Our Team

You are in safe hands

All of our team have lived experience which has led us to utilise professional help for our emotional and mental health.

The programme leaders are always a combination of professional seminar facilitators and qualified mental health professionals.

Meet the team

  • Alan Clayton BSc, Dip Mngt

    FOUNDER

    Alan has spent 30 years accelerating people with purpose around the world. His specialism is seminar design, creation and delivery. He also brings lived experience to the retreat. He is in recovery from the negative effects of serious ACEs and abandonment and was the first trial participant in the EmPower programme. Alan has combined the experience of the clinical team with his own experience to shape a programme which is precisely designed to work for you.

  • Malene Fregil M.A

    PROGRAMME DESIGNER

    Malene has had a career in seminar development following an education in ethnography and cultural development at the University of Copenhagen. There is academic theory and research behind everything that we do and when it comes to teaching and seminar design. This is provided by Malene. Her expertise is in designing engaging and effective learning experiences that lead to real-world results.

  • Duncan Batty

    HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT

    Duncan has spent 25 years helping people change the world – and feel brilliant about it - by connecting them with some incredible causes. He’s an EmPower programme ‘graduate’; it’s given him confidence and clarity of purpose and has meant he has finally learned to control the imposter syndrome that has followed him around throughout his working life. With lived experience of mental health challenges, joining EmPower is part of his belief in living in alignment with his values and the peace of mind that brings. Outside of work, you’ll probably find him following his passion for live basketball and live theatre – after committing to saying ‘yes’ to more things!

  • Dr Iain MacRitchie

    FOUNDER

    A serial entrepreneur and social entrepreneur. After a career in private-equity Iain has spent the last eight years as a full-time volunteer leader of MCR Pathways – the charity he founded through his foundation. The award winning charity started in Glasgow and is now national and specialises in ensuring that no young person is trapped in trauma alone.

  • Nikita Saha Lee

    GROUP MARKETING MANAGER

    If there’s one thing to know about Nikita, it’s that she thrives on challenges—whether that’s scaling businesses, deep-diving into digital strategy, or literally jumping out of a plane. As the Group Marketing Lead for ACA Philanthropy & Fundraising, her time is split across EmPower Mental Fitness, Revolutionise, UK Fundraising, and other businesses under the group.

  • Jeff Cockfield MSc, FDAP, MBACP

    THERAPIST + ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

    Jeff holds a master’s degree in counselling and psychology and has been a practising therapist since 2003. His experience is wide, long and varied. He has worked with street addicts, people with career angst, mild, moderate and severe emotional health issues, business people, celebrities and even royalty. Jeff’s personal history before his current career is one of mental health struggles and alcohol addiction. He’s been sober and in recovery since 1995 and has been helping people ever since, professionally and on a voluntary basis. Jeff plays an active role in our seminars (he’s a very entertaining presenter) and programmes and sits on our advisory board to ensure our effectiveness and your safety.

Safe hands: Evidenced-based content

There are three sources for the EmPower programme: Clinical psychology, Psychological therapy, Lived experience for lifelong learning.

  • Every element of the EmPower programme is drawn from academically researched and evidenced methods.

  • We are overseen by an advisory board of clinical psychologists and post-graduate therapists.

  • We spent two years piloting the programme and refining every detail before bringing it to you.

If you will be reassured by checking out our sources, method and documentation, please arrange a video call with emma.gannon@em-po.com

Clients are reporting an average 36% improvement in their wellbeing (a big increase) and are expressing a lot of joy in the process. In fact, several people say they feel it has been life-changing

Why we exist

One of our founders created the programme for himself.  The root of this is in multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences and he has lived with much anxiety and some addictions.  Although sober for years, the COVID lockdowns, in his own words ‘broke him.’ 

The isolation and stress brought back all the old anxieties and obsessions.  He reached out for help and researched emotional and mental health for weeks.  He worked with a senior therapist and a clinical psychologist and designed a 12-week programme and tested it on himself.  The results were dramatic. 

He himself says ‘I will never achieve perfect peace, but nor would I want to.  I am still me, but a better me, one I am more comfortable with.  I feel I am in a confident place now and maintaining that is much simpler than making the change.’

Since 2023, we have been turning that programme into one that anyone can use and complete.  We have developed and tested the format, the content and the technology (detail really matters!) and we are overseen by an advisory board made up of specialists qualified in therapy and clinical psychology.  The results from clients so far match or exceed the outcomes that our founder experienced, which makes us all very happy indeed.

“It might require a leap of faith, an investment of time, and an open mind, but it will be the best decision you make to help your future self.”

– EB, Cornwall –