taye Training Delegate
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Angie Norden Southan
Facilitator
About Angie
Angie is an experienced learning and development professional, coach, counsellor and facilitator with a wealth of experience in learning and development across the full learning cycle. She regularly facilitates training sessions both in the classroom and online.
Angie has a real passion for leadership and management, using accelerated learning and delivering engaging training sessions which align with the key principles of the Training 4 Influence methodology.
Learners describe Angie’s training style as “empowering and engaging” and she firmly believes that, given the desire, everyone has both the right and the capability to embrace continual learning and development and find real solutions to their challenges.
Angie’s biggest buzz is seeing individuals and teams gain increased awareness and then apply this knowledge to the greater benefit of both them and their organisations.
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Beckie Breakwell
Facilitator
About Beckie
Beckie is an experienced child and young person’s worker, with over 15 years of experience providing one-to-one and group support for sexual trauma, domestic violence, child sexual exploitation, and emotional wellbeing.She has worked frontline and in management in charities. Her mix of personal and professional lived experience enables her to explore different perspectives and inspire change.
At Taye Training Beckie is both a Taye Facilitator and the Coordinator for our Train the Trainer qualification. Alongside this Beckie is the managing director of What’s the Debate? – an organisation which aims to raise awareness, educate, and prevent young people from being subjected to abuse, violence, and exploitation in their relationships through the means of RSHE.
Beckie is a very passionate trainer, who enjoys creating and facilitating packages designed to invoke, challenge, and empower; ensuring that delegates are fully supported and cared for.
Beckie had such a wide breadth of knowledge and experience. She created a really safe space for discussions, to contribute and was extremely supportive regarding the subject matter.Taye Training Delegate
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Becky Dawson
Facilitator
About Becky
Becky has experience in education as a teacher, Assistant Head and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. She also worked in a Local Authority developing a range of support for children and young people, working with a range of partners to bring together the strength of the community to support wellbeing. Becky has held many roles such as SENCo and Designated Safeguarding Lead which have brought her into contact with many families who face huge challenges every day.
Becky has also worked in a Local Authority developing a range of support for children and young people, working with a range of partners to bring together the strength of the community to support wellbeing.
Becky specialises in developing and delivering training in a range if sectors with a focus on mental health, wellbeing and safeguarding. She also works with young people which are out of mainstream education to build their confidence, self-esteem and life skills.
Becky is so engaging and passionate about what she does. The session was thought provoking and tailored well to our organisation.Taye Training Delegate
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Carmen Clarke
Facilitator
About Carmen
Carmen is a freelance facilitator, leadership coach, and consultant with over 20 years of experienceacross frontline services and leadership in the social justice and business sectors. For the previous 10 years, she was independent advocate and founding director of a grassroots service for refugees and people seeking asylum who have been trafficked.
Carmen navigates the complexities of professional and personal trauma often within oppressive systems and holds a holistic approach to life and work which values learning and human connection.
She is passionate about justice and is working on various projects that aim to help create systemic change. Ethics and compassion underpin her work, and she brings an understanding of the importance of history and culture to peoples’ lives; and how that can influence and inform organisational matters.
Carmen is an expert facilitator - kind, warm, inclusive, knowledgeable… She was very engaging and facilitated our group to have sound, thought provoking conversations on a personal and systemic level… Uncomfortable issues were spoken about in a way that made me inquisitive.Taye Training Delegate
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Carol Woodhead
Facilitator
About Carol
Carol has experience of working within community health and local authority services for 25 years. She has worked on the frontline delivering and designing training packages around healthy eating, domestic abuse and child development, to inspire change in families. She is currently working as a parenting support manager for a local authority, coordinating and designing the parenting offer available whilst training, coaching, mentoring and motivating staff, volunteers and partner agencies. Utilising a mix of personal and professional experience enables her to drive forward change and bring sessions to life.
Carol has been with Taye Training since 2017and is both a facilitator and mentor for our Train the Trainer programme. She is also working on a pilot programme with Taye as a Lead Experienced Equity Facilitator and has taken charge of the induction programme to ensure this is a seamless journey from the training to facilitator.
Carol is an engaging trainer who enjoys writing and facilitating programmes which are trauma informed yet challenging and evoke rich discussion. She is an advocate for accelerated learning techniques to make sure the programmes she delivers are also engaging, fun and interactive.
Carol was a very knowledgeable and experienced facilitator. She supported us through the training and made time for questions and discussions. Her use of real-lifeexamples brought the session to life.Taye Training Delegate
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Diana Harris
Facilitator
About Diane
Diane is qualified Children and Families Social Worker with experience mainly in fostering, but also initial assessment and referral and youth justice teams. She has worked as an independent social worker since 2016 when she moved focus to children and families with unsettled immigration status and no recourse to public funds and act as an expert witness completing complex assessments and producing evidence-based quality reports for tribunal hearings.
Diane delivers training to help professionals to gain confidence and skills in their work.
