Sabbir Ahmed

You may appear capable, successful and in control on the outside while privately feeling overwhelmed, scattered or unable to work and live in a way that truly fits you.

Perhaps you are leading a demanding service, managing a team, building a business, navigating a career transition or carrying significant responsibility for other people. Others may see you as confident and accomplished, while you privately struggle with procrastination, perfectionism, self-doubt, people-pleasing, inconsistent motivation or burnout.

You may know that you are capable of more, yet your ability is not translating into the career, leadership style, business, relationships or sense of fulfilment you want. Perhaps you are working harder and harder without feeling that you are moving forward in a meaningful or sustainable way.

Coaching offers a confidential space to step back, think clearly and understand what needs to change. The aim is not to push you harder or turn you into somebody else. It is to help you work with greater focus, confidence and self-awareness while creating a way of progressing that feels realistic and sustainable.

My name is Sabbir. I am an EMCC-accredited coach and UKCP-registered psychotherapist with more than 20 years of experience across the NHS and private practice.

I offer psychologically informed executive, confidence and neuroinclusive coaching for thoughtful, ambitious and high-achieving adults. My work combines practical, forward-looking coaching with a deeper understanding of emotional patterns, nervous-system pressures, neurodivergence and the habits that can quietly prevent capable people from progressing.

Many coaches can help you set goals. My approach also helps you understand why the same difficulties keep returning, what may be driving them beneath the surface and how to create lasting change without relying on pressure, shame or unrealistic expectations.

Who I work with
I work with professionals, executives, managers, clinicians, service leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs and other capable adults who are driven and responsible but privately feel stuck, scattered, self-critical or close to burnout.

You may be experiencing:

• Procrastination or difficulty getting started
• Inconsistent focus, motivation or productivity
• Perfectionism and fear of making mistakes
• Low confidence or imposter feelings
• Overthinking and difficulty making decisions
• People-pleasing and difficulty setting boundaries
• Leadership pressure or workplace conflict
• Career uncertainty or dissatisfaction
• Emotional overwhelm or rejection sensitivity
• Exhaustion, stress or burnout
• Challenges associated with ADHD, autism or AuDHD
• A persistent feeling that you are falling behind.

You may achieve a great deal while privately feeling that everything takes more effort than it should. Perhaps you are exhausted by masking, overpreparing, analysing every decision or continually trying to prove your value.

Coaching can help you move away from constant pressure and towards a more strategic, self-aware and sustainable way of working.

How coaching may help

Depending on your circumstances and goals, coaching may help you:

• Clarify what matters to you and where you want to go
• Improve focus, motivation and follow-through
• Reduce procrastination and perfectionism
• Strengthen confidence and trust in your judgement
• Make clearer career, leadership or business decisions
• Develop effective planning and organisational systems
• Communicate with greater confidence and authority
• Manage difficult conversations and workplace relationships
• Establish healthier professional and personal boundaries
• Understand emotional overwhelm and rejection sensitivity
• Work more effectively with ADHD or autistic traits
• Manage your energy and reduce the risk of burnout
• Become more visible without feeling false or performative
• Live your life more closely with your values.

Our work will remain forward-looking and purposeful. Alongside reflection, sessions will support you to make decisions, take manageable action and remain accountable to the changes you want to create.

Executive and leadership coaching

I provide executive and leadership coaching for managers, professionals, founders, clinicians, service leaders and senior staff who want to lead with greater clarity, confidence and emotional intelligence.

You may be stepping into a more senior position, managing a growing team, leading organisational change, developing a business or navigating complex professional relationships.

Leadership is not only about knowledge, performance or strategy. It also requires self-awareness, communication, emotional regulation, sound judgement and the ability to remain thoughtful under pressure.

You may be highly capable, yet find yourself:

• Carrying responsibilities that should be shared
• Avoiding difficult conversations
• Overpreparing because you fear criticism
• Struggling to delegate or trust other people
• Saying yes to too many demands
• Questioning decisions you are qualified to make
• Feeling responsible for everybody’s wellbeing
• Becoming emotionally depleted by leadership pressure.

Executive coaching can help you develop a leadership style that is both effective and authentic. We can explore not only what you want to achieve but how you respond when you feel uncertain, criticised, responsible or under pressure.

Our work can help you:

• Communicate with greater confidence and authority
• Manage conflict and difficult conversations
• Delegate rather than carrying everything yourself
• Make clearer and more considered decisions
• Strengthen boundaries and manage competing demands
• Become more visible without feeling that you are performing
• Support and motivate others without neglecting yourself
• Lead change with greater clarity and resilience
• Manage pressure without moving towards burnout.

