Sabbir Ahmed

Do you appear successful, capable and in control on the outside, while privately feeling overwhelmed, scattered or no longer able to work in a way that truly fits you?

You may be leading a demanding service, managing a team, developing a business, navigating a career transition or carrying significant responsibility for other people. Although others may see you as confident and accomplished, you may privately struggle with procrastination, perfectionism, self-doubt, people-pleasing, emotional pressure, inconsistent motivation or burnout.

Perhaps you 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. You may be working harder and harder without feeling that you are moving forward in a meaningful or sustainable way.

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 clinically 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 work also helps you understand why the same difficulties keep returning, what may be driving them beneath the surface and how to create change that is realistic, compassionate and sustainable.

Who I work with
I work with professionals, executives, managers, clinicians, business owners, entrepreneurs and other capable adults who are driven and responsible, yet 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
• people-pleasing and difficulty setting boundaries
• leadership pressure or workplace conflict
• career uncertainty or difficult decisions
• emotional overwhelm or rejection sensitivity
• stress, exhaustion or burnout
• ADHD, autism, AuDHD or another form of neurodivergence
• the persistent feeling that you are falling behind

You may achieve a great deal, while privately feeling that everything takes more effort than it should. You may be exhausted by masking, overthinking, overpreparing or continually trying to prove your value.

Coaching offers a space to step back, think clearly and understand what needs to change: not by pushing yourself harder, but by working in a way that is more strategic, self-aware and sustainable.

Executive and leadership coaching
I provide executive 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, developing a team, leading organisational change, building a business or managing complex relationships and decisions.

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

Executive coaching can help you:

• develop an authentic and effective leadership style
• communicate with greater confidence and authority
• manage difficult conversations and workplace conflict
• delegate rather than carrying everything yourself
• make clearer and more considered decisions
• improve boundaries and manage competing demands
• become more visible without feeling that you are performing
• support and motivate others without neglecting yourself
• manage leadership pressure without moving towards burnout

We can examine not only what you want to achieve, but how you operate when you feel uncertain, criticised, responsible or under pressure.

This can be particularly valuable when patterns such as perfectionism, avoidance, over-functioning, conflict avoidance or people-pleasing begin to affect your leadership.

The aim is to help you become a more grounded, confident 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 but still doubt your ability. 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

You may overprepare, over-explain or apologise unnecessarily because you fear being misunderstood, exposed or judged.

Together, we can identify what weakens your confidence and develop more effective 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 more clearly and act with greater confidence even when you cannot be completely certain of the outcome.

ADHD, autism and neurodivergent 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 and clarity. It can also bring grief, frustration and questions about how you work, communicate, manage 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 overworking followed by exhaustion

You may 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.

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

My approach is not about forcing you to appear more typical, increasing masking or applying 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 may include:

• executive-functioning strategies
• realistic planning and prioritisation
• task initiation and completion
• routines and external systems
• energy and workload management
• emotional regulation
• managing rejection sensitivity
• communication and self-advocacy
• workplace boundaries and reasonable adjustments
• recovering from or preventing burnout

The aim is to help you work with greater clarity, confidence and consistency while remaining connected to your strengths 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 have several possible directions but struggle to choose between them. Alternatively, you may know that your present situation is no longer right without yet knowing what should replace it.

Coaching can help you:

• clarify what matters to you now
• identify your strengths and transferable skills
• understand what gives or drains your energy
• explore realistic career and business options
• 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 reflection with 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. You may move between intense periods of productivity and times when everything feels overwhelming.

You may also find it difficult to delegate because you believe that nobody else will maintain your standards.

Coaching can help you:

• clarify your direction and priorities
• turn ideas into manageable actions
• improve accountability and follow-through
• make strategic decisions
• manage uncertainty and risk
• strengthen confidence and visibility
• delegate more effectively
• create boundaries between work and personal life
• develop 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. Activities that once felt manageable may now require considerable effort.

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

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 a healthier definition of success could look like

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

My coaching approach
My coaching is warm, honest, reflective 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.

We may also explore why certain difficulties keep returning, 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 allows us to create strategies that address what is actually preventing progress rather than repeatedly treating the surface problem.

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.

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

How coaching may help
Depending on your needs, our work may help you:

• improve focus, motivation and consistency
• reduce procrastination and perfectionism
• strengthen confidence and self-trust
• develop leadership and communication skills
• manage difficult conversations
• set healthier professional and personal boundaries
• make clearer career or business decisions
• improve planning, organisation and follow-through
• manage emotional overwhelm and rejection sensitivity
• create systems that work with your cognitive style
• manage your energy and reduce burnout risk
• become more visible without feeling inauthentic
• align your work and life more closely with your values.

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.

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 space to:

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

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

You do not need to have everything clearly defined before contacting me. We can begin with a brief initial call to explore what you want to achieve, what challenges you are facing in achieving your goals and how coaching can help you achieve these goals.

• 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.