Darren Toms
As a child Darren grew up in a variety of places as his dad was in the Royal Air Force.
At the age of 12 along with his older sister he attended boarding school in England as his parents lived overseas.
Prior to setting up bestparent Darren worked for a large American Bank based in the UK as a Learning and Development officer. It was here that Darren gained immense pleasure from helping people gain skills and new ways of achieving things in their life.
Since becoming a dad in early 2000 Darren has constantly looked to improve his parenting skills. Sometimes successfully and sometimes not.
Darren was divorced when his only daughter was 3 years old and this had a major impact on the way he approached being a parent.
He is now a step father to his partners two children and this has presented a completely different personal challenge which has also helped inspire and shape the bestparent: bestdad™ programme
The idea came to set up bestparent after taking a qualification in coaching and also meeting Richard (who was a delegate on one of his training courses).
Since starting as a parent coach, Darren has also written Stop, Don’t & Be Positive™ which takes a look at the language we use with our children and explores why no matter what we seem to ask them to do they always seem to do the opposite. This book explores what language works and what language doesn’t work and how to keep you and your children feeling positve.
Away from work Darren has achieved a 1st Dan black belt in two different martial arts. He is also a member of a local musical theatre group and performs with his other cast members in at least 4 different shows a year.
A keen supporter of charities the most memorable was a trip to Romania in 2005 with 7 other people to work with a local charity creating a new garden enabling some local Romanian orphans to be able to go outside for the first time.
An experienced trainer, coach and facilitator, Darren will leave you feeling motivated, enthusiastic, inspired and raring to go with new knowledge, new skills and most of all new belief that you can be the best parent you can be.
Richard Lake
Richard, the son of a Pilot, grew up as one of three boys who's parents divorced when he was quite young. Both parents remarried, his mum to an officer of the army, allowing Richard the opportunity to travel.
He has worked for a number of large organisations leading both large and small teams and coaching individuals to stretch themselves, fulfil their potential and progress to bigger and better things. This certainly opened his eyes to the significant and varied pressures of both being one and supporting other hard working parents. In addition, Richard’s career has also had a heavy emphasis on training and development, service improvement and treating both customers and employees fairly. One of his most recent roles involved the coaching of branch managers in the Care Industry to both improve their skills and the quality of service they provided to their vulnerable and dependent clients.
Richard has always found greatest satisfaction in working with others to develop, build their belief in themselves and perform to their full potential. It was this aspect that persuaded him to strive for greater meaning in his life by becoming a qualified coach. As fate would have it, it was at this time that Richard and Darren met and inspired each other to follow their dream and set up bestparent.
A qualified coach, having undertaken his Certificate in Personal Coaching with the largest Coaching Academy in Europe, Richard has also attended many other specialised coaching programmes some specifically on parent coaching.
Richard is constantly both challenged and entertained by his three lovely daughters. As such, it is easy to see how his passion for parent coaching has developed, quickly learning the harsh realities of parenthood on the arrival of his twin daughters and the skills required to first just survive then flourish.
In his spare time Richard is a keen sportsman having played cricket for Bournemouth and Badminton for his University. Now playing more socially while coaching the youngsters in the teams. Richard is also active in the local community and is currently a Governor at the local Middle School.
As an experienced coach Richard will help you explore your thoughts and you’ll feel a new strength as you find out what you want as a parent, break down any barriers stopping that from happening and being the bestparent you can be.