What Makes Me Qualified to Do This?
What Makes Me Qualified to Do This
(It’s Probably Not What You’re Expecting)
When people hear that I create educational resources, they often ask whether I used to be a teacher.
The answer is yes, but probably not in the way most people imagine.
I have taught psychology in further education, and I have taught maths and English in alternative settings, working with young people who had not thrived in mainstream school. I have also worked in forensic mental health, supporting people navigating complex trauma, disconnection, and systems that were not built with them in mind.
Across all of those spaces, classrooms, crisis settings, and secure environments, I noticed the same pattern again and again.
People shut down when they do not feel safe.
Pressure creates panic, not progress.
Confidence and connection are not extras. They are the foundation learning is built on.
I Also Know What It Is Like to Be That Learner
I did not leave school early. I just barely went.
I avoided it whenever I could, and looking back, I understand why. School was not built for me. The support was not there. I did not have the language to explain what I was struggling with, and neither did the adults around me.
At the time, there was very little understanding of neurodivergence, trauma, or mental health in education. You either kept up, or you were quietly left behind.
Years later, I returned to learning on my own terms. I completed a psychology degree and graduated with a first-class result. Not because it was easy, but because it mattered. I wanted to understand how we learn, how we cope, and what helps people stay engaged rather than shutting down.
That experience shaped how I see education far more than any single qualification ever could.
From Teaching to Mental Health Peer Work
I now work as a peer specialist in crisis mental health, supporting people not from a place of diagnosis or detachment, but through shared understanding and lived experience.
It was through this role that I formally encountered trauma-informed practice. What struck me most was not that it felt new, but that it gave language and structure to something I had always done instinctively.
Working at the edges of systems teaches you quickly what does not work. Rigid expectations. One-size-fits-all approaches. Pressure without relationship.
What does work is safety, flexibility, and respect for individual pace.
Home Education Changed How I Put This Into Practice
I now home educate, which means I am not just thinking about learning in theory. I am living it day to day.
When I looked for resources that reflected our values, I found two extremes. Either open-ended overwhelm, where everything required endless planning and scrolling, or rigid, school-like packs that recreated the very pressure we were trying to move away from.
After spending far too much money on resources that did not quite fit, I began making my own.
The kind of resources I wanted were calm, flexible, and thoughtfully structured. Clear enough to support learning, but gentle enough to leave room for rest, creativity, and confidence. The kind of tools I wish I had had as a child, and later, as a parent.
That became the starting point for Wonder & Scribble.
So, Am I Qualified?
Yes.
Not because I followed a straight or impressive path, but because I have worked with learners who had been failed by systems, supported people in deep distress, lived through school avoidance and neurodivergence myself, and learned how safety and confidence can be rebuilt over time.
Wonder & Scribble is where all of those threads meet.
It is not about ticking boxes or keeping up appearances. It is about creating space. For learning, for identity, and for gentler ways of growing.
If you have ever looked at a worksheet and thought, this just is not us, you are not alone.
This space was created with that feeling in mind.
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