Empowering quiet, shy and socially anxious people create the life they want through uncovering and expressing their unique and authentic selves
How I said goodbye to my life as a wallflower
My story – childhood
For the first part of my life, I lived behind an invisible wall. I was quiet, shy and painfully self-conscious.
I had had a very restricted childhood, which had driven me into my shell at a very early age. I became an impeccably well-behaved child—the one who never caused trouble.
It was as if there were walls between me and other children. I was trapped within these walls and unable to come out.
A Career in Nursing
By the time I got to adulthood, I knew I was missing out. But I thought shyness was something I was stuck with.
I chose a career in nursing because it seemed like the only “acceptable” direction for someone like me. Within a few years, I discovered nursing was making me ill and deeply unhappy.
This was how I found myself in hospital and met the nurse who inspired me to explore drama.
I had no idea then that this would be the catalyst that would change the entire trajectory of my life.
Drama!
Very soon the shyness that had defined me all my life simply faded away.
My confidence grew in ways I could never have imagined.
Drama opened doors I didn’t even know existed.
Within a few years, I was exploring acting professionally and became the writer of an award-winning play.
Drama had freed me
Suddenly, everything began to fall into place when I trained as a dramatherapist.
My attraction to drama wasn’t accidental—it was the natural response to the mountain of buried emotion that I’d carried from childhood.
Drama had enabled me to express and release this emotion in a unique way.
Drama had freed me—not just from my shyness, but to heal myself and my painful past.
Drama had freed me to be this outrageous
The Sunflower Effect
And it soon became clear that my own transformation was leading me to help people just like me. Shy people who had learned to be invisible and who walked around with their potential locked away inside them.
In my shy years, I never went near a therapist because I didn’t want to admit there was something wrong with me. And I certainly couldn’t afford therapy.
So when I founded Making Moves in 1997, I was determined to create something different—something accessible, enjoyable, and effective for quiet people like me. People for whom going to drama class would be far too challenging and may even set them back.
Over time, this evolved into the Sunflower Effect®. Courses that help people experience, in weeks, the transformation that took me years to uncover.
Outstanding Results
Very quickly, I realised I had discovered something truly remarkable.
The results from my courses far surpassed traditional methods— because my approach to dramatherapy allowed them to dissolve the very blocks that were keeping them stuck.
Even those who believed they were a hopeless case found themselves opening up and uncovering the natural self-confidence that lay deeply hidden away inside them.
How I can help you
If you’ve spent years feeling invisible and locked away in your shell...
I want to prove to you that “it’s a myth that you lack confidence” and that there is, in fact, a deep and assured confidence lying hidden inside you.
I’d love to help you uncover yours.
Find out More
If you’d like to read more about my journey and why the Sunflower Effect® is uniquely effective for quiet, sensitive people—you’ll find it in my book From Wallflower to Sunflower: The Quiet Person’s Path to Natural Self-Confidence, available on Amazon.
It explains, in much greater depth, how the Sunflower Effect® works and also delves deeper into how I transformed my life.
As featured in:
Mission
I am on a mission to improve the lives of quiet, shy and introverted people. I don’t want anyone to go through what I did.
The Sunflower Effect Courses build confidence through a specialised form of drama designed for quiet, shy and introverted people.
We empower participants to believe they can create the life they want through uncovering and expressing their unique and authentic selves. See The Sunflower Manifesto
I have launched the Sunflower Effect Confidence Course Leader Training training more professionals to join my team of Sunflower Effect Specialists across the UK.
There is also a huge need for children and teenagers to get this help. So, my team and I will shortly be developing courses for younger people.
Approach
My style is open and encouraging, allowing each individual to emerge from their shell at their own pace and in their own way.
My courses provide an informal, relaxed, non-judgmental atmosphere that will quickly put you at ease and free you of the internal pressures that normally inhibit you from expressing yourself.
Laughter and humour is an important part of the process.
I share openly about my own life and experiences: as someone who has been through many dark places; I have come out the other side stronger and with a renewed zest for life.
My Qualifications
I have a lifetime’s experience of working with these issues, both professional and personal. Here’s some more detail about my training, qualifications and background.
I founded Making Moves in 1997
I am a registered dramatherapist (SRAT (Drama) and a member of BADth (the British Association of Dramatherapists) and registered with HCPC – the Health Care Professionals Council.
