Self Care Systems - AuDHD informed
We help you move from
"What is wrong with me?"
to "How can I best help me?"
Coaching that's informed by systems design and trauma Specialising in ADHD, AuDHD, Adulting and Brand
Maybe you don't need fixing.
Maybe you just need some help to be able to listen to yourself better, like yourself more, and start acting from what's important to you.
From your values & a less stressed, healthier you.
Acting from your aligned purpose is...
Less unwanted pressure, less friction, less anxious activity.
More regulated, healthier boundaries and safer, sustainable pacing towards your goals.
Helping you design a unique, empowering system that stops you fighting against your Self.
Your system for you and your life - not blindly, hopefully applying someone else's hacks. Or anxiously surviving other people's daily demands.
Build a sustainable way of thinking, being, and living that is all yours - A 1 in 8.3 billion support system.
The Grateful Self Care System can help you
Cope better with demands and task completion
Feel more in control - calmer even!
Start moving towards your goals
Become aware of limiting beliefs from your past
How we work
Self : Help you foster a fresh, compassionate curiosity in your self
Self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-gratitude, and resultantly, a healthy desire for self-care
Coaching : A mix of education, tested tools and focused, action-oriented techniques
to become more regulated, stimulate self-reflection and initiate positive changes through self-aligned action
Design your 1 in 8.3 billion system!
hear your emotions, understand that they don't define you but understand the need that they're communicating and build support to meet those needs
We meet you where you're at
Never demanding, rushing or judgemental.
To trust ourselves to sustainably move forward requires us to feel safe.
Difficult stuff has inevitably happened in our lives - we benefit from an approach that allows you to go at your pace, gradually developing greater acceptance and capacity.
How this approach can help
ADHD and AuDHD
Neurodivergent adults with ADHD and AuDHD
Following our diagnosis, or our undiagnosed awakening, we're faced with a confusing, often painful, challenge to our identity. We're not sure what parts of us are ADHD, what parts were 'masking' and what parts were/are our true self irrespective of the symptoms.
Maybe it's time to re-establish who you are - take off the mask, reacquaint yourself and create a healthy support system, with boundaries, to enable you not just to cope, but thrive.
We help you make sense of you again.
We help you get clarity around your true self, your needs and your aspirations and goals.
Men
Juggling roles, missing pieces
We play different roles at different times - boyfriend, partner, husband, dad, mate, work colleague, advocate, defender.
With the challenging, often contrary demands of life it is easy to have your true self feel ignored, blurred, bullied, shamed, rushed, coerced...and then respond with anger or avoidance and, ultimately, guilt at how we reacted.
Are a we a monolith man as defined by contemporary Western society - stoic, winning, free of fear, a man's man? Or are we deeper, more complicated and much more interesting than that?
Maybe it's time to accept all parts of ourselves, without shame, with gratitude - even when the world seems to judge those parts harshly.
Maybe its time to stop and re-examine who you are and what you really need and want from life.
Business Founders & Entrepreneurs
Do you feel there's something blocking you?
Something invisible, but felt, that's preventing you achieving what you'd hope for?
Perhaps your day to day is at odds with what you need to be doing?
Maybe there's a limiting belief niggling at you - a belief you formed when when you were much younger - when you felt attacked, ignored, misunderstood by parents or peers?
Maybe there's something in your offer, brand or work culture that doesn't ring true anymore - perhaps inauthentic or misaligned with your deeper values?
We can start by helping you realign with your purpose (again) - lessen the noise, offload the blockers, and act from what truly drives you.
It all starts with accepting your feelings.
Name them and thank them for what they're telling you.
Stop ignoring them, stop pushing them away.
Start addressing their needs
Hi! Lovely of you to pop by.
My name is Ian Ward.
I'm an A(u)DHD & trauma informed coach with 25 years experience in human-centred systems design.
I have lived with a frenetic drive, high anxiety and hypervigilance all of my life. Success, fun, burnouts, quick temper & shame were tempered by strong exuberance for life and my (some unknowing) parasympathetic touchpoints : sunbathing, music, meditative guitaring, hypnotherapy and intimacy.
My nervous system/body had started to let me know that my constant hypervigliance was taking a toll. Plus the understanding of how it all affected my parenting of my beloved daughter has led me on a journey to here.
Often fired up by hyperfocus, I have gained a range of certified qualifications and training that give me deeper insight & tools : CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) Diploma (CPD), ADHD Coach Certification (CPD, NCCAP, icahp, IPHM, CMA), Somatic Foundations Certification (ichap), Trauma-informed Coach Certification (icahp), Trauma-informed Manifestation Coach Certifcation (icahp), MA in Multimedia Design (Distinction), BEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering (2.1), Life Coach inc NLP & Hypnosis, Behavioural Science for Brands...and WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Diploma...ongoing.
My role is to facilitate
- greater self-curiosity
- an alignment of healthy internal beliefs with wise external actions
- the co-design of systems that lessen friction in your life - reducing pressure, enabling safer pacing, establishing boundaries, helping you to deliver what's important to you and freeing up energy to focus on your goals.
How? By engendering self-alignment through:
- Self-compassion and patience
- Radical honesty about you & your life.
- Regulation (dopamine/nervous system) - stress reduces, decisions become easier,
- Self-caring accommodation that is respectful of the tidal nature of life - especially true for A(u)DHD folk.
Our A(u)DHD brains typically don't like to follow orders ("Hello, demand avoidance!") but they will often get on board with (truly) aligned agreement.
So, in a nutshell...
Compassionately engage with self > Align > Regulate > Reduce Friction in your day to day.
What purpose-led organisations say about us...
"Grateful have given us tools, courage and language that speak with authenticity.
There's lots of thinking of purpose, personality and discovering who you really are as an individual and business.
Ian has empowered us, his support has been invaluable...I’m getting emotional now!"
Luz, Founder LatAm Business
Clean Tech
"Ian has shown time and again that he can cut through the complexity and create systems that make people feel confident and in control of their money."
Bruce, Founder/MD Abundance
B-Corp Ethical Investment
"Grateful helped us create a brand (+web+socials+print!) that feels true to our sustainable goals while connecting with our less eco-engaged customers"
Nicky, Founder Artisan.Sustainable.Local.
Sustainable Shopping
"The focus on creating a 'grateful customer' helped us look at every area of the design process in a more emotionally intelligent way and we are delighted with the results."
Dan, Owner & Founder,
Underdog Leadership
Future Leaders
City skyline
Birthday Sparks
Fashion Magazine
Blurred Lines
We work between the Perch Eco Business Centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire and a Solar powered, Air Source Heat Pump heated home studio/clinic in nearby Chesterton.
The Perch Eco Business Centre is located in Elmsbrook, the first phase of the Northwest Bicester eco-town.
The centre has been built to excellent environmental standards, boasting zero carbon energy usage enabled by photovoltaic panels, BREEAM excellent standards, and Passivhaus Plus certification, amongst other features inc. B-Corp, good coffee, better people, healthy indoor plants and stress-reducing furry friends!
It's a lovely, community-focused environment that inspires and nurtures.
See more info about Perch Eco architecture at Greentech and Architype.
Photo all rights Perch Eco Coworking and Town Square.
