Meet our speakers for ViVA 2026!

Amanda’s journey into holistic health and the human mind began in London over 40 years ago, aged 16. Since then, serendipity has played its magic. She describes a colourful ride from nomadic life as a “campervan chick” to motherhood, radio presenting, and working in the field of habits and addiction, as well as becoming a published co-author in Barcelona, where she is now based.

And because celebrating love and life is as important as understanding how it works, Amanda trained as an Independent Modern Celebrant, creating and officiating bespoke ceremonies from the inside out, from baby namings to weddings, vow renewals, and funerals. Her latest project brings these worlds together: Loving, Living & Dying — from the cradle to the grave, opening up meaningful conversations around the full spectrum of life.

Amanda was introduced to the Principles in 2012 through Sheela Masand, and remembers the moment the penny dropped. From then on, she was all in.

She brings a deep trust in the resilience within us all, along with warmth, humour, and an infectious passion for life, to the 2026 Viva Event.

Barb Patterson is a lifelong student of human nature and the deeper truths of who we are: what lives beneath the surface of our thinking, our striving, our past, and what becomes possible when we begin to know that territory from the inside.

She has spent thirty years working alongside entrepreneurs, executives, global organizations, and those who serve them. Her clients range from individual founders to leadership teams inside some of the world’s largest companies. Over the years, she’s found that the strategies and skills people came for mattered far less than what was underneath them.

Rooted in the understanding and teachings of Sydney Banks, and shaped by decades of real-world application, that realization is the foundation of Innerverse Academy, a global platform where the deeper truths of human nature meet the real work of building a business and a life. Much of her work explores what happens after realization, when understanding meets the reality of leadership, relationships, creation, and everyday life.

She is also the co-founder, with Aila Coats, of The Practitioner’s Path, a body of work for coaches and practitioners at the intersection of deep realization and practical application. For those learning to live it, apply it, and bring it forward in their work with others.

At heart, one question runs through all of her work, mentoring, writing, and podcasts: what becomes possible when these profound understandings are not just known, but embodied, and a place we actually live and create from?

Clare Downham has been pointing people back to their innate well-being since a profound shift in her own understanding changed everything. For many years, her life was defined by a relentless drive for achievement, leading her to the pinnacle of her career as a primary school headteacher. While she appeared successful to the outside world, she was inwardly exhausted by a loud inner critic and a constant pressure to prove her worth, a path that eventually led to a complete burnout .

The discovery of the inside-out understanding revealed a simple truth: that the peace and clarity she had been chasing were not goals to be reached, but were the very essence of who she already was. Realising that she was the sky and not the storm allowed the heavy clouds of overthinking to part naturally, ending her search for external validation and opening a way of living and working with authentic ease.

Today, Clare is a coach, mentor, speaker, and writer on a mission to spread the understanding of the Three Principles to as many people as possible . As a prolific teacher on Insight Timer with over 80 courses grounded in the principles, she helps high-achieving professionals and business owners drop the weight of perfectionism and self-doubt. Whether through her 1:1 coaching, workshops, or global teaching, Clare’s work is a warm, subtractive invitation to come home to yourself and be guided by the quiet clarity of inner knowing.

Introducing Deb​

Debra Simmons is Head of happiness at Dare2bu and Creator of The Love Experiment.  

Deb’s story involves escaping from an abusive relationship, turning her life around, and helping her children find their happy place and building a successful business. 

Dare2bu is our business and its’ all about knowing ALL of who you truly are, both as a human and a spiritual being. Finding the balance between the two and from there living an inspired life of alignment, with truth and love.  

This describes Deb’s life, she has been doing this work for over ten years now, and she loves walking her talk. She plays and challenges herself by getting her hands and heart dirty in the clay of creation. ​

When she is not playing offices, she can be found with any combination of her 4 beloved grandchildren or working on her latest exciting project The Field of Dreams ~ building her own home whilst living off grid. 

All of this has given Deb a deep grounding in the best ways to help others too, which she does through 1-1 sessions, The Love Experiment programme, and of course the annual Dare2bu Conference of LOVE! 

Derrick Mason came across The Three Principles understanding in 2017 during his time in prison. There he had an insight around the innate source of his well being, getting a glimpse of a feeling, pointing to the infinite nature of his own potential. He saw it had only ever been his thinking in the moment separating him from the feeling. 

After being released in August 2018, armed only with the feeling that he didn’t have to be who he always thought he was. Derrick continues to look deeper into the nature of who he thinks he is, alway being led by the feeling. Derrick has a beautiful way of sharing from that space.

In 2023 Derrick founded Mindflow Academy CIC, where they run in person workshops in prisons and in the community, with people affected by addiction and homelessness.