Diane loves working with people and sharing knowledge and experience to help others develop their potential. She is passionate about Children’s Rights and Human Rights and ensuring that individual’s voices and experiences are heard by decision makers in the matters that affect them.
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Faye Fox
Facilitator
About Faye
As Co-Director of our organisation she is passionate about empowering professionals within the criminal justice, social care, and charity sectors to make a lasting impact through values-based training.
Faye plays a crucial role in leading and developing our organisation, with a particular focus on leadership, team building, and operational processes. Her expertise in these areas is central to guiding organisations towards achieving excellence.
Faye has extensive experience in designing and delivering learning and development programmes, utilising a blended approach that includes coaching, face-to-face training, one-to-one sessions, team building, and action learning.
She has held key roles, such as Operations Director for a charity working within the criminal justice system to prevent sexual abuse, and Manager of adult offender and resettlement services.
Her background as a Learning and Development Officer in both private and charity sectors informs her training style, which delegates describe as “relaxed, engaging, and transformational.”
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Gemma McDonald
Facilitator
About Gemma
Gemma is a fully qualified secondary teacher and has over 20 years' experience working with Children and Young People. When in education Gemma was an Assistant Headteacher and trained Designated Safeguarding Officer and gained a wealth of frontline experience in safeguarding, leadership, and management.
Gemma is a Taye facilitator and a training for influence mentor. Alongside this, Gemma runs her own company, Generate Theatre Company, whose mission is to use theatre and creativity to improve the wellbeing of the communities and priority groups and to promote and develop social, physical, and emotional skills for individuals that will help them succeed in everyday life.
Gemma is very passionate about all the work she does and always wants to make a difference to people whether that be through direct contact or through the training she delivers to frontline teams.
Gemma was brilliant - hugely experienced, very engaging and actually made a very challenging subject enjoyable.Taye Training Delegate
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Gillian Shaibu
Facilitator
About Gillian
Gillian brings over 15 years of experience in health and social care, including 10 years in leadership and management roles. She has worked across various settings, supporting diverse groups of people. Her extensive experience has given her a deep appreciation for frontline work and managerial responsibilities.
Gillian strongly advocates for the belief that everyone possesses the ability and right to learn. Inclusion, respect, and empowerment are vital for this belief to thrive in the training. As a qualified teacher, Gillian is passionate about inspiring and engaging with people. She delights in sparking interest and initiating conversations about current challenges. She works through real-life examples to foster confidence and the ability to conquer these challenges.
Wellbeing is a particular area of interest for Gillian, who understands the importance of taking care of staff to support individuals and effectively contribute to the business's success.
Her expertise is derived from her professional experiences and personal life. As a wife, mother, daughter, aunt, niece, colleague, peer, student, and friend, she has had countless opportunities to enhance her expertise, ultimately molding her values and life experiences, which bring the training and examples she shares, alive.
Gillian was excellent, she paced the course and gave us regular breaks. The training was well researched and presented at a level I could understand. I am dyslexicand learningnew information is a challenge for me. This training you have given me context and the confidence to believe that I will not only succeed but enjoy it and make a difference.Taye Training Delegate
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Helen Baker
Facilitator
About Helen
Outside of Helen’s professional efforts, Helen has personal experience that has shaped her perspective on mental health, nutrition, ADHD and emotional intelligence/resilience. Through her own lived experience, she has cultivated empathy, resilience, and a profound commitment to supporting others on their path to recovery.
In delivering training, she draws upon these experiences to create a compassionate and inclusive learning environment. She strives to foster understanding, empathy, and practical skills for supporting individuals who have experienced trauma and abuse. By sharing her journey and insights, she aims to break down stigma, promote healing, and empower others to navigate their own mental health challenges with strength and resilience.
Delegates often describe her training and coaching style as warm, relaxed, insightful, and empowering. Her empathetic coaching style empowers individuals through active listening and a collaborative approach.
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Helena Young
Facilitator
About Helena
Helena is a registered pharmacist with over with over 15 years’ experience across various sectors of pharmacy practice including community, hospital and most recently in learning and development. She has worked in the NHS and community pharmacies, as well as in management and senior leadership roles. Outside of work, Helena is a parent governor at her children’s primary school and is a volunteer befriender for mental health charity, Mind.
As a trainer and facilitator, Helena ensures to create a safe learning environment and brings high energy andengagement to her sessions. From both her own lived and professional experience, she is able to draw on relevant examples during training to bring the subject matter to life.
Helena was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter. She held the space really well for attendees to interact and learn from each other as well as from her.Taye Training Delegate
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James McCarthy
Facilitator
About James
James has over 15 years of experience developing and implementing individualised packages of support which have included increasing independent living skills, management of emotional well-being, acknowledgement of offending behaviour and harm reduction techniques in relation to substance misuse and self-harming behaviours.
James specialises in service user focused training; identifying and developing skills to communicate, support and manage high risk service users with multiple needs, implementing a person-centred approach to develop and maintain productive relationships with each service user.
