I was born in Barbados to a resilient and resourceful family. My father died suddenly when I was thirteen years old leaving my mother to raise six children. She migrated to England at a perilous time in British history.

During my early adult life, I suffered the trauma of losing my husband after one year of marriage.

He sustained horrific injuries in a car accident while he was on duty as a police officer. It was one week later that I gave birth to my son.

I was left homeless, penniless and a single parent.

The trauma of both events plunged me into the depths of despair and hopelessness.

With the passage of time, I decided that the best way of coping was to turn around my life by fighting back against the tide of misfortune.

The plans I had to become a nurse no longer fitted my circumstances.

It took eight years before I settled on a new career path.

I decided that I wanted to become a social worker so that I could help families going through difficult experiences and in particular those who were suffering from the negative impact of loss.

It fitted with my experience of having to care for a child as a single parent.

Having had the solid support of my family I knew that social support was integral to my survival.

Within two years of qualifying I became a team leader and then a manager.

After ten years at the front line of social work, I decided that I wanted to teach others to acquire the skills I had developed.

I wanted to share my knowledge.

With this goal in mind, I became senior lecturer and was instrumental in mentoring and coaching students to hold onto their dream and reach their goal of completing their studies.

I met many students with low self-esteem and who doubted their ability to become successful.

Today many of them have been successful.

When I trained practitioners today, I meet many of my former students and they ask if I remember them. I have forgotten their names but not their faces or the fears they carried around.

I returned to studies at a higher level and gain my Master of Philosophy.

I published my first book in 1998 based on my academic work.

I took my studies a step further and went on to gain a PhD in Social Policy from Birmingham University England.

It was an impressive achievement for someone who had started out with what looked like a hopeless future and doomed for a life of poverty to reach the pinnacle of academic studies.

What at first appeared to be impossible changed as I was determined to turn my life around.

I did this by applying the principles that lead to success.

After working for ten years in an academic setting I reflected on how I could make a further contribution in my areas of practice by developing my potential in new and uncharted territories.

What I noticed was that a number of organisations were inviting me to train their staff and deliver keynote speeches at conferences.

These were areas in which I had become an expert.

Noticing that I had all the skills to coach others I set up a freelance training and coaching consultancy to work on a one-to-one and group basis with managers and staff in the social care sector and with everyday individuals.

I have been successful in both areas of my work because I have the skill of connecting with people at all levels.

I believe that it does not matter where a person comes from that defines them but moreover where they end up.

What matters to me is how I work with people to support and help them solve problems.

Therefore, I work on transformation and gaining mastery over thought processes that hold people back, making them less confident and effective in their everyday lives.

Covid-19 has had a catastrophic effect on many businesses and everyday entrepreneurs. The dilemmas they are facing are psychological, spiritual, social, and financial.

They want to know how to cope with their own and other people’s disillusionment in a time of unprecedented change.

At such a time there is hope for transformation in our thinking, optimism for a bright future and creativity in turning our lives around.

Lynda’s Life’s Lessons

1. The possibility always exists to achieve the impossible when we are facing impending disaster and at the brink of our personal resources. As Napoleon Hill in his book with Clement Stone wrote, ‘What the mind of man can conceive and believe the mind of man can achieve.’ I have proven this to be true over a period of more than forty years.
2. Whatever our desires may be, we can achieve them if we are motivated, committed, consistent and persistent.
3. Success is possible if we can overcome defeat, self-doubt and self-sabotage and if simple principles are applied with a positive mental attitude.
4. It is often fear and disbelief that hold us back. Nevertheless, we have to launch out into the deep, let go of the fear and start roaring.