Experience
Not because of a wall of qualifications. Because of the rooms I've spent the last two decades sitting in — and what that work has taught me about how men actually change.
The short version
I didn't come to this work through a glossy coaching certificate. I came to it through years inside prisons, hostels, recovery rooms and Housing First services — working with men whose lives had genuinely come apart.
That's the experience underneath MendCoaching. Not theory. Not a model I read in a book. A long, slow apprenticeship in what it actually takes for a man to stop surviving and start living.
The credentials below matter. The rooms behind them matter more.
Experience you can trust
Where the work was built
Years of frontline work with men sleeping rough, sofa-surfing, or stuck inside the kind of crisis that doesn't show up neatly on a form. I've sat with men who'd been written off by every service they'd touched, and watched what changes when someone actually listens.
Direct work inside Housing First — the model that gives men a home before they're asked to prove they deserve one. It shaped how I think about trust, dignity, and what it actually takes for someone to begin again.
Working alongside men in active addiction, early recovery, and long-term sobriety. The full arc. I've supported men through detox, relapse, court mandates, and the quieter, harder work of building a life that doesn't need numbing.
Time inside prisons running group work and one-to-one sessions with men carrying trauma, addiction and shame in environments built for none of it. It teaches you fast which words actually mean something to a man who's heard everything.
Years holding men's groups — recovery circles, peer-support sessions, structured trauma-informed groups. I understand what it takes to make a room safe enough that men will say the things they've never said out loud.
Formal counselling training underpinning the coaching work. Not so I can be your therapist — I'm not — but so the work is held inside a proper understanding of what trauma is, how it lives in the body, and what makes change actually stick.
Ongoing trauma-informed practice training. Every piece of work I do is filtered through the question, 'what happened to this man?' rather than 'what's wrong with him?'
Trained and current in safeguarding for vulnerable adults. The men I work with often carry serious history. I take the duty of care seriously — boundaries, escalation routes, and knowing when coaching isn't the right room.
Trained in MI — the evidence-based approach used across recovery and behaviour-change services. It's the difference between trying to talk a man into change and helping him find his own reasons.
The thread under all of it: a long, consistent track record of being in the room when men do the hardest work of their lives. The kind of experience you can't shortcut and you can't fake.
Why this matters for you
Whatever you're carrying — addiction history, prison time, shame you've never said out loud, a relationship that's gone wrong, a version of yourself you don't recognise anymore — I've sat with men in worse, and I've watched them come through it.
That experience is what you're hiring. The calm of someone who's been in the room before. The honesty of someone who won't pretend it's simple. The steadiness of someone who knows change is possible because he's seen it, repeatedly.
What you can expect
What coaching here is
What it isn't
Trained in safeguarding for vulnerable adults. Clear boundaries, escalation routes, and the honesty to say when coaching isn't the right room. Read the safeguarding statement →
What you bring stays in the room. Notes are minimal, encrypted, and used only to support the work. Privacy policy →
Years in prisons, recovery rooms, Housing First and trauma-informed practice — not theory. Why men work with me →
Transparent pricing. No hidden fees, no upsells. Every option, what it includes and what it costs, is published.
See pricing →A free, 20-minute discovery call. No script. No pressure. Just a chance to feel whether this work is the right fit for you.