As a certified executive coach, Dominic Scaffidi partners with clients to point them to the unlimited potential and possibility of who they really are. Through accessing their own innate wisdom, clients are supported to create a life that they love, both personally and professionally.

Dominic is credentialed through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as a Master Certified Coach (MCC). He works with entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone with a strong desire to explore and experience more of who they really are. He has also been recognized with multiple ICF awards for his training and mentoring of hundreds of leaders and people managers “to be Great Coaches rather than good bosses.”

He is grounded in a practical and deep understanding of the teachings of Sydney Banks (3 Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought) and the teachings of Abraham-Hicks both of which describe our true nature and how we are always creating our own reality.

Emma McDevitt has been bringing the Three Principles understanding to her transformational work with individuals and groups for over a decade, guiding people into an experience of their deeper nature and a fuller expression of their unique blueprint.

She works with teachers, healers and practitioners of all kinds to uncover and embody the gifts that are innate rather than acquired; with women at midlife and beyond to bring their wisdom and agency where it’s needed; and with all those called to pick up their thread in the wider weave of the human and other-than-human world.

A lifelong explorer of the deeper truths of life and human nature, she loves working with people at thresholds and times of uncertainty, helping them orient to a deeper guiding current and ultimately discover a more profound sense of aliveness, purpose and belonging.

Thirty years ago, Gabriela Maldonado Montano stumbled upon an understanding that would change everything — not just her work, but her life. And life, as her beloved Sydney Banks used to say, is a contact sport. Gabriela knows this firsthand. Through the loss of cherished loved ones, through the disorienting pace of a world reshaped by technology, through the turbulence of global upheaval — she has intimately seen the Principles at work in her own life, not just taught them. Each storm became a reminder of what never changes: the quiet resilience and innate wellbeing that lives beneath every human experience.

That deeply personal journey is what she brings into every room she enters — along with a heart-driven approach, a spirit of lightheartedness, and one unwavering intention: to make the Principles as simple and relatable as possible, because she knows from her own life that simplicity is what reaches people when they need it most.

The transformations she has witnessed in her clients mirror her own. In one-on-one coaching, group dynamics, and cross-cultural work, she has seen people come home to themselves — just as she has, again and again.

Together with Marien Perez, she co-created Leadership from Within, a program that brings the Principles to leaders, teams, and college students with both simplicity and power. She also mentors new and emerging coaches eager to carry this understanding into the Spanish-speaking world through the International Coaching Group (ICG) — because she believes that everyone deserves access to this insight, in the language that lives closest to their heart.

Grace’s experience of life became more and more enjoyable after coming across the Three Principles and apprenticing with Michael Neill in 2016.  

She learned how to experience way more confidence & effortless success in her business.

Later, when her fiance suddenly died, her understanding of the principles cushioned her grief.

She was able to navigate this loss more gently than expected and was even able to rebuild her life and find a new love.

Isabelle Caratti is a Clarity Coach who stumbled upon the Three Principles on a Friday the 13th in 2015. A date that instantly became her lucky charm. The former mathematician in her fell in love with the elegance and simple logic of this understanding, and with its unexpected side-effect: a good feeling that keeps spreading through her life like an oil drop proving its own truth.

She coaches in French, English and German, and shares her explorations through her online courses on Insight Timer (French only), her YouTube channel Amplified Presence, and her booklet Amplified Presence in Action. All are invitations to let the mind breathe and let insight do the heavy lifting. And since presence lives beyond words… both the channel and the testimony-style booklet also exist in French.

Isabelle is the author of Et si La Fontaine du bonheur trouvait sa source en nous…, a poetic dive into the source of this mysterious good feeling.

Her work blends metaphors, storytelling and playful quantum questions to guide people from overthinking to obviousness… until life reveals itself as the quiet, luminous miracle it truly is.

Jamie Smart is a Sunday Times bestselling author, speaker and coach. He’s a passionate champion of a first principles understanding of psychology and loves working with leaders, coaches, and therapists to help them bring these principles into their work and their lives.

When he’s not teaching, he loves reading and spending time with his daughters and his beloved Emma McDevitt. He’s the author of the books Clarity, Results, the Little Book of Clarity, and the Little Book of Results.

Kjetil Haugmo is a coach and mentor who has spent over 20 years exploring what truly drives clarity, resilience and better decision-making in people’s lives.

His work points to how our state of mind shapes how we lead, relate and perform and how a deeper understanding of this creates more grounded, human and effective leadership.

Today, he works closely with leaders and people with responsibility, helping them move beyond pressure and performance into a way of leading where both they and the people around them can truly thrive. Kjetil is known for his calm presence and his ability to make the profound feel simple and real.

