CLIENT FEEDBACK
"It was wonderful to have chats with John. It was so useful that I could use him as a guide in terms of checking whether I was on the ‘right path’ or not. He comes with actual (and a lot!) experience. I appreciated his openness and honesty. He was very neuroaffirmative (I’m an ADHDer), kind, and very practical too. I used some of his tips and they enabled me to think differently about how I do things. I highly recommend John."
G.R. (March 2025)
“I will forever cherish our time and am infinitely grateful to have found you! You have made me feel more okay in being different and I felt so often more understood than I could be by anyone else I ever knew. I learned a lot about healthy neurodivergent safe space practices and there were so many good questions you asked. All this I do not say out of random politeness, you really were a significant part of my life, and the life lessons I learned from you have made and I am sure continue to make me into a better person and healthier human.”
Lana (Jan 2025)
"Six months ago I didn't know what being autistic meant for me, but now I'm feeling more comfortable and trying to be nicer to myself. After working with John, how I manage stressful situations is changing. Not caring about other's opinions of me is also taking the pressure off. Things are more positive. I'm enjoying the things I am doing and that's doing wonders for my stress. I'm not giving myself a hard time any more."
Conor (July 2024)
"Your workshop today changed my husband's life. I've been telling him he's flagrantly autistic for years, and he was resistant to the idea because he thought of it as a bad thing. Today changed that completely and he feels like he understands himself better than he ever has."
Meredith (May 2024)
“John is one of the most amazingly knowledgeable and thoughtful people I have met on my journey. I wish I could gift the whole world time with him. It was super helpful to be able to talk to someone as I manoeuvred through stepping back in to the community and socializing after the pandemic and other isolating life factors. I would HIGHLY recommend him to anyone. Really and truly caring and knowledgeable and just exactly what I needed when I needed it."
Jenn R (April 2024)
"Sessions with John were a very special experience for me as I live in a country with very little services for autistic adults. Having long been accustomed to suppressing my autistic needs, the small gestures John made (which were huge to me) made me feel truly accepted for the first time in my life. It empowered me to acknowledge my right to respond to my needs and set boundaries. When I initially sought John's help, I was dealing with doubts about my autism diagnosis, despite having received formal diagnosis. I felt as if I wasn't autistic enough and therefore didn't deserve to prioritise my autistic needs. Consequently, the greatest achievement for me was realising that I had moved from denial to greater acceptance. I now have no doubts about my autistic identity and feel more comfortable discussing it with others."
Ieva (March 2024)
"I recently worked with John as a requirement for applying to a Master's degree program in applied positive psychology and coaching. It was important to me to find an autistic coach, and the extra research to find John was definitely worth the effort. John is kind, thoughtful, patient, and has a lovely welcoming and open manner. He put me at ease by clearly communicating his expectations and conditions for the session and assuring me that we could stop at any time. His affirmative approach to neurodiversity is not just words - I could see and feel his commitment and felt so reassured by it. I very much enjoyed our time together and John's willingness to share his experience and observations with me as well as the insightful questions that he asked."
Ann (Nov 2023)
"I want to thank you for our session, it was so helpful for me. To hear your experiences was more helpful than you might realise. I found the way you broke down getting in touch with the real me to the 5 senses so useful! I'd made that something so complex and mystical that I had no idea how to even begin. You simplified it and I'm attempting to use those things and looking out for more."
William (Nov 2023)
"Communication with John has been one of the most pleasant experiences I've had in my lifetime in regards to self-development and mental health. He is a very determined listener, he is calculated when it comes to directing his clients towards solutions to their troubles, and even when he does not happen to know what the exact solution to a certain issue might be, he always has something wise to say on the matter. I'm always looking forward to new sessions with him."
Sven (July 2023)
"I'm so grateful to John. I really don't know if I'd have been able to fully accept my autistic self without his support. He inspired me in a multitude of ways. Most importantly, to reach out for what I want in life, rather than just accept my place in it. For the first time in decades, I feel like I'm going to be okay, I'm happy, and I finally feel like I have a better idea of what will continue to make me happy going forward. I say without hyperbole, John has inspired me more than anyone else ever has - for that, I can't thank him enough!”
Ray (July 2023)
"I am so grateful to you for the help and support you gave me when I'd just been discovered Autistic. You were the first person to ever talk to me positively about being Autistic, and you have no idea how affirming that was. You really helped me settle into my Autistic self, and you provided such an incredible model of Autistic empathy for me: your kindness, gentleness, and compassion were everything that I'd been told Autism was not, and although I knew differently seeing those traits in you helped me feel that my own were not incompatible with my diagnosis. You really helped to knock down that wall of internalised ableism I'd constructed."
