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Our team enjoy working with people and feel that, in training and learning, we can bring our natural passion to bear on our work. People learn best when they are engaged and having fun, and we use a variety of methods to ensure that everyone both enjoys and succeeds in their learning goals.
You will find a little bit about us all below, about our backgrounds, our experiences, our beliefs and what we do outside of work. We are all passionate about what we do in all walks of life.
Paul established Striding Edge in 1998 and has developed a company with a reputation for making a difference, focusing on engaging training techniques in course delivery.
Paul is passionate about adding value in his work with others. His training style is interactive and light-hearted, with a focus on delivering content through high quality group conversations and plenty of fun. Learning is at its most effective when participants work it out for themselves, and Paul’s skill is in guiding conversations to enable self-learning and awareness to occur.
Paul is a keen community volunteer. He was chair of Growing Well, an award winning mental health charity for five years and is now a British Cycling coach for fun, and head coach for the Cog Set Cycle team.
Lynne is responsible for keeping all the admin and finance of Striding Edge tickety boo. Lynne has had a varied career, including childcare, a Tourist Information assistant, a Road Manager for a young singer, a manager of a Chocolate House in Kendal, and now running a very successful book keeping & administration business.
Lynne has a heart to see people achieve what they want. She has travelled extensively, living in Belgium, the States & New Zealand for a time. In her spare time, she enjoys walking & camping with her faithful four legged companion, Sky, enjoys cooking for friends, gardening & her involvement with church related activities.
Beren is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and Certified Transactional Analyst working in Kendal in Cumbria. He has led the Porchlight Psychotherapy Practice in Kendal for the last ten years, working with individuals, couples and young adults. In 2004 Beren founded Growing Well, an award winning, farm-based, mental health charity and was its manager until 2014. Currently Beren balances his work as a trainer in mental health matters with his work in private practice.
Beren has been a guest lecturer on health and disability degree programmes at the City University, London, Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria. He has focused his professional work on mental health and social entrepreneurship. Beren has studied at Kings College, London, the University of Maryland, USA, and City University London, and has a Masters degree in Disability Management in Employment and Vocational Rehabilitation.
Tony has been dedicated to supporting people for over 20 years, designing and delivering business skills and leadership development interventions to excellent reviews, around the globe and across sectors. He has a knack for keeping concepts simple and engaging people, and loves every minute of it. His origins are in financial services and the legal sector, managing teams and operating for a while as a HR generalist; but Learning and Development is his calling. Business graduate, member of the British Psychological Society and the Institute of Personnel and Development, Tony finds working with clients exciting stuff…always great fun and centred on driving their teams forward. Tony has a deep-rooted belief in the fundamental capacity of people to grow and shine; his personal kicks are definitely in helping people to recognise and access their full potential.
For fun, he’s a qualified football coach and an amateur artist.
Ben is a Psychologist, qualified teacher, NLP Trainer and Coach and has worked within organisational development for over 16 years, specializing in Leadership Development, Communication and Coaching. His work is successful as it deals with peoples’ beliefs and values not just their knowledge. Ben recognises the importance of peoples’ conscious mindsets as well as the patterns of communication and thinking that people and organisations are often unaware of.
Ben is passionate about seeing real world results that make a difference to individuals and organisations and he achieves sustainable development by engaging both hearts and minds. His approach aims to balance intellectual understanding and knowledge with direct personal experience and significant ‘a-ha’ moments. Learning is experiential, thought provoking and fun and, rather than being bombarded with facts, people are provided with the ‘hands on’ opportunity to powerfully discover things themselves.
When not working Ben is a keen athlete and regularly rock climbs and cycles.
From a background of Medical Biochemistry, Lou initially developed her training expertise during ten years with GlaxoSmithKline, gaining wide experience leading UK and European training projects and delivering large scale business change implementations. She was involved in developing and implementing a communication and change management programme to during the merger of GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham.
Lou has been working since 2000 as a development trainer, facilitator and executive coach, working with primary and secondary care teams, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organisations. She focusses on behavioural change and communication programmes and is passionate about developing ways to ensure that the changes ‘stick’.
Lou believes that behavioural change occurs only when an individual has had the opportunity to experience different choices for themselves. Consequently, her programmes are practical, fun and informal. She accounts for the needs of the individuals present and will flex the activities in the moment according to the needs of the group in order to achieve its objectives.
Having begun in Accountancy, Michael has spent the past 20 years working in HR, Organisational Development and training and as a Practice Manager. Michael has worked in manufacturing, education and health, and most recently in the NHS and primary care.
Michael has a special interest in employee wellbeing and has designed and delivered development programs for managers which build the competence and confidence to deal with the challenges people management presents. His programs are interactive with plenty of opportunity to explore practical solutions and alternatives. His training days offer a very solution focussed approach to people management.
When not working, Michael can usually be found floating on or in Bassenthwaite Lake where he is an assistant sailing instructor and safety boat driver.
Ian has spent the last 26 years in the L&D sector as a facilitator, coach and leadership trainer. Ian works with a wide range of groups including graduates, team leaders and senior leadership teams.
His style is engaging, creative and fun with a strong affinity with all participants. He has a skill in sensitively identifying underlying issues and supporting teams to address the challenges to make real improvements.
Ian brings a vast array of experience to his clients, having worked in many sectors (healthcare, business schools, NGOs, finance, aerospace) and in a multitude of countries.
Ian is a passionate adventurer, and has climbed and kayaked all over the world.