The Team

Michelle Shavdia

Founder/Psychologist
MSc (Dist.), BSc (Hons)

Michelle Shavdia is the founder of Find Your Spark (Social Enterprise). She is a positive coaching psychologist who is passionate about supporting young people and their parents to raise their wellbeing.

Having lost her father at 14, she found herself lost for several years. She can understand, therefore, the challenges some young people face and the tools that can help bring them back from destructive behaviours. Michelle has a BSc (Hons) Degree in Psychology from Warwick University and an MSc (Dist.) in Coaching Psychology from the University of East London as well as eight years’ experience of coaching, mentoring and delivering inspiring talks to young people.

Michelle is especially interested in the issues that at-risk young people face and how using coaching and positive psychology can prevent further problems from developing. She is also passionate about working with parents to raise their wellbeing so that they are better able to parent their children going forward.

Her Master’s thesis research looked at what the perceptual life changes were for at-risk young people following participating in a coaching and positive psychology programme. Outcomes found were the ability to control emotions and reactions, increased experience of positive emotions and thoughts and the identification of purpose and meaning to life. This was published in a highly regarded coaching journal in 2015. Recently Michelle won a Haberdashers’ Grant and funding from Investec’s Bromley By Bow’s Beyond Business programme which enabled her to set up Find Your Spark as a social enterprise. She also received one to one business coaching from Ernst & Young.

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Dr Aimee Swithenbank

Educational Psychologist (BSc Hons, DECPsy)

Aimee is an Educational Psychologist (EP), and as such she is trained to apply psychology to support the learning and wellbeing of children and young people (from birth through to 25 years).

Aimee has over ten years’ experience working with children and young people across a range of settings.

As well as working with FYS, Aimee is able to provide services in the home or educational setting and accepts referrals from parents, young people (over 16), schools, preschools and colleges.

Find out more about Aimee HERE

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Sue Anderton

The MAZE Group CIC
B. Ed (SEN), MA (Education)

Sue Anderton graduated from the University of Hertfordshire in 1988, as a teacher of children with special educational needs, where she was a student of Rita Jordan and Stuart Powell.

She has worked in SEN/ASD for 25 years as a teacher, with 20 years in Senior School Leadership, including implementing the MAZE Approach within the school provision, which was consistently acknowledged as an exceptional feature within an Outstanding school.

Sue has written the MAZE Specialist Parenting Programme, which has weekly groups in North Essex, supporting parents/carers of children with additional needs. In addition, Sue works in connection with the MAZE Parent Mentor Teams in Harwich, Clacton and Colchester who hold monthly drop in sessions, supporting hundreds of parent/carers each year. Sue also holds workshops for parent/carers on a wide range of relevant topics and she has collaborated with the University of Essex to write “Working with Children with Additional Needs and their Families: Using the MAZE Approach”, which was commissioned by the ECC Standards and Excellence team. Sue also delivers commissioned training on the MAZE Approach within schools.

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Jamie Shavdia

Mindfulness & Cognitive Behavioural Therapist/Trainer

Jamie Shavdia, MSc (CBT), PGDip (Mindfulness – Dist), BSc (Hons), Cert.HealthSci (OU) D.Hyp, PDC.Hyp, PDCB.Hyp (Dist) Prof. Memberships – MBSCH, MAREBT, MMA, MBABCP combines several schools of thought to form his own powerful and unique style.

His work integrates cognitive, behavioural, hypnotherapeutic imagery and mindfulness-based psychology. He has a long-standing interest in human potential and works to build healthy belief structures within the mind, breaking down barriers to optimal psychological health and a richer experience of perceiving reality. He works mostly with adult clients on either a 1-1 or group therapy basis. This occurs mostly in his private practice in Colchester (Essex), however he has also worked in various other forums, including; an NHS IAPT service; university psychological services and occasionally for staff development training within private organisations.

Jamie is a fully qualified and accredited therapist. He holds an MSc in Rational-Emotive & Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and two advanced Practitioner-level diplomas in Clinical Hypnotherapy. He received a distinction for the Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy before then progressing to complete the CBT MSc. Additionally he has completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Mindfulness at the University of Aberdeen in association with Samye Ling Buddhist Temple and the Mindfulness Association, building on fourteen years of Zen training. He has extensive work experience as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist at London Metropolitan University Counselling Service and also as a Mental Health Support Worker, supporting students with diagnosed mental health difficulties.

He has also worked as a CBT and Mindfulness-based therapist at University College London (UCL) facilitating individual and group mindfulness therapy of his own design. He is also a Senior High-intensity CBT/Mindfulness Therapist and clinical supervisor at Mind in Bexley (an NHS IAPT hub in Kent). He also provides Mindfulness-based group programmes to the general public based in Highgate, North London and Colchester, Essex. He also runs a busy private clinic in Colchester too seeing clients on a 1-1 basis.

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Denise Carroll

Denise Carroll

Strategy & Programme Development Consultant

Denise has obtained a BA in Behavioural Science; Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE); NLP Practitioner; and in more recent years studied Personal Performance Coaching and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Denise has primarily focused her career working within the charitable field. Her experience spans from on the ground design, and delivery of Education; Employability, Personal Development and Leadership programmes for those involved in crime, violence and social exclusion to Management of a charity leading a large multi-disciplinary team across an array of services (Boxing/Martial Arts; Education; Employability; Support Services; & Youth Leadership).

In most recent years, Denise has evolved into the world of consultancy – primarily working with organisations on two fronts:
1. To improve productivity, performance, and sustainability of their programmes and services and 2. Supporting organisation with the design and development of their Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and programmes.

Denise is passionate about supporting people and organisations to reach their full potential and believes quality lies in the core of creating great services and programmes that not only support people but creates sustainable, long- term, positive changes in people’s life.

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Amanda

Amanda Towns

Administration assistant

Amanda has over 25 years of secretarial and PA experience, both in the private and public sector.  She has provided executive support for large banks and law firms in London, and now works for a range of SMEs assisting them with various admin tasks. 

Amanda will be joining us as an administration assistant assisting and supporting us with booking in clients, diary management and logistics. We very much look forward to having Amanda on the team!

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