James was incredibly knowledgeable about his subject, and he delivered the messages in a very compassionate and appropriate manner.Taye Training Delegate
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James Pierce
Facilitator
About James
James has over 15 years’ experience in the drug sector, working in a wide range of roles, from harm reduction and needle exchange to outreach. James has also held several voluntary positions, working in welfare teams at festivals across the UK.
James is an experienced trainer, and he currently works part-time for an integrated drug and alcohol recovery service, who support people to recover from and be free from drug and alcohol dependency and to reduce the harm that is caused to individuals, families and communities.
James develops and delivers courses for clients in substance misuse and complex needs. His background as a trainer covers a decade and he has both developed and delivered training for many clients over the years.
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Janine Higgins
Facilitator
About Janine
Janine has years of experience in leadership and management and learning and development. As a Customer Service Manager, she has gained invaluable insight into the day-to-day challenges that are faced by individuals on the front line and how an effective leader can support and motivate individuals to be the best that they can be.
Janine is member of an organisation called True Temperance International who focus on holistic health. Through this organisation members of the public are supported in making positive lifestyle changes to help their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. Janine uses this experience within her facilitation around mental health and uses lived and professional experiences to relate to the delegates.
Janine is passionate about individuals realising their potential and really being invested and motivated when it comes to their day-to-day roles. She loves learning and sharing learning to help others to live their best lives. She is a firm believer in fairness – fairness to us and fairness to others. Janine believes that everyone is valuable and has valuable experiences that impact the positive training experience delegates receive.
Janine made the way everything connects so clear, a fabulously informative session, her expertise shone through.Taye Training Delegate
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Joanne Mitchell
Facilitator
About Joanne
Joanne has over 20 years' experience in the Criminal Justice sector, having worked in senior manager roles in prisons and probation. She has also worked as a consultant with police forces, local and national government, and the Home Office. Her experience brings a wide range of knowledge and understanding of operations, strategic direction and culture within the justice sector.
Joanne has a passion for learning and communicating with others, sharing knowledge and widening thinking. She strongly believes in honesty, fairness, being kind and celebrating difference. She delivers training as I have a passion for learning, discussing, exploring, and sharing knowledge
Jo was fantastic, it was great to reflect, I would love to a further course with her.Taye Training Delegate
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Julie Sharpe
Facilitator
About Julie
Julie has experience of many different sectors (both public and private) and has gained a genuine understanding of the business world and the challenges currently being faced by both employers and employees alike. This knowledge enables her to provide an in-depth and empathetic consultancy service and efficiently produce and deliver bespoke, public or in-house programmes to effectively “close the gap”.
After a successful and varied career within HSBC PLC, Julie now works as a consultant, specialising in the design and delivery of experiential leadership/management and sales/customer service training.
As a passionate facilitator, Julie can create a psychologically safe learning environment with appropriate challenge, support and humour. Julie believes there is nothing more rewarding than being a catalyst in supporting anyone, at any age, to learn to believe in their own abilities and their unique potential to achieve whatever is important to them.
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Lindsay Lawton
Facilitator
About Lyndsay
Lyndsay has worked in the third sector for 17years supporting young people who are NEET, imprisoned, ex-offenders, in care and those with challenging behaviour. She has been fortunate in building a career around developing and supporting young people, and with that supporting those who work with them.
Lyndsay has been a Service Manager at a CIC supporting young people aged 16-21 in care and was responsible for service quality, safeguarding and line managing 6 residential and community-based team supporting young people aged 16-21 in care.
During the last 10years of her career Lyndsay has been working towards supporting young people back into education, employment and training, and managing supportive teams who are well resourced to do so.
Lyndsay has lived and professional experience that have enabled her to have open discussions around equality, diversity and inclusion from a place of openness and understanding.
Lyndsay is passionate about supporting those working with young people, challenging behaviour and having open and DEI honest discussions.
Lindsay was very engaging and the whole session was well structured and interactive.Taye Training Delegate
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Lindsay Pendleton
Facilitator
About Lindsay
Lindsay is an experienced social worker with a background in adult social care, mental health including early intervention in psychosis teams, assertive outreach and community mental health services. She has worked as an Approved Social Worker and Approved Mental Health Professional for many years.
As a Senior Mental Health Advisor at a large university for 10 years, Lindsay has a comprehensive understanding of the needs of students and staff in both Higher and Further Education settings, having set up the Mental Health First Aid Training programme at the University, both for staff and students.
At Taye Training, Lindsay operates as a Taye Facilitator and has adapted training to meet the needs of clients but also continues to deliver accredited training in the form of Mental Health First Aid and Suicide First Aid.
Lindsay is a committed facilitator who enjoys creating safe spaces so that delegates can consolidate and expand their knowledges. She is a compassionate trainer who recognises the importance of self-care and promoting this amongst those attending her courses.
