11th August 2008

The mother of four from Mapperley is an expert on giving guidance to employers, and employees, designed to
help people on sickness leave back into the workplace.

A clinical psychologist by profession, she set up Business Centred Therapy in 2007 to advise
companies on how to manage the problem of staff absence in a proactive, rather than a reactive
way, spotting warning signs rather than waiting for problems to arise.

Susan believes that reaching out to employees is vital in reducing the amount of sick leave in
companies, she says: "People who are feeling stressed or having problems in the workplace often don't know
where to turn.

"Companies do offer things like counselling services to their employees, but how many people
feel comfortable using it?"

But Susan believes it is essential that businesses recognise the early warning signs in workers,
not only for the well-being of the individual but because research by the Chartered Institute for
Personnel and Development recently found that the average cost of absence to a company is
£700 per employee per year.

Working with local authorities as well as the private sector, she now runs a team of therapists,
researchers, employment barristers, occupational researchers, health economists and
occupational psychologists.

Her company works with employers to tailor-make an approach to reducing employee absence.
As well as being a mother, therapist and managing director, Susan, 39, is also working on a
Doctorate at the University of Sheffield which will further advance her knowledge of the field.
Her research is based in the university's centre for the study of conflict and reconciliation, in the
school of health and related research.

What makes her academic achievements all the more remarkable is that Susan left school at 14
with no qualifications, only to later discover she was dyslexic.

Growing up in Upton Park, London, Susan, whose mother had Venezuelan roots and whose
father was from Trinidad and Tobago, would skip classes to sit by the Thames as she struggled
with class work.

Leaving with nine unclassified O-Levels, she earned money modelling, working in a show shop at
Marble Arch.

After completing a shorthand and typing course at Cranbrook Secretarial College, she worked as
a filing clerk at the Australian and New Zealand Merchant Bank.

It was when surrounded by bright stockbrokers that she first realised she had real academic
potential.

After separating from her first husband, she became a single mother to three children under four
and enrolled on a foundation certificate to study counselling and psychotherapy at Weald College
in Harrow.

In September, 1997, she moved her family to Nottingham and enrolled at the University of
Nottingham and studied for an advanced certificate in counselling before eventually completing a
Masters degree at Nottingham Trent University.

It was as she finished working with people who had substance abuse problems at the Priory that
she found her career path.

She says: "I had done my Masters and realised that people were asking me to come to work for
them."

She achieved remarkable results working for Notts Health Care with women who had fallen
through society's safety nets, some of whom were sex workers.

"People said I would not be able to help these people but I went out and got results.
"I reached out to them by going to the places they were. I didn't expect them to come to me."
This reaching out to people is the ethos behind Business Centred Management, based at BioCity
Nottingham, Pennyfoot Street, which she set up with the help of match-funding from Business
Links Notts and the East Midlands Development Agency.

Susan says she wants to connect with people who may struggling silently in the workplace,
whether with stress-related issues or bullying in the workplace.

She says: "Sometimes bosses are very surprised to hear that their behaviour is being considered
by others as bullying.

"Where is the line between being assertive and inappropriate behaviour?
"There is also a lack of knowledge about the procedures to deal with someone who comes to
them and says they're being bullied."

Despite a packed diary and her many commitments, Susan is keen to maintain her own health
and well-being.

She regularly runs, goes to yoga and pilates and eats healthily.

Over lunch she advises me on things I can do to improve my own health, and it is this interest in
individuals that seems to be the key to her success.

She may save companies cash they cannot afford to pay out to absent workers, but she can also
improve the way people feel about their lives.

She says: "It is a rewarding job to offer something so person-centred. I really enjoy it."

For more information about Business Centred Therapy visit their website at
www.businesscentredtherapy.co.uk, their blog at www.attendance-management.co.uk or call
0115 912 4532.