A woman who made her first big career move by joining the catering team at The Deep more than 20 years ago has now returned to launch her own business at the adjacent Business Centre.
Gemma Wardell spent about five years at the award-winning aquarium and was in charge of catering by the time she left. But her new venture is a complete change of direction – inspired by Gemma’s years of battling the impact of debilitating illness.
Human Brilliance is a coaching and training company which works with individuals and organisations to help them overcome challenges and unleash their potential.
Gemma said: “My illness started with a virus which couldn’t be pinned down easily. It developed through chronic conditions, creating more stress and anxiety because of my inability to do anything about it.
“The first couple of years were horrendous and people were telling me I would not recover and would end up in a wheelchair. There were times when I thought that was it and things wouldn’t get any better. The whole journey to recovery was about eight to ten years.”
Gemma’s ordeal came out of the blue and began with pain, fatigue and other physical symptoms which she was determined to overcome to live a full, early 20-year-old’s life.
She said: “Eventually I just completely crashed. I was housebound for about 18 months, I spent time in hospital and in an isolation unit well before Covid. It was thought I had a tropical disease but it was a virus that started to affect my body. Because I’m stubborn and thought I was invincible, I kept pushing and pushing in an attempt to overcome my symptoms, and was eventually diagnosed with ME.”
During her slow recovery Gemma started to study psychology and trained in neurolinguistic programming, therapeutic and health coaching, transactional analysis, counselling, and psychotherapy. Gemma is an accredited psychotherapist with a passion for organisational psychology.
During her time as a director of a community interest company, Gemma set up and led services which worked with the NHS, local authorities and charities to help people who had ME, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and unexplained medical conditions.
As a qualified trainer for counsellors and psychotherapists, Gemma wanted to use her experience to create change and positive impact, and came up with the idea of working more widely with individuals and organisations to create a happy and mentally healthy UK workforce.
She said: “I called it Human Brilliance because humans are truly brilliant – through my work, I have witnessed many people overcoming challenges and adversity in the most amazing ways, and good mental health has always played a part.
“I work with individuals and groups, coaching and training to resource and support them to understand how as human beings, we think, feel, and behave, to understand ourselves and each other, and to create lasting and positive change.”
The Deep Business Centre provides a high-profile base which is familiar to Gemma and to her client base.
She said: “The work I have had so far is from people coming to me – dynamic, forward-thinking companies that prioritise the wellbeing of their team. They want to retain their staff and want them to be happy and therefore perform well.
“How do we support our people to be the best version of themselves so they are impactful in the workplace? It’s a preventative thing and the work locations depend on where the clients are. I go where the demand is – I was in a forest the other day!”
Freya Cross, Head of Business and Corporate at The Deep, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed working with Gemma when she was part of the team at The Deep and I am really excited to have the opportunity to support her now as she launches Human Brilliance.
“I was aware of her illness but had no idea of the scale of the impact and I think it’s remarkable to see how she has not only overcome it but also understood it, explored it and turned it into the inspiration for a new business which can help other people.”