Lovely pedagogic approach from Lindsay. Responsive to questions and fosters a safe and inclusive environment.Taye Training Delegate
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Liv Bethell
Facilitator
About Liv
Liv studied psychology and criminology at university where she also volunteered for a charity that supports survivors of sexual violence for 2 years. After leaving university she then started working for the same charity as an ISVA where she supported survivors through the criminal justice system and advocate for their needs. Liv then went on to be the specialist trainer for the charity exploring issues such as how to support survivors and how to become trauma informed.
Liv is a freelance facilitator for Taye and supporting with various projects within the organisation. Her current role is organising educational events for an external organisation.
Liv has a passion for sexual violence awareness and trauma informed awareness, empowering and supporting others to break down the stigma that often accompanies sexual trauma. Liv creates a safe space within the training where difficult questions and topics can be explored to create the best learning environment.
Liv facilitated the group very well encouraging group discussion. Her knowledge was evident, and I really value how I can take the training away and apply it to my personal life.Taye Training Delegate
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Louise Ross
Facilitator
About Louise
Louise believes passionately that everyone has the potential to live a productive and satisfying life despite the challenges life puts in the way and loves the fact that in her job even small changes can make a huge difference to people’s lives.
Louise currently works as an Occupational Therapist (OT) in mental health but has previously worked in a Social Care setting as a Community OT and has inpatient experience. This breadth of experience leads to a very holistic view of OT issues, as well as more generic issues around physical and mental health care.
Louise likes to keep busy and alongside her full-time jobs she has, over the years, run her own film company, a paint-your-own pottery business, and a small holiday cottage, Through the paint your own pottery she got involved in a project which combined creative activity with alcohol & drug awareness workshops within the criminal justice system. She currently sits on the board of a local charity which works to get people with mental health difficulties in to work.
Louise explained things clearly and she had great understanding on the subject.Taye Training Delegate
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Mark Wrangles
Facilitator
About Mark
Mark has a background in both mainstream and alternative provision school leadership with experience around pastoral support and safeguarding. After over 20 years in schools, he now supports organisations around two areas. The first is enabling schools to understand and respond to the effects of poverty in their students, the second is supporting those developing alternative approaches to mainstream education. Having seen the impact of Trauma through lived experience and his work with young people he has a particular interest and enthusiasm for educating others around trauma-informed practice.
Mark has facilitated courses for Taye in safeguarding and trauma informed practice. He has also assessed Training 4 Influence students as they complete the training session element of their course.
Mark likes to develop and lead training that is varied in style, engaging and that results in an ability to apply the learning and see its practical impact.
He is professional, knowledgeable, personable and energising as a critical friend. I would recommend him to any organisation.Taye Training Delegate
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Mike Wrigglesworth
Facilitator
About Mike
Mike was a solicitor for over thirty years, spending almost 27 of them in the CPS. During that time, he prosecuted cases in both the Magistrates and Crown Courts and reviewed files across the criminal offence's spectrum, including serious sexual abuse and murder.
He was the national CPS policy lead on vulnerable and intimidated witnesses and the intermediary scheme. He was also a manager of teams of lawyers covering advocacy in the Crown Court and the review of serious sexual offences.
Mike retired from the Crown Prosecution Service in 2019 and has since then been accepted as an Associate with the College of Policing, developing examination questions for police promotions, and assessing potential recruits into the police service. He also delivers training on criminal law and procedures to government departments. At Taye, Mike is involved in a project to improve their internal processes for the benefit of both the company and the freelance facilitators. He also delivers training for Taye both online and in person.
Mike is passionate about Inclusion, justice and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to learn, contribute and come away with something valuable from the training.
Mike is a brilliant facilitator, he's so knowledgeable and he kept everyone involved in discussion well.Taye Training Delegate
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Nasra Omar
Facilitator
About Nasra
Nasra has worked with both survivors of domestic abuse and with perpetrators, striving to create safer environments and foster behavioural change. Nasra’s lived experience has taught her that recovery is possible and that every survivor has the potential to reclaim their life. Nasra’s goal is to raise awareness of domestic abuse, and to address the root causes of domestic abuse and promote healthy, respectful relationships.
Nasra currently works as a DRIVE case manager and my role is to engage with high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators identified by MARAC. Her goal is to promote attitudinal and behavioural change through one-on-one interventions and collaboration with existing agencies. She works closely with the Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy (IDVA) service to review risks, develop safety plans, and improve outcomes for all involved.
Nasra believes it is important to approach delivery and training around an emotive subject like Domestic Abuse in way that is sensitive, respectful and to show a deep understanding of the complexities involved. Her values guide herapproach and she always ensure that sheam empathetic and compassionate, so that she is approaching her delivery on understanding survivors of domestic abuse whilst also providing a safe environment.
