Frequently Asked Questions

Every session combines both. Mentoring is counsel drawn from my own lived experience of profound hearing loss — techniques, assistive technology, tactics, and real situations. Life coaching is mindset coaching delivered to the International Coaching Federation’s standards: questions that help you reach your own answers. In my coaching process, the HEARD Method, we go wherever the conversation needs to go — guided by what you need and by my professional judgement — and you may ask for either at any moment. My experience is always offered, never imposed.

Three groups, equally: hard-of-hearing teenagers aged 13 and over, hard-of-hearing adults, and the hearing parents of hard-of-hearing children — particularly those confronting all of this for the first time. All of them live in the hearing world: spoken language, lip-reading, hearing technology, mainstream school, university, and work.

Yes — that is precisely who it is for. I was born with profound hearing loss and have lived my whole life in the mainstream with hearing aids, lip-reading, and speech. If you rely on sign language, my experience will not serve you well, and I will be candid about that and direct you to people who can.

No. Mentoring and coaching are not therapy, counselling, medicine, audiology, or speech and language therapy, and I am not a clinician. Decisions about hearing aids, cochlear implants, treatment, and communication modality remain with you and your clinical team. When I describe what I use, it is personal experience, not a recommendation.

It is 15 to 30 minutes, by video (captions available if you need them), by telephone, or as a conversation over WhatsApp — whichever you prefer. You meet me, ask anything you wish about how I work, I ask a little about your situation, and we determine together whether we are the right fit and where to begin. No pressure, no commitment, nothing to prepare.

Nothing, during the Inaugural Offer. My first ten clients receive a single session or three sessions pro bono, with no fee and no payment page, in exchange for an honest testimonial at the end. Paid packages will be introduced once those ten places are filled, and anyone who books during the Inaugural Offer is never charged for those sessions.

Sessions themselves are always by video, with captions available to switch on if you need them; only the free discovery call can be a phone call or a chat instead. The booking calendar shows times in your own time zone automatically. I take sessions between 6 am and 9 pm Dubai time (GMT+4), every day.

Yes, from age 13. A parent or guardian gives written consent before the first session and either joins or stays nearby for each session, or signs a Parental Consent Agreement for sessions without them. Parents are copied on every message and can join any session.

I was that infant, in 1990. I can show you what the spoken-language, mainstream pathway can look like — school, university, career, marriage — and share what made the difference, from the first appointments to hearing technology and self-belief. The clinical decisions remain with you and your team; I bring the experience, and well-founded hope.

Sessions can be rescheduled or cancelled with at least 24 hours’ notice. A session cancelled or missed with less notice counts as used. The same standard binds me: if I cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, that session is rescheduled at a time that suits you.

Yes — the same confidentiality applies to every part of every session, whichever hat I am wearing. What you share remains between us, in accordance with the ICF Code of Ethics, subject to the customary limits: a serious risk of harm to you or to another person, a safeguarding concern involving a child, or a legal obligation to disclose. Sessions are never recorded without your written consent.

The International Coaching Federation is the world’s largest professional body for coaches, and its credentials are widely regarded as the gold standard in coaching. ACC — Associate Certified Coach — is earned through accredited training, logged client hours, mentor coaching, and a formal assessment. I do not yet hold it. I am ICF-trained and completing ICF-accredited Level 2 coach education, with the ACC in progress. Coaching clients during training is part of the ICF pathway — the hours we spend together count towards the credential — and the ACC will be shown here only once the ICF has awarded it.