Meet the Team

Kezia Lawson

Speech and Language Therapist, Communication Coach/Life Coach, TalkCoach Founder

👋 Hi, I’m Kezia.

I’m an experienced Speech and Language Therapist with over a decade’s experience. I was working as the Team Lead of an Adult Speech and Language Therapy team in the NHS when I realised I was slipping further away from what I most loved doing; helping people to improve their communication in order to achieve a more fulfilling life. I felt I had so much more to offer. So I took the bold step to leave the NHS and set up TalkCoach.

For the past few years I have been involved in leading a course for people going through divorce/separation (check out Restored Lives, the course helped me immensely after my marriage broke down around the time I had my son). Through this, I realised my passion for working with people extended beyond the field of Speech and Language Therapy. Around the same time I discovered coaching in the workplace through a Management Apprenticeship course. I quite spontaneously signed up for a diploma in Life Coaching and qualified as a Life Coach in 2021.

I’ve always been fascinated by how the human mind/brain works, particularly how our thoughts and emotions are so connected with our behaviour and bodily symptoms. After training as a coach, I quickly realised that embedding my coaching skills into my work as a Speech and Language Therapist often led to much more transformational results for my clients.

The vast majority of my Life Coaching clients were coming to me for help with their communication – with goals such as…

👉 confidently speaking up in work meetings without feeling like an imposter
👉 engaging in spontaneous social conversations without overthinking everything and feeling like an idiot
👉having the confidence to speak to a spouse about the things that really matter without resulting in conflict.

Offering Communication Coaching felt like a natural next step. It enables me to bring together my skills, knowledge and experience to help people reach their potential. See more about Communication Coaching…

I feel incredibly fortunate to have found roles that I enjoy so much, feel privileged to work with such a range of different individuals and I genuinely love every day at work.

What’s it like to work with me?

Using a gentle and encouraging approach I support you to envisage what you want to achieve. We break down your goals into achievable steps, identifying how to overcome any barriers. We all handle situations differently and face unique obstacles, so I recognise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach within any of my work. I’m an outside the box thinker, always aiming to see the bigger picture and consider new ways of doing things. I work hard to create tailor-made programmes using creative ideas and methods for every person that I work with.

Who am I outside of work?

I’m an enthusiastic, friendly and down-to-earth solo parent of a cheeky but very sweet six-year-old boy. In my (limited!) spare time I can usually be found growing things in my garden, creating healthy recipes or out for a run (at snail’s pace) whilst listening to a good playlist or podcast. My own life hasn’t always been plain sailing, having faced a lot of illness as a child and teen and then dealing with a marriage breakdown at the end of my pregnancy. However I consider myself very lucky to have an ability to look on the bright side and aim to always use learning from my own experiences to support others.

My qualifications and experience

✨ Qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist from the University of Sheffield - 2011
✨ Worked in a community adult SLT team (NHS) – 2011-12
✨ Worked in an acute hospital SLT and stroke rehabilitation team (NHS) – 2013-16
✨ Completed MSc Clinical Research 2016 
✨ Worked in a community neurorehabilitation team (NHS) – 2016-17
✨ Worked as Team Lead of community adult SLT team – 2017-2021 (caseload included neurological conditions, head and neck cancer, voice, dysfluency, general community dysphagia)
✨ Completed Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) L3 Team Leader Apprenticeship - 2021
✨ Completed Diploma in Transformational Coaching - 2021 (Animas Centre for Coaching)
✨ Moved into Independent Practice as a Speech and Language Therapist - 2021
✨ Worked as Visiting Clinical Tutor/Lecturer – City, University of London – 2021-22
✨ Mental Health First Aid course - 2022
✨ I complete very regular CPD – my passion for learning means I am always attending courses, reading books and journals and receiving supervision. External courses have included; dysphagia training (UCL, 2012), LSVT training (2012), Talking Mats (2016), Head and neck cancer course (Royal Marsden, 2019), voice banking training (MNDA, 2021), Cognitive Communication Disorders Symposium (2021), British Aphasiology Symposiums (multiple years), Supervision courses (intandem, 2022, and various courses within the workplace), various courses in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) including ACT for adults with ADHD (2023).

Associate Speech and Language Therapists

Louise Callaway

(currently on maternity leave)

Louise says…

“Since a young age, I have always felt a desire to help and support others. I initially left school after completing my AS levels in search of a career that would fulfil this. I began working as a Dental Nurse in 2014 and enjoyed building rapports and putting patients at ease during their visits. After much deliberation I decided to return to sixth form in 2015 to complete my A-Levels in hoping of taking a more active leading role in future clinical appointments.

I was fortunate enough to gain a place on the competitive undergraduate Speech and Language Therapy course at DeMontfort University. After four years of learning, hands on clinical placement experience and fun days out, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science First Class Honours degree. I moved back to my home town in Kent and began working to support both adults and children with their speech, language and communication needs within community NHS and subsequent private sectors. I truly enjoy every day at work and continue to be dedicated to providing compassionate, high quality, patient-centred care.

I love the outdoors and spend lots of my time visiting the beach, walking my dog in the local countryside and playing netball twice a week. I enjoy being creative by painting, learning new facts when reading and engaging in mindfulness practices. I have also recently moved house and envisage lots of my spare time being allocated to DIY and decorating!”