The aim is to help you become a more grounded and effective leader without losing your values, wellbeing or sense of self.

Confidence and self-trust

Confidence is not simply a matter of thinking positively.

Low confidence is often maintained by perfectionism, fear of criticism, comparison, shame, people-pleasing or the belief that you must continually prove yourself before you are entitled to speak, lead or take up space.

You may have considerable knowledge and experience while continuing to doubt yourself. You may find it difficult to:

• Speak up in meetings
• Express a different opinion
• Set boundaries or say no
• Make decisions without excessive reassurance
• Promote yourself or become more visible
• Take appropriate professional or personal risks
• Trust your judgement
• Accept praise or recognise your achievements.

Perhaps you overprepare, over-explain or apologise unnecessarily because you fear being misunderstood, exposed or judged. You may wait to feel completely confident before acting, only to remain stuck in cycles of hesitation and self-doubt.

Together, we can identify what weakens your confidence and develop more constructive ways of responding to doubt, criticism and uncertainty.

The aim is not to create a louder or more performative version of you. It is to help you develop genuine self-trust, communicate clearly and take meaningful action even when you cannot be completely certain of the outcome.

ADHD, autism and neuroinclusive coaching

Many of my clients are neurodivergent or are beginning to understand themselves following an ADHD, autism, AuDHD or dyslexia diagnosis or discovery.

This understanding can bring relief, recognition and clarity. It may also bring grief, frustration or questions about how you work, communicate, manage your energy and understand your past.

You may struggle with:

• Focus and prioritisation
• Planning and organisation
• Procrastination or task initiation
• Motivation and consistency
• Time management and time awareness
• Emotional intensity or rejection sensitivity
• Sensory or cognitive overwhelm
• Communication and workplace relationships
• Inconsistent energy and productivity
• The gap between intention and action
• Cycles of intense productivity followed by exhaustion.

Perhaps you have spent years believing that you were lazy, disorganised, inconsistent or not trying hard enough when you were actually attempting to work against your natural cognitive style.

You may have developed ways of coping that look successful from the outside, such as overworking, perfectionism, people-pleasing or masking. Although these strategies may have helped you achieve, they can also create anxiety, exhaustion and burnout.

My approach is not about forcing you to appear more typical, encouraging further masking or imposing rigid productivity systems that quickly become another source of failure.

Instead, we explore how your mind, emotions and nervous system work, what creates unnecessary friction and what practical structures genuinely fit you.

Our work can include:

• Executive-functioning strategies
• Realistic planning and prioritisation
• Task initiation and completion
• Routines and external systems
• Accountability that feels supportive rather than punitive
• Energy and workload management
• Emotional regulation
• Managing rejection sensitivity
• Communication and self-advocacy
• Workplace boundaries and reasonable adjustments
• Recovering from or preventing burnout.

As the parent of a neurodivergent child, I bring both professional and lived understanding of some of the strengths, pressures and misunderstandings experienced by neurodivergent people and their families.

The aim is to help you work with greater clarity, confidence and consistency while remaining connected to your strengths, needs and identity.

Career direction and professional transitions

You may be considering a career change, returning to work, moving into leadership, developing a business or rebuilding your professional life following burnout.

Perhaps you have outgrown your current position, lost motivation or reached a point where conventional success no longer feels meaningful. You may know that your present situation is no longer right without yet knowing what should replace it.

You may have several possible directions and struggle to choose between them. Fear of making the wrong decision, disappointing others or losing financial security may leave you caught between dissatisfaction and uncertainty.

Coaching can help you:

• Clarify what matters to you at this stage of your life
• Identify your strengths and transferable skills
• Understand what gives or drains your energy
• Explore realistic career and business options
• Distinguish your own goals from other people’s expectations
• Make decisions with greater confidence
• Prepare for leadership or professional transitions
• Develop a practical plan rather than remaining in uncertainty
• Create a career that better reflects your values and priorities.

We can balance thoughtful reflection with practical action, helping you avoid both impulsive change and endless analysis.

Business and entrepreneurial coaching

Building a business can offer freedom, creativity and meaning. It can also expose you to uncertainty, isolation, financial pressure and constant decision-making.

You may have strong ideas but struggle with prioritisation, consistency, visibility or execution. Perhaps you move between periods of intense productivity and times when everything feels overwhelming.

You may also find it difficult to delegate because you believe nobody else will maintain your standards. As the business grows, you may remain involved in every detail and become the main obstacle to its next stage of development.

