A warm, story-led practice shaped by lived experience, advocacy and care.
Sharleen DaCosta is a UK-based speaker, SEND advocate and wellness educator helping families, schools and organisations create more emotionally safe, inclusive support around children with additional needs.
The support I create is the support I once needed.
I know what it is to sit in the school meeting feeling unheard. To carry the emotional weight of advocating for your child while trying to hold everything else together. To feel invisible inside systems that weren't built with you in mind.
That experience is the reason this work exists. It's also why families and schools tell me my sessions feel different — because they're rooted in real life, not just frameworks.
Today I work with parents, schools, universities, charities and organisations across the UK — combining holistic wellbeing with practical SEND guidance, cultural awareness and compassion.
Values that shape every session, keynote and community.
Lived experience
Every part of this work is shaped by what I've walked through as a SEND parent myself.
Cultural honesty
Naming what's often unnamed — the cultural, racial and systemic barriers families carry.
Holistic wellbeing
Mind, body, nervous system and community — supported together, not separately.
Practical support
You won't leave a session with theory alone. You'll leave with next steps.
Warm, intelligent, calm — never clinical.
I meet parents, teachers and leaders where they are. I listen for what's underneath the words. And I bring together the emotional, cultural and practical layers of support that usually get handled in silos.
The result is work that feels human — and outcomes that stay with people long after our time together.
Ready to feel supported or bring this work into your space?
Whether you're a parent, a school leader or an organisation, I'd love to hear where you are and where you'd like to be.
