About Laurel

Now that you have reached my website and are considering making contact, you will want to know a little about me. So here it is!

Where do I come from?

I’m a Zimbabwean who has been in the UK since 2000. I have also lived and worked in South Africa and Italy.  

Where am I based?

I now live in London. But, because I would be working with you via Zoom, where you are doesn’t matter. You could be in Australia or Zimbabwe – or the Karoo. As long as you have a stable internet connection, we would be ready to go.  

What is my guiding star?

My commitment to the principles of human rights has guided the path of my working (and personal) life right from the time I was at school – whether that work has been directly in the context of human rights activities or not.  

How has my guiding star directed my working life?

Much of the work I have done has been with refugees. In Zimbabwe, this was as the administrator of a Danish-funded agency working with Mozambicans fleeing civil war and, in the UK, it was a director of an agency supporting asylum applicants and refugees in the UK.  

But the principles of human rights have been central to my approach even in other roles; these included counselling and mentoring in a variety of contexts:

• • Working as an occupational welfare officer in a UK police force
  • Teaching for the Italian Air Force
  • Being a radiographer at Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa  

Here’s something of interest: Did you know that it was at Groote Schuur, in 1968, that Christiaan Barnard carried out the first heart transplant? Years later, while working in the cardiac unit, I encountered Professor Barnard while he was doing his ward rounds. Professor Barnard was a surprisingly small man. But he accomplished something huge.

The pearls of wisdom I have gathered along the way

In working with people and their problems, it is useful, of course, to have a theoretical foundation on which to base one’s approach. But it is the years of experience – both in living my own life and in helping others with the difficulties in theirs – that have more fundamentally shaped my approach than any theoretical knowledge I gained at university. So, just in case you’re interested, here are some of the pearls of wisdom I have gathered along the way. You can find others in my blog posts:

• • Sometimes, the less said, the better.
  • Everything becomes history eventually.  
  • Sleep on it before making any significant decisions.  
  • A crisis is like a stone being dropped into a bucket of water. Today we are in the whirlpool at the centre, but tomorrow we will be in the ripples.  
  • Keep things simple.
  • An argument is almost always an attempt by each party to force the other to their viewpoint.  
  • Leave an argument while you can. Or, much better, leave before it even starts.  
  • Within every person (even the most unexpected of them) is wisdom. 
  • Within every person (even the most bitter) is a flicker of tenderness.  
  • Within each person is the solution to his or her problem.  
  • Anger uses up much energy.   

What are my interests?

I have degrees in more than one discipline and have worked in multiple settings and sectors, so the chances are that whatever field you are working in or whatever context your life challenge is in, I have had some experience of that field or context. And if you are a musician or music lover or love architecture and design, you will well identify with my chomping-at-the-bit during lockdown!