Coaching can help you:

• Clarify your direction and priorities
• Turn ideas into manageable actions
• Improve accountability and follow-through
• Distinguish urgent tasks from strategically important work
• Make clearer business decisions
• Manage uncertainty and calculated risk
• Strengthen confidence and professional visibility
• Delegate and develop others more effectively
• Create boundaries between work and personal life
• Grow the business without sacrificing your wellbeing.

My aim is to help you build not only a productive business but a sustainable way of leading it.

Burnout and sustainable performance

Burnout does not always look like complete collapse.

You may continue functioning, meeting deadlines and supporting other people while privately feeling exhausted, detached, irritable or unable to think clearly. Work that was once manageable may now require considerable effort.

Perhaps you tell yourself that you need to become more disciplined, organised or resilient. In reality, pushing yourself harder may be part of the pattern that brought you to this point.

You may be relying on anxiety, urgency, guilt or fear of disappointing others to remain productive. Although this can work temporarily, it often comes at the cost of your health, relationships and ability to enjoy what you have achieved.

Coaching can help you examine:

• How you use your time and energy
• What you are carrying unnecessarily
• Where your boundaries have weakened
• Whether perfectionism is increasing your workload
• Which responsibilities can be delegated, reduced or stopped
• How masking and over-functioning affect your wellbeing
• What restores rather than merely distracts you
• What a healthier definition of success could look like.

The aim is not simply to help you recover enough to return to the same unsustainable pattern. It is to help you create a more thoughtful and durable way of working and living.

My coaching approach

My coaching style is warm, collaborative, honest and practical.

I combine professional coaching with psychological insight, DBT-informed skills, CBT-informed tools, systemic thinking and a neuroinclusive perspective.

The work is practical, but it is not superficial. We will not simply create ambitious goals and expect you to push yourself harder.

Where useful, we may explore why certain difficulties continue to return, including:

• Avoidance
• Perfectionism
• Fear of disappointing others
• Masking
• Rejection sensitivity
• Self-doubt
• Conflict avoidance
• Overthinking
• Over-functioning
• Working intensely until you burn out.

Understanding these patterns helps us create strategies that address what is genuinely preventing progress rather than repeatedly treating the surface difficulty.

Coaching with me remains forward-looking and goal-focused. Sessions are designed to help you develop awareness, make decisions, take meaningful action and remain accountable to the changes you want to create.

I do not apply one fixed coaching model to everyone. Our work will be tailored to your goals, strengths, identity, responsibilities and preferred way of working.

Some sessions may be structured and action-focused. Others may create space to think through a complex decision, understand a setback or identify a pattern that is affecting your confidence and progress.

My psychotherapy background also helps me recognise when a difficulty may require deeper psychological or clinical support. I maintain clear boundaries between coaching and psychotherapy and will discuss openly when therapy, medical care or another specialist service may be more appropriate.

Working together

I work with a limited number of coaching clients so that the support remains focused, thoughtful and personal.

Some clients begin with a focused strategy session to clarify a particular difficulty, decision or transition.

Others choose a structured three-, six- or twelve-month coaching programme to work more deeply on executive leadership, confidence, neurodivergence, career direction, business development, productivity or sustainable change.

Longer-term coaching provides time to:

• clarify meaningful goals and priorities
• identify and understand recurring patterns
• test and refine practical strategies
• maintain momentum and accountability
• respond to setbacks constructively
• embed changes into everyday life and work
• develop lasting confidence and self-trust.

You do not need to push harder, mask more or become somebody else.

Coaching can help you understand yourself more clearly, make thoughtful decisions, build systems that fit you and move forward with greater focus, confidence, energy and self-trust.

Taking the next step

Reaching out can feel difficult, particularly when you are accustomed to solving problems independently or supporting everybody else.

You do not need to have everything clearly defined before contacting me. We can begin with a brief consultation to explore what you want to achieve, what may be getting in the way and whether my coaching approach feels right for you.

Meaningful change does not need to happen all at once. It can begin by creating space to think clearly, understanding what has been holding you back and choosing one realistic step forward.

• Therapeutic coaching

I offer a range of coaching packages from between 3 to 6 months.

Sessions range from ~£396 to ~£416 per session (per-session equivalent). 

Please see full fee details on my website, Kind Soul Psych.

In upholding ethical responsibilities, including confidentiality, within my practice I maintain adherence to UKCP, EMCC and Professional Standards Authority guidelines, including fully GDPR-compliant record-keeping and secure data handling.