Photos by J Tufo Photography www.josephtufo.com

Ivana O’Brien

Ivana lives with her husband and three children in Surrey; she worked for many years in the City in finance but decided to change career direction when her children were born. She attended Canterbury Christchurch University and gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Advice and Counselling as well as the Diploma in Careers Guidance and subsequently worked as a Careers Advisor.

Over the past 12 years she has interviewed thousands of young people providing 1:1 careers advice and guidance, mentoring, counselling and coaching. She has also worked as a mediation project worker supporting families to enable young people to remain in the family home after a relationship breakdown.

It was her passion for wanting to see teenagers reach their true potential that led to her training to be a Master Neuro Linguistic Practitioner with the co-founder Dr Richard Bandler and Paul McKenna and Thought Field Therapy Diagnostic level Practitioner. She was also chosen to be an assistant several times on Paul Mackenna’s weight loss events.

"It used to really frustrate me when often teenagers as young as 14 would write themselves off as not being able to achieve their dreams in life, combining NLP and TFT as well as my training as a Careers Adviser has enabled me to achieve some amazing results during my interviews and why I love what I do so much".

Ivana has created a Personal Development Programme which she is currently rolling out in schools. She divides her time between seeing private clients, delivering training to tutors and parents and working with teenagers. She also delivers training to ‘The Warrior Programme’ a charity established to support ex-servicemen.

In her spare time she enjoys eating out then burning it off by running several times a week!

Tashara Forrest

Tashara was born in St Louis, Missouri USA; her family moved to London UK when she was a child and she has remained here so far. Growing up she was surrounded by performing arts and creativity, which has heavily influenced her as a person. Tashara has also always been deeply passionate about helping people and naturally gravitates towards supporting and empowering them to achieve their full potential.

After completing her BA Hons Degree at University in HR Management, Tashara spent time travelling and working in the USA and Canada. She also donated time to a variety of charitable causes, where she taught contemporary dance, sung for fund raisers, developed and ran creative expression programs and performances for young people.

Since returning to the UK, Tashara has trained in Coaching and NLP skills, is a qualified Careers Adviser and Counsellor MBACP (member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy). She has worked professionally with hundreds of young people providing 1:1 careers advice and guidance, mentoring, counselling and coaching. Tashara has also created and run a series of successful personal development group workshops and training for emotional well being, confidence, self esteem, raising motivation and aspirations. Tashara has also written and directed a hugely successful musical, is a singer/song writer, guitarist and is a firm believer and incredibly enthusiastic about the arts being an inspirational and therapeutic medium.

Tashara is now the recent Founder and Director of the new dynamic and rapidly growing InspireMe Projects CIC Personal Development Services Company (InspireMe PPDS) and has a number of community projects she is excited about launching over the next year.

'It’s a privilege for me to walk alongside someone and support them through their journey and watch them bloom in all the areas they are gifted in and passionate about. I love to work with people and am always looking for and creating opportunities to inspire and enhance the lives of others'.

Tashara Forrest