Rachael Richardson

Originally from Gateshead, U.K Rachael moved to Leicester 14 years ago and now lives with her wife and many guinea pigs!

When Rachael's wife became severely ill 4 years ago with her mental health and attempted suicide this was a wake up call for Rachael too in many ways. Rachael became a carer for her wife, providing much-needed emotional and practical support, but this also made her re-evaluate her own mental health and what was important.

Rachael's wife knew she struggled with gender identity and had always supported her to explore this. She realised that she too needed to make changes and was pretending she was happy with who she was to please everyone else. She decided her mental health and happiness was a price she was no longer willing to pay, and began transitioning gender with her wife's love and support.

Rachael's passion is sharing her journey with others, from coming out to family, friends and colleagues to navigating medical transition and her inner critic. Using her informal, humorous and highly personable approach she paints a picture of hope for anyone wanting to make changes in their life, or simply add invaluable personal insight into the ups and downs of navigating mental health and trans issues. Rachael's hope is to help others to be better equipped to meet their own personal challenges.

In today's modern workplace more and more amazing, wonderful people are "coming out" as either transgender or non binary.

It is imperative for the wellbeing and confidence of all staff to have an awareness of what being transgender means on a REAL level, from real life experience not just what is reported on, or represented in media.

1My training will empower and inspire your staff. I structure my training around my own real life experiences of being transgender, using a humorous, emotive and authentic style. I talk about my experience of transitioning, how this affected relationships with my wife, family, friends and colleagues as well as other aspects of my personal and working life.

I am a firm believer in having an open and honest question and answering session as part of this training. Your staff will leave this training with an memorable and nuanced understanding not only of different gender identities, but also an understanding of what it might be like for a transgender person on a daily basis. Importantly, for some people this may be a first chance to meet a transgender person, ask questions they weren't sure about asking, and feel more confident interacting with transgender people in an inclusive way.

Going forward staff report that they feel more confident and at ease in the workplace, and compassionate towards those with different gender identities. It also creates a supportive and open environment for any staff member to feel they can be their "true self" at work. This is imperative given that there is a large body of evidence supporting that a happier workplace is also a more efficient, productive one.