Nasra is clearly an expert at what she does, I enjoyed the specific examples she gave.Taye Training Delegate
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Natalie Todd
Facilitator
About Natalie
Natalie brings over two decades of experience in managing and developing individuals using a person-centered approach. She has successfully worked with a diverse age group, ranging from 17 to 60, helping them to enhance leadership skills, build confidence, and adopt a personalised path to growth. With 20 years of experience in the Travel and Sales industries. In recent years, she has expanded her expertise to include supporting individuals with ADHD through specialised coaching and training.
At Taye Training, Natalie is passionate about engaging in training that covers topics such as Neurodiversity, Leadership, Confidence, Grief, and Personal Development. Alongside Taye she provides one-on-one coaching and serves as a Sales Performance Coach for a global company, where she integrates neuroscience with a person-centered approach to drive positive results.
Natalie is committed to ensuring that every session is delivered with passion and equality. She emphasises making the sessions engaging and impactful by creating a values-based approach.
I learned so much from Natalie and I am extremely proud of myself because I went into my next consultation feeling so confident and I used the process learnt.Taye Training Delegate
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Nicola Gully
Facilitator
About Nicola
Nicola is an experienced trainer (14 years) in the field of Employee Engagement and Workplace Culture. She is passionate about supporting teams and individuals to fulfil their potential and thrive in a culture of psychological safety and trust. Nicola’s lived experience of Domestic Abuse and her personal values of integrity, respect and dignity led her to a career change in becoming a Freelance Facilitator for Taye.
Prior to becoming a Freelance Facilitator for Taye, Nicola was an Employee Engagement Coach & Facilitator in the John Lewis Partnership where she supported business leaders to strengthen employee engagement, leverage employee voice, and increase morale in their teams. She has extensive experience of developing and delivering training in this field.
Earlier in her career she worked in the fields of Employee Assistance and Employee Relations, where she provided frontline support to employees and people managers in the John Lewis Partnership.
Nicola is inspired by the work of the organisations, charities and frontline professionals who supported her during her lived experience of domestic abuse – and this is a key motivator for her as a trainer in Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding related topics.
Nicola helped us explore how we could work together and communicate more effectively.Taye Training Delegate
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Nicola Simpson
Facilitator
About Nicola
Nicola has over 24 years of experience working with supported adults with a learning disability, working on the frontline as a Support Worker and Services Manager. She supported adults across all age brackets, who also had additional diagnoses of autism, cerebral palsy, dementia, and mental health conditions. She has worked in the statutory, social care and charity sectors for most of her career.
Nicola specialises in learning disability and hearing loss, cerebral palsy, safeguarding adults at risk and empowerment and person-centered support planning. She delivers training that aligns with my professional and lived experience, and secondly, it’s what brings her joy.
Nicola believes that independence, and empowering individuals are really important values which sheweaves throughout all her training. Delegates who come away from training as independent thinkers, confident to take their learning forward into their workplace, will empower service users to developtheirown independence skills.
The inclusion of all in the session was great, humorous, knowledgeable and passionate.Taye Training Delegate
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Nina Whitsed
Facilitator
About Nina
Nina has almost 20 years frontline experience within the Criminal Justice System, facilitating and managing rehabilitative interventions to people on probation. Nina’s experience has predominantly focussed on working with those convicted of domestic abuse, she also spent many years delivering CBT-based interventions addressing anger management, drink/drug driving and the implementation of problem-solving skills.
At Taye, Nina has helped develop, and facilitates the ‘Working with People Convicted of Domestic Abuse’ training. Nina also enjoys the role of Assessor for the Training 4 Influence Train the Trainer Qualification. Outside of Taye, Nina works full-time as a Treatment Manager in Accredited Programmes within the Probation Service.
Nina is an energetic and enthusiastic facilitator, who enjoys creating interactive and collaborative training environments to really bring the subject matter to life and enable delegates to use the skills within their frontline roles.
Nina herself is what made this course work so well! She had great insight into the topic, she made it very engaging and interactive. Due to the nature of the course and how triggering/ heavy it is, she made sure we were all okay throughout the lesson and was super attentive towards our needs and feelings. I cannot fault Nina in the slightest!Taye Training Delegate
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Noel Moran
Facilitator
About Noel
Noel Moran is a major advocate in positive change and believes everyone can unlock their highest potential. His journey comes from an extensive lived experience in criminal justice. Noel now spends his time passionately sharing his experience and knowledge through training frontline professionals and working with people experiencing multiple disadvantages.
Noel is a yoga teacher and specialist trainer in multiple fields. He has designed a unique 10-week mindfulness-based yoga course specifically for people with multiple disadvantages in Prisons nationwide to share the practice and give hope to others incarcerated, he fundamentally believes we can all find the light at the end of our own tunnel. As a motivational speaker he shares his journey which is both empowering and inspiring.
Noel believes that helping people reach their highest potential, connecting with their values and how they share that into the world. Actively listening to delegates, showing empathy and understanding, brings hope and wellbeing to all training sessions. Noel is extremely authentic, honest and kind, which helps him to connect with delegates on a human level.
