Meet Laura Shakesby -  Virtual Assistant

I support Neurodivergent business owners to thrive through practical tailored support & empathic presence; including business/employee VA services, personal VA services (including, social care support and advocacy), and an empathetic listening service.

About me

I am late diagnosed autistic and ADHD; diagnosed in 2022 at the age of 34. It's been a rocky, emotional journey but also extremely validating!

Through trial and error I've developed many coping mechanisms; exercise, self-care, systems to keep myself and others organised, etc. I continue to focus on accepting myself.

Throughout my life I've felt a strong purpose to support others. I now feel my purpose lies in supporting the neurodivergent community; offering my social work and lived experience.

I started my Virtual Assistant business for neurodivergent businesses and employees in July 2023 and have been building the business ever since.

My hobbies include; personal growth, psychology, documentaries, podcasts, arts and crafts, playing electric guitar, rock music/metal, theatre shows, dressing up and download festival.

My cat Mimi is one of my biggest special interests and she may make an appearance on video calls!

Experience

● Education: MA Social Work

Certificates: Counselling, Mental Health, Autism, Safeguarding.

● Work Experience:

• Various administration roles.
• Support worker roles supporting neurodivergent adults.
• Pet sitting business owner.
• Social worker (registered with Social Work England), nearly 3 years post qualified working with:  Advocacy charity, CMHT, COVID recovery team, LD and Autism team.
• Volunteer crisis counsellor for Shout.
• Currently undertaking risk assessing work for 'The Adult Autism Practice'.

Services

The below services are all offered on a retainer or ad-hoc basis:

1. Professional and employee services:

• Email and diary management
• Editing, proofreading, and transcribing
• Researching
• Data entry
• Brain dumping, organising thoughts, and prioritising
• Goal setting
• Creative problem solving
• Social media management
• Podcast support

£30 per hour

2. Personal virtual support services:

• Online grocery shopping
• Researching ideas
• Organising and planning itineraries
• Social care support
• Support with benefit applications
• Advocacy
• Inbox management

£35 per hour

3. Empathetic Virtual service

• Empathetic listening eg, exploring the possibility of being neurodivergent, post-diagnosis support, or anything else you would like to talk about.

£60 per hour

I offer support through Access to Work or privately. I’ve been through the access to work application process personally and have supported clients who have been through it.

Testimonials

“Whatever I’ve asked Laura to do she has taken the initiative and done the necessary research without any fuss. I have found her to be flexible and easy to work with. She has done correspondence for me as well as organising documents via email and different platforms and has had good insight and suggestions regarding these. This has saved me a lot of time and drudgery”.

Helen

“Laura’s been working with me on a monthly retainer basis. She’s been invaluable! Great communication, reliable, very pleasant to deal with, good at using her initiative when it comes to task management, prioritising, and figuring things out when i’m not available. I’ve been able to hand over my inbox management to her, and have found her to be organised, proactive, and good at judging what to do herself and what to flag for me. She’s also quick to learn new platforms/apps. It's so good to have someone I can trust supporting me”.

Amy- Founder/host of Squarepeg (Late diagnosed autistic women/non-binary podcast)

Contact me through:

Email- actuallyneurodivergentva@gmail.com 

Website- www.an-va.uk

Facebook- @actuallyneurodivergentva

LinkedIn- www.linkedin.com/in/laura-shakesby-645287193