Testimonials for Bridges to Success

“ Bridges to Success provides refreshing and empowering tools for adults who know children with learning difficulties. Olive backs up these strategies with explanations and anecdotes from people she has helped, as well as her own experiences. She demonstrates supreme skill by being able to break down seemingly complex problems into a series of simple, easy to resolve challenges, and offers replicable strategies that can be tried by anyone in a position to help these children – parents, carers, teachers and childminders, to name a few. Her passion comes across powerfully and this book reflects her generosity. Olive wants people to know about how simple this can be. She is prepared to ask some challenging questions, make some fascinating observations...and offer answers. What could happen if we were all to employ a child-centred approach to at least one young person we know? As Olive says “When you know something works, you have to offer it to others.” I for one am very grateful to have seen my own children transform – and as a parent, that is just about the best reward possible.” Karen Moxom, CEO of the Association for NLP (and mother of two boys)

“ A refreshing, practical and powerful book drawing on Olive’s own extensive experience in the field of education, and her work with children and families, including those with learning difficulties. She has incorporated concepts from Energetic NLP throughout, including very useful descriptions of visualisations, and other techniques that can easily be used with children and their families. Powerful and inspiring real life case studies are used to illustrate key points, showing the dramatic impact of using the skills described in practice. This book will be an eye-opener for families and for anyone working with young people in the fields of education and healthcare.” Dr Arti Maini MBBS BSc (Hons) MSc Med Ed, MRCGP, GP, Coach, Medical Educationalist and NLP Master Practitioner

“ This book provides an uplifting, positive and innovative way to approaching learning. Olive has combined her passion, her life experiences alongside her practitioner experiences to bring to life holistic and refreshing techniques, to not only help support children with difficulties but also to incorporate strategies that the family and surrounding caregivers can also try. The strengths of the book are precisely that, children with learning difficulties should not be seen as having a deficit but that they have great strengths and ability. Learning techniques should therefore be adapted to account for this unique strength that these children possess. This book gets away from “fix what the individual” focusing on fostering what is best within these children by using new techniques to help utilise their strengths. It presents a refreshing and exciting change to approaching learning difficulties; people should listen and take note.” Dr Keely Gunson, Researcher in Health Psychology, University of Bath.

“Olive's practical approach to learning is both simple and engaging. Her case work and her personal experience of learning difficulties help her bring a rich perspective to these issues which focus on how students can easily improve their learning skills. My undergraduate computing students really benefited from her different approach, using visualisation to learn new programming techniques.” Dr. Herbert Daly, Lecturer, University of Bedfordshire, UK

“ This is a phenomenal book which has some amazing contents! It offers a wide ranging menu of exciting, if not different, options which draw upon Olive’s background knowledge and experience when working with young people and adults with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD). At its heart, visualisation is the key and much Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) is brought into play. This combination is used to investigate, stimulate and change individual needs in a variety of ways. For those engaged in education, if offers a new approach to the teaching of many essential life skills, inclusive of reading and spelling. However, of greater importance is the overview of the individual which allows social and emotional aspects and experiences to be included as well. The book itself was originally compiled for the SpLD population but, in my opinion, would also prove of value to help anyone with other examples of special educational needs (SEN). As a teacher of over thirty years experience, many of these associated with SEN students of all types and abilities, I would have liked access to this resource many years ago! It’s an easy book to read. It provides examples of case study experiences from all walks of life and is written with the personal touch. So, whether teacher, social worker, trainer or coach, it will engage you as soon as you open to the first page. I wholeheartedly recommend it to you!” Brian J. Sparks, MA(Ed) MEd BEd (Hons) PGDip (Education) SpLD AMBDA SpLD APC (Patoss) NPQH AdvDipEd (Open) Adv Cert Ed. Former Special Needs Coordinator [mainstream Secondary School] and now Specialist Dyslexia Teacher. Vice Chair of the Somerset Dyslexia Association.