Noel is inspirational; he sees us and hears us; he welcomed me into the group, and I felt that I mattered.Taye Training Delegate
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Penny Phillips
Facilitator
About Penny
Penny has nearly 30 years professional experience in asset-based community development and organisational leadership in the voluntary sector and local government. Working in Project Management, health and social care policy development, leading strategic grant funding programmes and commissioning. Penny has worked in a variety health and social policy areas including; homelessness, supported accommodation, mental health (adults and children’s), employment and family services.
Over the past 10 years Penny has honed her coaching skills and training expertise alongside co-designing and delivering peer led programmes empowering those with lived experience to create and implement community-based solutions that support mental health and wellbeing in children and young people and the adults around them.
Penny is a trainer, facilitator and coach for Taye and the founder of The Parent Village a charity that supports and empowers parents in supporting children and young people’s mental health.
Penny is passionate about co-creating nurturing and fun learning environments that empower participants to take immediate practical steps that make an impact in their everyday work straight away.
I really like how engaging the session was and how comfortable Penny made everyone feel this topic can be hard for some people to get their head around and use the correct terminology and there was no judgement on prior learning and knowledge!Taye Training Delegate
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Rachel Barber
Facilitator
About Rachel
Rachel has extensive facilitation skills training at Taye and in her own business, Living 4 Moments. She supports individuals and businesses in inclusion, empowering people while maximising the purple pound in hospitality and tourism. Living with severe/profound hearing loss, Rachel has overcome personal challenges and gained insights from diverse careers in the private, public, and voluntary sectors.
At Taye, Rachel delivers impactful training sessions on Dementia Awareness and MCA. Outside of Taye, she runs Living 4 Moments, dedicated to creating inclusive environments in education, hospitality and tourism. Her roles blend practical insights with strategic solutions, benefiting individuals and organisations alike.
Rachel values creating inclusive, empathetic, and practical training environments. She believes in frameworks like the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) to enable meaningful conversations and choices. Her approach, shaped by personal and professional experiences, emphasises tailored solutions respecting everyone's needs.
Rachel shared insightful research with practical recommendations we can implement with our clients. Thank you for making the course stimulating and fun. I highly recommend Rachel.Taye Training Delegate
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Robert Panico
Facilitator
About Robert
Robert is a youth and social justice worker with 5 years of experience in Non Governmental Organisations and governmental services like Modern Slavery Response Teams, Children and Young People Residential homes, Homelessness and Youth Offending services. He advocates for anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practices. Currently specialising in coaching psychology, he focuses on personal development, transgenerational trauma, stress and anxiety management, goals setting/achievement using strength-based and narrative coaching to empowervulnerable individuals to rise without becoming the oppressors.
Robert joined Taye Training as a facilitator and following the achievement of Training4Influence accreditation. He is pursuing an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology & Coaching Psychology and holds a degree in Youth Justice, an ED&I in Social Work associate certification, a PGCert in Global Cultures.
Robert created a safe space to discuss from all perspective and was innovative and engaging, I learned a lot.Taye Training Delegate
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Ruth Stanford
Facilitator
About Ruth
Ruth is a multi-skilled health and social care professional, with over ten years’ experience in the field of independent advocacy.
Ruth is currently employed as a L&D Delivery and Excellence manager; Ruth develops and delivers ILM and bespoke leadership and management qualifications. Alongside this, Ruth quality assures advocacy qualifications and keeps up to date with sector developments.
Ruth believes that good quality training relies on finding and funding passionate facilitators who can bring their own experience and expertise to programmes. She meticulously crafts sessions in which learners are encouraged and supported to explore topics in a safe and creative way. Biases, barriers and boundaries are tackled sensitively to ensure everyone feels included and that their precious time away from the front line is used wisely.
I have found Ruth's course very helpful within my role dealing with different people, issues and scenarios. The course was well delivered in a nice, relaxed environment, and I have found myself handling things very differently now to how I may have previously.Taye Training Delegate
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Sally Fletcher
Facilitator
About Sally
Sally has 30 years’ experience as a police officer, with 14 years as a Detective Sergeant in Safeguarding Adults and Children. She has overseen multiple investigations into child and adult abuse and domestic abuse offences and worked in several multi-agency settings.
Sally has been involved in domestic homicide reviews and serious case reviews, leading on the implementation of a Domestic Abuse Hub and chairing the daily MARAC meetings.Her experience of leading on a complex adult care home neglect investigation led to her being invited to address a crime conference in London and be recorded as a national expert on the subject with the NCA.
Sally currently works as a Learning and Improvement Officer for her local Safeguarding Adults Board and Safeguarding Childrens Partnership. Sally is committed to ensuring her training feels personal and relevant to each individual and recognises the link between effective learning and improved outcomes for children and adults in need of support.
