Nicky Perfect B.E.M is a former Hostage and Crisis Negotiator with 31 years’ service in policing, including a decade on the elite New Scotland Yard Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit. She later became the UK Director of National Negotiator Training, responsible for developing negotiators nationwide.

Awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for meritorious service to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicky is now a sought-after keynote speaker, communication coach and media commentator. She is the author of the bestselling book Crisis: True Stories from My Life as a Hostage & Crisis Negotiator, where she shares powerful lessons from the front line of life-and-death negotiations.

Nicky speaks on high-stakes communication, leadership under pressure, managing conflict, emotional intelligence, negotiation in parenting and family life, negotiating salaries and professional influence, and supporting women in high-powered roles. She translates crisis negotiation principles into practical tools that help individuals and organisations turn conflict into collaboration.

She has appeared on Saturday Live and Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4, Good Morning Britain, Australia’s Weekend Sunrise, the US radio programme Here & Now, as well as BBC Three Counties Radio and Crimewatch, and has been featured in Woman's Own, Good Housekeeping, and Chat.

Her message is simple: communication is not a soft skill — it is a life-changing skill.

The teenage years can leave even the most confident parent wondering what is normal, what isn't, and when they should be concerned. Is the withdrawal, anger, anxiety, impulsive behaviour or growing distance from you part of growing up, or could something more be going on?

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Rachel explores the developing teenage brain and what is happening beneath the behaviour we see during adolescence, from emotions and growing independence to changing relationships and the very individual ways young people develop. There is no single version of a “typical teenager”, and what is usual for one young person may look very different for another.

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With a particular focus on teenage mental health, Rachel will explore the signs worth paying attention to and when there may be cause for concern. Most importantly, she will look at what parents and carers can actually do, how to support a young person at home, navigate the changing parent-child relationship, and know when and where to reach for further help.

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Combining professional insight with personal experience, warmth, humour and real-world stories, Behind the Behaviour offers greater understanding, practical ways forward and a message of hope.

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Rachel Young MBACP is a psychotherapist, counsellor, clinical hypnotherapist, trainer and speaker with extensive experience in mental health, emotional wellbeing and behaviour.

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Alongside her private practice, Rachel has delivered training and wellbeing programmes across the NHS, education and corporate sectors, including work with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. She has also contributed to BBC News and BBC radio on mental health and wellbeing. 

A qualified teacher as well as a therapist, Rachel has a particular interest in working with teenagers and young adults and understanding what may sit beneath changes in behaviour.

As a mum of five, Rachel combines clinical understanding with lived experience, warmth and humour, and a belief that young people should be understood as beautifully unique individuals rather than measured against somebody else's idea of “normal”.

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