WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE

Who We Are

Our members are a diverse group of facilitators, managers, coaches, trainers, consultants, HR professionals, learning and development consultants and charity and community representatives.

The founders of AoF are Brian Watts and Bella Mehta who work with partners and board members (Professor Paul Barber, Dr Mike Field, Dr David Best, Robin Shohet) on all aspects of design and delivery of courses, supervision days, accreditation, re-accreditation and resources. For more information, please click here.

Community Manager, Hannah Wood, takes the lead on communication with new and established members.

Between us, we represent a wide range of personal profiles, professional interests, strengths, skills, backgrounds, life circumstances and outward appearances but share a commitment to developing individuals as facilitators, including ourselves, and facilitation as a profession.

BRIAN WATTS 

My early background is in the Police Service where I specialised in learning and development, teacher training, and the assessment of staff in their attainment of Higher Education qualifications.  There I discovered my vocation as a facilitator and began exploring the world of group facilitation and its interface with leadership and performance.

Since then I have studied Facilitation at both Masters and Post Graduate level. For over 20 years I have worked independently across a wide range of organisations, training and supervising facilitators, and facilitating learning programmes.  

I’m particularly interested in the type of work that positions facilitation as a core component to other disciplines, and makes explicit the link between personal and professional development.  Such work has included leadership development programmes, mediation, team development, and qualitative research.

My approach to facilitation is eclectic.  I aim to help participants go beyond their current levels of skill and awareness, and to gain confidence and creativity in their chosen arena.

BELLA MEHTA

I have a mixed educational background which includes music, biochemistry (to graduate level), information technology (to masters level), project management, systems theory, constellations, personality types, counselling, writing & editing, leadership, change management, gestalt and group facilitation (to post-graduate level).

I have previously worked as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting, a project manager at BBC News and subsequently smaller consulting organisations. I have facilitated many conversations, team meetings, workshops, events, away days, debates, research and communication programmes within organisations.  I have a keen awareness of the dynamics and pressures within groups and organisations, a clear eye on the business case for change and many experiences of change brought about through a facilitative way of working.  I have taken several career breaks to travel, study and write books and articles. 

I have run as well as supervised facilitator training courses, and am committed to developing self-directed, experiential learning, reflective practice and facilitation skills in professional environments.