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
If you’re quiet, shy or introverted – it can be hard to build the kind of confidence that will actually make a difference to your life
You may have been wasting away on the sidelines for too long, missing out on opportunities or not getting paid what you’re worth.
Even though you are eminently capable, you feel as if you’re constantly failing. And you want to do so much more with your life.
I understand how you feel.
Below you will find my story of how I changed my life in an unexpected way and how this lead me to develop the Sunflower Effect and change the prospects of thousands of reserved people
So if I and my participants can change our situation, so can you.
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 the impeccably well-behaved child—the one who never caused trouble and whose teachers thought there was something unnatural about my immaculately good behaviour.
Although nobody exactly told me this, I felt that there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t a good mixer or team player. I didn’t fit in with how I was supposed to be – or so I thought.
It was as if there were walls between me and other children. I was trapped within these walls and unable to come out.
So, I retreated into the one place that felt safe: the vivid world of my imagination.
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!
My very first time on stage was terrifying but also exhilarating.
But very soon the shyness that had defined me all my life simply faded away.
My confidence grew in ways I could never have imagined. For the first time, I glimpsed the real me—the part of myself I didn’t believe existed. I became one of the confident ones.
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.
These were extraordinary experiences, but it was an incredibly tough life. I eventually had to admit that the acting world was not for me.
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.
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.
Or reach out and set up a time to speak to me about
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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.
Currently, most courses are run by me and only available in London
I have launched the Sunflower Effect Confidence Course Leader Training and am training up 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 children and teenagers.
And I would like to see these courses being available in mental health centres and the many other locations and settings where confidence is an issue.
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.
I continue to pursue my growth, bringing back what I have learned to the groups and individuals I work with.
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.