Nathalie has always been drawn to beauty and to what’s alive in people.

She began her career in the world of performing arts, where she learned what it truly means to create, collaborate, and work in a highly demanding creative environment. That world shaped her deeply: the connections, the energy, the beautiful mess of it all.

When her path shifted into coaching and counselling, she didn’t leave that world behind. She brought all of it with her, including a deep understanding of the inner challenges that come with navigating uncertainty, pressure, and the desire to live and create from a place of deeper knowing.

Today she works as a coach and mentor, supporting people who are looking for more clarity, ease, or a fresh sense of direction. She has a warm presence and a genuine belief that each person carries their own answers, trusting that true guidance arises from within and that the right space can make all the difference.

Through workshops like The Empowered Artist, one-on-one sessions, and collaborative creative projects, she creates spaces where insight meets inspiration and where inner work can be both profound and playful.

Hi, I’m Robyn. I’m a Joyful Movement facilitator, as well as an Intuitive Eating and Body Image counsellor. My work centres around helping people reconnect with themselves and their bodies in a way that feels freeing, playful and fun.

My Joyful Movement sessions are all about getting out of your head and into your body. Through simple, playful movement and a healthy dose of silliness, we explore and connect to curiosity, self-trust and the freedom that comes from letting go in a safe and welcoming space.

I draw inspiration from lots of things I love – yoga, kids’ yoga, dance, Tai Chi, improvisation, martial arts and playful group activities (inspired by years of teaching kids!).

There’s nothing to get “right” and it’s certainly not about what it looks like. Expect laughter, lightness, and genuine connection — both with yourself and others.

For me, these sessions are the Three Principles in action. Rather than sitting and listening, we get to experience it live! It’s about play, presence, and remembering the ease and joy that’s already within us.

The Three Principles were introduced to Sheela in 2010, and since then her business has been infused with their unique and transformative impact. This has taken shape through organising events, coaching and mentoring, and publishing her first book, Inside Out Transformation – A Revolutionary Guide for Coaches, Therapists and Counsellors.

She has been fortunate to organise, mentor and participate in trainings and retreats since 2012 with teachers such as Jack Pransky, Mark Howard and Jamie Smart, as well as being the co-founder and co-organiser of The Viva Event.

More recently, Sheela is about to qualify as a Block Therapy teacher (fascia release work) and has turned her attention to the mind-body field. She supports people living with chronic symptoms—often exhausted from trying to fix themselves—to reconnect with their bodies and discover a more compassionate way to heal.

Sheela has two beautiful daughters and a gorgeous grandson, who is her ultimate teacher. She relishes the sunshine, the sea and the nature surrounding her home in Spain.

Tania Elfersy is a transformative coach and award-winning author, specializing in midlife women’s health. Tania first came across The Three Principles in 2015. Soon after, she had a profound insight, which healed her physical and emotional perimenopause symptoms within days and changed the course of her life.

Tania is passionate about revealing the unlimited intelligence of our Divine design. She has seen in her own life and through her work with clients how effortless healing can be. Tania has guided hundreds of women to freedom from night sweats, hot flashes, anxiety, mood swings, insomnia, fatigue, and more – all 100% naturally.

In the peri/menopause space and in so many areas of health, fear dominates the mainstream narrative. Tania weaves her extensive knowledge of clinical research with her understanding of the truly magnificent nature of innate health to dissolve the fears that can block a healing path. 

A decade ago, Tania set up The Wiser Woman project to help women transform their experience of perimenopause and menopause. Tania is the author of The Wiser Woman’s Guide to Perimenopause and Menopause, which became an Amazon bestseller upon launch, and the co-author of an award-winning book on motherhood.

Dr. William (Bill) F. Pettit, Jr., M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist, is the co-owner of 3 Principles Intervention LLC, which is dedicated to promoting mental well-being. Since 1983, he has been a national and international educator sharing his understanding of the Three Universal Principles of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought.

In February of 2026 Dr. Pettit retired from clinical work as a psychiatrist. He continues to mentor individuals, groups and families around the world via zoom meetings.

In June of 2025 Dr. Pettit presented live, in person and online, Witnessing Miracles, an 8-day, 32-hour Legacy program. This program chronicled his 42 years of sharing the Understanding of The 3 Universal Principles in 8 different psychiatric settings. In March of 2026 Dr Pettit completes his 9-month, 54 hour second Legacy course, One Cause: One Cure, Never Broken : Nothing Lacking. This program explored the six books written by  Sydney Banks from 1986-2005 and also 8 categories of ‘Disorders” from the DSM 5 TR through the lens of Universal Principles

Dr. Pettit is hopeful that the day will come when these programs will be essential curriculum in academic programs around the world for all healing professions.