Fiona (April 2023)
"One thing I love about life coaching is, this is clearly peer support. We hang out and take turns doing relatable anecdotes. Then he writes me an email summarizing what I said about my hopes, interests, values, limitations, and strategies, and in later sessions he repeats those back to me so I can try to build on those themes. That work is one way you can tell he's getting paid and I'm not. But the conversation isn't only about me. It's not like talking to the terrifying falsely neutral wall that therapists often present. I got all this self-description work in the same conversation as getting to see a well-spoken gay man well up with tears about the TERF explosion in England. All this is really just to say: thanks for the personal stories. They're tremendously helpful in establishing that you're a safe person to talk to"
Dolan (Jan 2023)
"The couple of years before I met John had been hard – wave after wave of change, the loss of my father, working myself to burnout. I saw a video of John talking about his own experiences. It had me laughing and thinking so I called him. From the moment we spoke he had me seeing myself and differently and seeing my interaction with others more clearly. The more we talked, the more I trusted his observations and shared more of my experiences. I highly recommend his gentle presence, and challenging insights."
Dominic (Jan 2023)
“I am a learning and development consultant and have been training and coaching for 20 years now. John has been totally invaluable in helping me to understand how I can ensure my work is inclusive and engaging for coachees and delegates who are neurodivergent. He has a knack for explaining things in wonderfully straightforward terms and totally puts aside judgement to engage in a really helpful and productive conversation. Thank you John, you are a superstar!”
Lea, Fibre Training (Dec 2022)
"What I'm most grateful to John for is his unwavering respect and support for my needs and boundaries. He helped and encouraged me in finding what works for me specifically, and was staunchly on my side through an extremely difficult stretch of my life after my late diagnosis and a debilitating autistic burnout."
Salla (July 2022)
"I'm very grateful for my time with John. Each call was highly engaging, thoughtful and brought new personal insights. John's experience, confidence, ability to ask the right question and listen made each call better than the last. He was able to quickly understand who I am and how I want to show up in the world. He tailored our discussions and guidance in a way that met me where I'm at on the journey and broke down any fear that I may have had. I highly recommend John and look forward to future calls with him."
Kurt (Jan 2022)
"And as a neurodivergent person I would really like to thank John for the gift of some words to live by: no compliance without understanding."
Yokai Lens (Jan 2022)
"My first impressions of John have been nothing but positive – his warmth and kindness shone through immediately and I knew that he will be of great support to my son, who has only recently been diagnosed with Autism. I can happily report that those impressions were shared by my son too. Rather than me writing this testimonial, I have asked my 12-year-old son to share his thoughts. With his permission, here are his words: 'John has helped me so much with dealing with challenges at school. John has explained Autism really well to me and is giving me information in steps so I can understand better. I see John like a best man at the wedding – he talks to everyone in confident way and everyone wants to be John’s friend. He has been so supportive of me and I really appreciate that’"
Tamara and Daniel, age 12. (Sept 2021)
"I confidently recommend John Pendal for anyone seeking some support during an autism diagnosis discovery journey. My own time post diagnosis was turbulent and included a revision of a lifetime of social 'frictions', broken relationships, illnesses, times of depression and anxiety. Thankfully John's many skills include patience, great communications, empathy, problem solving and explaining autism differences as differences and not failings. We made some sense of the past and made adjustments for my future life, all of my own design. This is the coach and process I needed at the time I needed it, and I would recommend him to others who need autism acceptance for better lifetimes ahead."
John (Dec 2021)
"I was sceptical at first and not sure what to expect. Within the first session with John, I could see a path forming ahead for things which I'd been going in circles over for years"
David
"John is so very kind and understanding. He creates a safe, non-judgemental space for me to feel completely relaxed and heard. I'm so grateful to have met John and to him for helping me find a way to move forward in a positive and proactive way. Thank you John, my compass was broken and you've helped me fix it."
Ms Jones
“John is a very approachable man who inspires confidence. I felt happy talking to him about my problems and felt happier each time we completed a session. I would definitely recommend him”
Dave
"John is both nurturing and enquiring, and has the uncanny ability to ask questions that immediately help you see 'the wood for the trees'. He is patient, a wonderful listener and assists in clarifying thoughts in order to move forward in a positive direction. He has been of invaluable assistance to me!"
Jane
"John has helped me to find a lot of clarity and perspective around things that have bothered me for years. Through skilled reflection he has helped me to pinpoint the reasons behind thought patterns that have been holding me back, and challenged me to find new ways forward. John creates an open, trusting space where I can make discoveries about myself."
Lawrence
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Page updated 13 March 2025