James Lawley and Penny Tompkins

James Lawley
After 2 years postgraduate research into long-range organisational planning and three years applying that knowledge for a Local Government Authority, I shifted career. In 1979 I trained as a computer systems analyst gaining employment with British Oxygen Corporation (BOC). In 1981, before the Internet was a twinkle in someone’s eye, I entered the fledgling world of data communications and computer networks with British Telecommunications (BT) .

By 1989 I had become the senior manager responsible for the entire BT internal computer network with an annual budget of £100 million. I had 80 people in my headquarters department and 250 engineers in the field maintaining a network of 60,000 terminals accessing 50 computer centres — the largest of its kind in Europe.

It was at this point I decided to do something different so I took a year’s sabbatical. I travelled to 9 countries on four continents exploring remote places and different cultures, including an expedition to look for undiscovered Mayan temples in the jungle of Belize!

Upon my return to the UK I retrained in a form of psychology called NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) becoming a certified trainer of NLP in 1992 and gaining accreditation as an NLP psychotherapist from UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) in 1993.

Penny Tompkins
I am an American and have lived in Britain for 30 years. In 1974 I jointly founded TK Value, a manufacturing company in the oil industry, and was co-Managing Director for the next 16 years. During that time, the company became an international leader in its field with 400 employees in Britain and sales offices around the world.

Having achieved all this and seeing the company in an extremely strong financial position, I decided the time had come to pass on the knowledge I had gained and sought a new direction in my career.

In order to combine my business skills with the latest innovations in human development, I trained to work therapeutically with individuals, and am now a psychotherapist registered with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). I have a private psychotherapy practice as well as providing personalised Executive Coaching for individuals from the business community.

Together
We have been coaching managers, executives and business people since 1994. We use a process, Symbolic Modelling, which works with client-generated metaphors and David Grove's Clean Language

We have also used Symbolic Modelling to facilitate a wide range of groups and teams: from the NASA Goddard Space Center in Washington DC to the Findhorn Spiritual Community in Northern Scotland. We are consultants to the Yale University Child Development Study.

We co-authored Metaphors in Mind: Transformation through Symbolic Modelling, train others to use Symbolic Modelling throughout Europe and North America, and supervise therapists and coaches.

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