About Ascent People Development
People development that connects insight, leadership and wellbeing
We help people understand themselves and one another more clearly, strengthen working relationships and create environments where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Our approach brings together self-awareness, leadership development, trauma-informed practice and nervous-system education—connecting wellbeing with the everyday realities of communication, culture and performance.
Our approach brings together self-awareness, leadership development, trauma-informed practice and nervous-system education—connecting wellbeing with the everyday realities of communication, culture and performance.
A HUMAN APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT
A career shaped by people
Suzanne’s work is grounded in the belief that people are more able to learn, contribute and develop when they feel safe, respected and understood. Behaviour does not happen in isolation. It is influenced by personality, relationships, past experiences, pressure, organisational culture and the environment around us.
What appears to be resistance, disengagement or difficulty may have more happening beneath the surface.
By helping people pause and explore these influences, Suzanne creates space for greater self-awareness, more thoughtful communication and a more compassionate approach to leadership and development.
She helps people recognise their own patterns, understand how their behaviour may affect others and consider different ways of responding. This can strengthen relationships, reduce unnecessary conflict and give people greater confidence when navigating pressure or change.
Her sessions are practical and participative. Learning is connected to the real conversations, responsibilities and challenges people encounter in their everyday roles, making it easier to turn understanding into meaningful action.
What appears to be resistance, disengagement or difficulty may have more happening beneath the surface.
By helping people pause and explore these influences, Suzanne creates space for greater self-awareness, more thoughtful communication and a more compassionate approach to leadership and development.
She helps people recognise their own patterns, understand how their behaviour may affect others and consider different ways of responding. This can strengthen relationships, reduce unnecessary conflict and give people greater confidence when navigating pressure or change.
Her sessions are practical and participative. Learning is connected to the real conversations, responsibilities and challenges people encounter in their everyday roles, making it easier to turn understanding into meaningful action.
Suzannes background at a glance
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The foundations
NHS nursing
Care, communication, empathy and resilience.
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Commercial experience
Pharmaceutical sales
First-hand experience of commercial pressure and target-driven environments.
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Developing others
Leadership and management and personal development
Around 20 years supporting individuals, teams and leaders.
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Bringing it together
Ascent People Development
Connecting self-awareness, leadership and wellbeing.
PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS
Qualified, experienced and committed to continued learning
Suzanne’s work is supported by recognised professional qualifications, licensed development frameworks and extensive practical experience.
Chartered Member of the CIPD
Professional recognition supporting Suzanne’s work in people development, workplace practice and organisational performance.
Insights Discovery Licenced Practitioner
Qualified to deliver Insights Discovery Personal Profiles, individual feedback sessions and team-development experiences.
Licenced Practitioner The Liberator
Licensed to deliver the leadership framework previously known as Liberating Leadership, built around the mindset of High Challenge–High Support.
Somatic Trauma Informed Wellbeing Trainer and ICF Accredited Coach
One-on-one coaching sessions, consultancy and workplace training in wellbeing.
Diploma in Performance Coaching
A structured coaching foundation for helping people reflect, develop and translate understanding into practical action.
BEYOND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Understanding that goes beyond theory
The Chartered Management Institute’s 2023 report-“ Taking responsibility -why the UK needs better managers” coined the phrase “accidental managers” . They quote 82% of managers have not had any formal training and are thrown in at the deep end.
This was Suzanne’s experience of management having trained as a nurse years ago and on qualifying was running a busy ward and managing a team. She had been trained to care for patients but not to manage people and had been managed by scores of accidental managers herself with few positive role models to learn from.
The impact of having untrained managers is far reaching impacting wellbeing, organisational culture and productivity. It’s well recognised that people leave poor managers not their job. This led to Suzanne’s interest in leadership and management.
Suzanne has worked with hundreds of managers and aspiring managers over the years on both accredited and non accredited programmes. One of the key themes to often emerge when working with others was the need for high levels of self awareness-people cannot modify behaviour unless they are self aware. This led to Suzanne becoming accredited in Insights Discovery.
The last piece of the jigsaw puzzle fell into place through both Suzanne’s professional and personal experiences. Her father experienced work-related stress in his fifties and Suzanne encountered intense pressure herself while working in target driven sales environments.
The subject became more personal after Suzanne adopted her daughter when she was 22 months old. As her daughter grew older, she began experiencing severe anxiety, could no longer attend school and became increasingly withdrawn. They had reached a point of crisis. Suzanne was living with chronic stress and secondary trauma as a result of parenting a child who had early life adversity.
Suzanne and her daughter’s journey of understanding the nervous system and its influence on behaviour, stress and recovery has changed Suzanne as a parent, as a person and as a practitioner. It also changed the direction of Ascent’s work.
In this era of increased struggles with wellbeing across all age groups and the world of work facing numerous challenges, Suzanne brings together lived experience as well as expertise in leadership and management, self awareness , team effectiveness and wellbeing using award winning and research based approaches.
This was Suzanne’s experience of management having trained as a nurse years ago and on qualifying was running a busy ward and managing a team. She had been trained to care for patients but not to manage people and had been managed by scores of accidental managers herself with few positive role models to learn from.
The impact of having untrained managers is far reaching impacting wellbeing, organisational culture and productivity. It’s well recognised that people leave poor managers not their job. This led to Suzanne’s interest in leadership and management.
Suzanne has worked with hundreds of managers and aspiring managers over the years on both accredited and non accredited programmes. One of the key themes to often emerge when working with others was the need for high levels of self awareness-people cannot modify behaviour unless they are self aware. This led to Suzanne becoming accredited in Insights Discovery.
The last piece of the jigsaw puzzle fell into place through both Suzanne’s professional and personal experiences. Her father experienced work-related stress in his fifties and Suzanne encountered intense pressure herself while working in target driven sales environments.
The subject became more personal after Suzanne adopted her daughter when she was 22 months old. As her daughter grew older, she began experiencing severe anxiety, could no longer attend school and became increasingly withdrawn. They had reached a point of crisis. Suzanne was living with chronic stress and secondary trauma as a result of parenting a child who had early life adversity.
Suzanne and her daughter’s journey of understanding the nervous system and its influence on behaviour, stress and recovery has changed Suzanne as a parent, as a person and as a practitioner. It also changed the direction of Ascent’s work.
In this era of increased struggles with wellbeing across all age groups and the world of work facing numerous challenges, Suzanne brings together lived experience as well as expertise in leadership and management, self awareness , team effectiveness and wellbeing using award winning and research based approaches.
Understanding and managing the nervous system was the missing part of the jigsaw. It changed me as a parent, as a person and as a practitioner.
Suzanne Shaw, Director