The Confidence Trick: how to play, how to win [IN-PERSON] | Dr Anna Colton and Jessica Chivers | a Talent Retention and Survive & Thrive event

Dr Anna Colton is a chartered clinical psychologist and executive coach with many years experience in both the NHS and private practice.

Anna works closely with the Bar and law firms. She consults to Institute of Barristers Clerks and sets of barristers chambers on wellbeing and mental health, delivering talks, running regular surgeries and advising on, or writing, wellbeing policies. She runs Mental Health First Aid training and assists with setting up effective and robust wellbeing teams within chambers and law firms so that difficulties are spotted early and intervention accessed quickly and effectively so that crises are pre-empted and avoided. She also coaches solicitors, barristers, clerks and other high performers on a one to one basis.

In addition to her practice in the legal world, Anna has particular expertise in performance anxiety and stage fright in high performers (in all fields: the law, business, sport, the screen and stage). She has worked with the leads in many West End shows, works with the British Association of Performing Artists and Musicians (BAPAM), is the psychologist on Matilda the musical and consults to theatre companies.

Finally, She can often be seen or heard on the TV and radio, discussing a range of topics, advocating for early intervention in mental health.

Jessica Chivers is a coaching psychologist, author and CEO of The Talent Keeper Specialists.

The Talent Keeper Specialists are on a mission to keep everyone everywhere feeling confident, connected and cared for when they take extended leave from work. They work with clients such as BlackRock, ITV and the CIPD to maximise the potential of returning talent.

Aged about nine she asked her mum whether “woman” was a contraction of “womb” and “man” and why women couldn’t have a name of their own. Her mother delighted in her thinking but didn’t have an answer. Growing up watching LA Law, Dynasty and hard-hitting documentaries (under the guidance of her liberal, teacher mother) she decided age 11 that she would become a lawyer and free women on death row in the U.S. for killing their abusive partners.

Jessica read psychology and started her career on a City graduate programme before working with The Mind Gym and pursuing a career as a coaching psychologist. Her first book Mothers Work! How to Get a Grip on Guilt and Make a Smooth Return to Work has been dubbed “THE book employers should giving all their women returners” by Professor Karen Pine.

See Jessica discussing agile working on BBC Breakfast and working parents on Sky News