I am Sharon, an Online NLP Master Practitioner, Confidence Coach and Director at A Positive Start CIC since 2019.

As a Lived Experience Expert Practitioner myself, I came to my profession during my own journey of recovery following a difficult childhood that created adversity throughout adulthood. I was told on countless occasions from a young age that I was never going to make anything of myself.

The one raised on the loving words of “fat, ugly, good for nothing Smithy little b@#*d”. The young girl who was so afraid to go home, unsure of whether I was meeting a beating when I walked through the door from my narcissistic mother. After what seemed to be a fight for survival throughout my childhood with twisted games of manipulation, being tormented against my dad and siblings and walking on constant egg shells trying to keep mother happy, I became the young woman kicked out the family home when I became too old to beat, control or manipulate anymore, so confused, angry, bitter and lost, that drugs and alcohol came to play in my attempts to block out the pain I was feeling inside.

Prescribed antidepressants at the age of 17, and for the next 20 yrs, doctors prescribed various medications and I found myself in and out of counselling sessions in my rollercoaster lifestyle and desperate attempts to make a life for myself. I was numb, empty, broken and stumbling over the self-destruct button like a drunk clown in the circus.

Time after time, the relationships I got involved with were to be less than healthy ones and often led me onto darker paths as I sank deeper into a life of fight or flight.   My turning point came after a monumental breakdown, diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder and finally starting to understand why I was the way I was…and then I met Deborah, while attending a STAND Grooming Behaviours workshop that resonated with me. She saw in me what I always believed in myself, that I was a survivor and had so much to teach others. I just needed to tune into that in a healthier more productive way. She taught me how to use the tools needed to better myself and use my experiences to help others. We are here, we hear you and we want you to know….we get it!