Meet Sian
Why do parents trust me with their teenagers?
Choosing someone to work with your teenager is not a small decision. You're inviting someone into your child's inner world, and you want to know that person genuinely understands young people, not just in theory but in practice.
I bring over 12 years of direct experience working with teenagers as a secondary school Drama teacher and more than eight years leading a pastoral team, supporting sixth formers. That's thousands of hours spent with young people of every personality, learning style, and emotional profile. I've worked with teenagers who were thriving and teenagers who were falling apart. I've navigated sixth form anxiety, GCSE pressure, friendship crises, and the particular kind of silent suffering that capable students carry when they feel they can't afford to crack.
But the real reason I do this work isn't professional, it’s personal.
My story
I struggled with social anxiety as a teenager and early twenties. Not obviously, outwardly I was sociable and happy, but inwardly suffering from crippling low self-esteem. It meant that just summoning up the courage to leave the house or my University room was exhausting. I’d usually enjoy myself once I was out, but getting out was a much bigger deal than it needed to be.
I spent years working out strategies that helped. I found tools that genuinely worked, but I came to them much later than I should have. As a teacher I was frustrated by the gap between what we could offer at school and the help available through counselling. Funding for mental health is stretched, counsellors were overworked and often teenagers were unwilling to go to a counselling session, for a variety of reasons. When I trained as a coach, everything I'd been doing instinctively, both for myself and for my students, was actually supported by scientific research. I realised that what I wanted to do was help teenagers find those tools decades earlier than I did.
That's not a rehearsed backstory. It's why I show up to every session with the commitment I do.
Credentials and experience
I'm a qualified life coach with specialist experience in teen anxiety and confidence. I hold an advanced, mobile DBS check and work in close collaboration with specialist practitioner Judith Katz for teenagers with neurodivergent profiles, including ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. My 12 years in secondary education give me a real understanding of how schools and sixth forms function, how stretched pastoral teams are due to the pressures our education system creates, and how it inadvertently amplifies anxiety in students who are already struggling.
I'm based in Henley-on-Thames and work with families across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and online throughout the UK.
My approach
I don't work from a script. Every teenager I work with is different and has different triggers, different patterns, different things that help them feel safe enough to open up. My job in the first session is to listen far more than I speak.
From there, we work together at their pace. That might mean spending several sessions unpicking the beliefs driving their anxiety before we ever discuss strategies for managing it. It also might mean that one strategy in the first session can make a huge difference in the short term. It might mean working on confidence and identity before we touch anything to do with exams. Every programme looks different because every teenager is different.
What stays consistent is my approach: honest, warm, and always focused on what your teenager actually needs.