Sally’s course was very practical and gave clear information, it was interactive and I enjoyed participating and hearing other colleagues views.Taye Training Delegate
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Sally O'Donnell
Facilitator
About Sally
Sally has an extensive and varied background.  For over a decade Sally took on challenging roles within criminal justice including as a prison officer, youth offending service, probation, drugs and alcohol and a prison resettlement role. She developed this experience within the housing sector managing homeless hostels for young people and working for the housing charity, Shelter.
Having seen firsthand the effect that abuse has on children, Sally went on to spend seven years with the NSPCC honing her safeguarding knowledge. She then took on strategic, operational and safeguarding training roles within sport for a governing body, County FA and a professional football club.
Sally is dedicated to creating impactful solutions that address the unique needs of each organisation she works with, ensuring that her training and support have a lasting impact on their operations.
Sally’s passion is evident in her ability to connect with diverse groups and adapt her approach to meet their goals and challenges.
Sally made the training enjoyable and interesting - by far the best safeguarding training I've ever received which made a difference to how much information I was able to digest!Taye Training Delegate
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Sallyanne Reed
Facilitator
About Sallyanne
Sallyanne has a natural enthusiasm and positivity which results in her always accentuating and building on the positives in any situation, seeing any challenge as an opportunity exploring alternative solutions. Pragmatic, creative, empathetic and objective, Sallyanne is passionate about helping individuals and organisations to grow, develop and reach their true potential.
With extensive experience in Human Resources and Learning & Development management, training facilitation and 10 years on the Board of a Housing Association, her professional approach reflects her personal values and lived experience.
Sallyanne’s ability to relate and communicate well in any situation stems from working across all sectors, embracing commercial, industrial, social care and charities with engagement activities up to and including Trustee level.
She strives to always create a developmental space with a high quality of listening and presence, enabling learning, exploring challenges and development areas, whilst recognising strengths and aspirations.
Sallyanne had a lovely style, Interactive and discursive. Her practical leadership examples helped me to understand and apply the learning.Taye Training Delegate
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Sharon Cudlip
Facilitator
About Sharon
Sharon has over 40years of experience in health and social care as a Registered Adult Nurse and over 28years of teaching and mentoring. Sharon is an intuitive & reflective Educator with a strong track record of delivering expert support & development to healthcare and social care professionals and non-healthcare participants during workshops and training sessions. Sharon lives with the gift and frustration of Dyslexia.
Sharon enjoys facilitating by embracing her dyslexia as a friend rather than a foe.  As Sharon has learnt to embrace the adventures and spirit of her learning and teaching style, which enables Sharon to communicate to participants during the various sessions taught and facilitated. That encourages the participants to ignite and engage their sprit of inquiry and professional curiosity.
Sharon is a Taye facilitator and delivers on a variety of subject areas and she is also a health and social care educator. Sharon brings a wide range of experience to each session whether online or face2face.
Sharon strives to create impactful training and learning experiences and ensures the learning environment is one built upon trust, hope, sense of worth and competence.
Sharon was fantastic, passionate and experienced. The pace of the course was good, the subject was interesting and practical.Taye Training Delegate
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Shital V
Facilitator
About Shital
Shital V is dedicated to empowering through education, learning and development and holistic well-being practices in her business Free2Byou.
Shital uses her life & professional experiences and expertise to deliver powerful, inclusive, trauma informed training.She has a wealth of knowledge and experience across various fields having trained Police officers and professionals nationally and online.
Shital fosters and employs a trauma-informed approach in all her services and practice, ensuring a safe and supportive environment which offers a combination of holistic practices and personalised support to promote well-being on multiple levels whilst facilitating training.
Shital was very warm, confident and compassionate. She could not have delivered the training any better. She was very precise and easy to listen to.Taye Training Delegate
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Sophie Cooke
Facilitator
About Sophie
Sophie’s passion is in using equity diversity and inclusion principles to support individuals and organisations to build and embed practices that disrupt and challenge discrimination and oppression.
She has a background in the violence against women and girls movement, as a frontline volunteer, trainer, and organiser, and it is here that she started actively building the skills and knowledge to allow her to challenge organisational practice and support positive change. Sophie is also the Director of Speak! Training and Consulting, an organisation focussed on supporting organisations in their anti-oppression journey.
Sophie brings a blend of professional expertise and lived experience as a disabled, neurodivergent, and queer woman, allowing her to bring training to life with real world examples. She excels in creating engaging and challenging training packages, delivered with sensitivity and in a psychologically safe space that empowers delegates to meaningfully explore what are often challenging and emotive topics.
At Taye Training, Sophie is both a Taye Facilitator and a Lead Experienced Equity Facilitator (LEEF) working to provide tailored support to her peers, and part of the LEEF project team with a focus on Equity Diversity and Inclusion.
Sophie has been fab - so approachable, considerate and engaging with her teaching methods and content. I have felt so appreciated and allowed to learn in the way I do best.Taye Training Delegate
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Steve Sylvan
Facilitator
About Steve
Steve is an AC accredited coach with over ten years’ worth of coaching experience.
Steve spent many years working with young people (council youth worker, Prince’s Trust) he then moved into the world of homelessness and worked as a coach for Crisis, whilst also being part of the Lived Experience Advisory Board.
Steve now works for an Adult Autism and ADHD service, providing coaching for neurodivergent adults and manages the support side of the service. Steve is a coach and facilitator for Taye and he thoroughly enjoys sharing his experiences about how to communicate with people effectively.
Steve believes that training and deliver is a duologue, and the best training is where he walks away having learned from those who attend. He believes it’s important to make it enjoyable and engaging by making it a conversation.
I enjoyed Steve’s delivery; he was very professional and helpful and he put us at ease.Taye Training Delegate
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Tammy Banks
Facilitator
About Tammy
Tammy's personal history, academic achievements, and work experience have driven her to champion effective, achievable solutions to prevent abuse and poverty. Leading with passion and commitment, she recognises the importance of advocating for change while delivering practical solutions.
As the Founder and Director of Taye Training, Tammy leads a socially focused company that delivers essential training to key service providers such as the Police, charities, and education. She developed the Training 4 Influence methodology and quality standard, which is detailed in her Amazon bestseller, Transform Your Training. This methodology comes to life in her flagship Train the Trainer programme, which won a Princess Royal Training Award in 2023.
Tammy is a firm believer that training should be delivered by experts, tailored to the delegates' needs, and engaging and interactive in its delivery. Above all, it should be values-led.
Throughout her career, Tammy has tirelessly championed change and is on a mission to help people recognise the true power of training.
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Theresa Dohmatob
Facilitator
About Theresa
Theresa has over 10 years experience as a mental health nurse in various settings, ranging from adolescence to older adults. She has also been a health and social care and ABE tutor, which involved supporting school leavers and adults on benefit during the transition and gaining relevant qualification require for various sectors in the health care, logistics and customer Service.
At Taye, Theresa is a facilitator, delivering courses related to health and social care and has completed the Training 4 influence accreditation.
Theresa is passionate about self-care, good health and well-being. She also believes there is no health without mental health. As such, the act of caring is her core value. She incorporates the six C’s framework, which underpins working in the health and social care sector, within her training where appropriate. These values are namely, care, compassion, competence, communication courage and commitment.
That was an excellent training session,thanks Theresa!Taye Training Delegate
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Tina Pokuaah
Facilitator
About Tina
Tina is an operational expert in the subject of domestic abuse, her experience includes over a decade of being an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor and delivering group counselling to survivors of domestic abuse.
Tina is a seasoned professional with a diverse background spanning education, social care, charity, and the private sectors. Her rich experience has taken her from providing hands-on support to assuming strategic leadership roles across the UK, Africa, and The Middle East.
Tina uses every opportunity to create proactive conversations about safeguarding. She strives to foster connections and inspire thought-provoking discussions by utilising her surroundings and engaging with those around her. She believes we can empower children and adults with the knowledge and skills that will shape their future.
Tina was named as a next-generation trailblazer by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2020,aTrueHonour recipient in 2023 for her exceptional work against so-called “honour-based” abuse.Recently, she became a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) and serves on the Methodist Church's safeguarding committee.
Tina was an excellent speaker with good knowledge, and it was powerful to hear her talk about her own lived experiences.Taye Training Delegate
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Vicki Beere
Facilitator
About Vicki
Vicki is a passionate and experienced facilitator and trainer, driven by her values to improve the world for people who use drugs. Vicki cares deeply about providing excellent support to people, especially women, to help provide choice for people to make positive changes if and when they are ready. Vicki takes a harm reduction approach to this, valuing and meeting people where they are, and supporting them to make the changes they want. Vicki is driven by the need to improve social justice and am a committed anti-racist and intersectional feminist.
Vicki currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Manchester, her research areas are changes to the drug and alcohol sector, women’s access to treatment and harm reduction. Prior to this Vicki have over 20 years’ experience of working within the drug and alcohol treatment sector for medium sized and national providers, and for the past 9 years she was the Chief Executive of the charity Project 6.
Wonderful training. It really challenged my perceptions of women in treatment. Covered some serious topics but it never felt like hard work, a good balance between teaching and small group work
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Vie Portland
Facilitator
About Vie
Vie runs her own business delivering confidence workshops in schools, groups, and libraries, working with children and young people, from 3 years to 18. She coaches women and girls aged 12+ one to one. VieNess CIC is an award-winning Hampshire CIC, supporting adults and children in their journey towards self-acceptance, self-love and body confidence.
Vie is a confidence coach; an author of inclusive children’s picture books and growth books for adults; a trainer; and a motivational speaker. She says she feels that all of her work and life experiences have brought her to this place, doing lots of things she loves.
Vie believes that kindness is one of the best things, and this comes across in her training, delivering inclusive, trauma-informed, sessions, where she ensures that all delegates feel heard and valued.
Vie is an inspirational lady, who has the knack of combining upbeat motivation with a very down to earth and authentic understanding.Taye Training Delegate