Mentoring · Life Coaching
Nicholas ScarcliffeHard-Of-Hearing Mentor & Life Coach
Mentoring and life coaching for hard-of-hearing people who intend to live fully in the hearing world: at school, at work, and in every room that was never designed with them in mind
About Me
Hi, I'm Nick.
If you are hard of hearing, you know the hidden work: following conversations others take for granted, deciding whether to ask again, arriving home exhausted from a day of listening. I know it too. I was born with profound hearing loss and have spent the whole of my life in the mainstream hearing world — school, university, an international career, marriage, all of it — raised to listen, lip-read, and speak, without sign language.
You never have to explain your hearing loss, or how it affects you. I understand completely — I live your life.
One Service, Two Disciplines
Mentoring & Life Coaching, In Every Session
Every session draws on both disciplines, the counsel of someone who has lived it and the rigour of professional coaching, in whatever proportion the work in front of us requires.
Who I Help
What You Gain
Whoever you are, you gain the same three things: someone who has lived it, strategies tested in real situations, and coaching that helps you choose your own next step.
Ages 13+
For Teenagers
Speaking up, being teased, friendships, dating, and the technology you already own.
Work & Life
For Adults
Meetings, interviews, disclosure, hearing fatigue, and a social life on your terms.
The First Weeks
For Hearing Parents
Clarity after diagnosis, the questions that count, and honest answers about the road ahead.
Packages At A Glance
Ways To Work With Me
Mentoring and life coaching as a single service, two ways to take it during the Inaugural Offer, a single session or three sessions, pro bono for the first ten clients, for teenagers, adults, and hearing parents alike.
Mentoring & Life Coaching
Lived experience and professional coaching, together in every session.
No fee during the Inaugural Offer: ten places, in exchange for an honest testimonial at the end.
Stay In Touch
My Newsletter
Practical technique, developments in hearing technology, and news from the practice: one email a quarter.
Hard Of Hearing · In The Mainstream
About Me
Born with profound hearing loss, and thirty-six years in the mainstream hearing world: school, university, marriage, and a career across six countries
My Story
Hi, I'm Nick.
I was born in Bermuda with profound hearing loss and fitted with my first hearing aid before the age of two. I was raised — entirely deliberately — in the hearing world: mainstream schooling, lip-reading, and hearing technology carrying the load, with no sign language at all.
That foundation carried me a considerable distance: a BA (Hons) in Advertising and Brand Management, a Master’s degree in Insurance and Risk Management, and a professional diploma from the Chartered Insurance Institute, followed by an international career across insurance, technology, and ventures of my own. Along the way I have lived in six countries — Bermuda, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, and the United Arab Emirates — and today I am based in the UAE with my wife.
None of it was luck. It was technique, technology, preparation, and a family that never lowered the bar — and, above all, a positive mindset and a self-belief instilled in me early: never giving up, never limiting myself, and holding an unshakeable conviction that I could do anything I set out to do. I learned to move towards the challenges that frightened me and the situations that felt uncomfortable, repeatedly, until they became comfortable — and that discipline, more than any device, is what brought me here. It is the core of what I now pass on, through mentoring and life coaching, to hard-of-hearing teenagers, adults, and hearing parents around the world.
Nicholas Scarcliffe, MA, Dip CII · ICF-trained · ICF Level 2 Coach (In Progress) · ACC (In Progress) · Sessions worldwide over video
"I am hard of hearing, and I have lived my whole life in the mainstream — listening, lip-reading, and speaking. That is the path I know and the one I share: candidly, with its costs and its advantages, while your clinical team leads the clinical decisions."
One Service · Two Disciplines
Mentoring & Life Coaching
The counsel of lived experience and the rigour of professional coaching, brought together in every session
I offer one service, and it is two disciplines practised as one. As a mentor, I bring the counsel of someone who has lived with profound hearing loss since birth and built a full life in the mainstream hearing world — school, university, marriage, and a professional career across six countries. As an ICF-trained coach, with my ICF Level 2 coach education and ACC credential in progress, I bring the discipline of coaching to the International Coaching Federation’s standards: the questions, the listening, and the structure that allow you to reach answers that are genuinely your own.
In each session the two work together. Sometimes a well-placed question is the most valuable thing I can offer; sometimes it is precedent: what I have lived, and what demonstrably worked. This is for hard-of-hearing teenagers (13+), hard-of-hearing adults, and hearing parents of hard-of-hearing children — worldwide, by video, with live captions whenever you want them.
One Session, Two Hats
How Sessions Work
Two Hats, Worn Together
In every session I wear two hats, mentor and life coach, and I wear them together. The conversation goes wherever it needs to go, and the balance between the two is set in the room: by what you need, by what you ask for, and by my judgement of what will serve you best. You may call for either at any moment. When I share my own experience, I offer it without attachment, yours to adopt, adapt, or set aside. This is not two services stapled together; it is one way of working, and it sits at the centre of my coaching process.
Ages 13 and up. For 13 to 17-year-olds, a parent is present or close at hand unless they have signed a Parental Consent Agreement; parents are copied on every message and are welcome in any session.
Go Deeper
What You Gain, And How I Coach
Three Groups, Equal Weight
What You Gain
For teenagers, adults, and hearing parents.
What each of you takes from the work, the situations we work on, and the names for the things you have lived without ever being told they had names.
My Coaching Process
The HEARD Method
Hear · Envision · Analyse · Reframe · Decide.
Five stages in every session, in the same sequence, each holding both disciplines: the coach’s question, and the mentor’s experience where it will serve.
Three Groups · Equal Weight
What You Gain
Someone who has lived it, strategies tested in real situations, and coaching that helps you choose your own next step
Who I Help
What Each Of You Gains
Whoever you are, you gain the same three things. Here is what that means for you.
For Teenagers
- The confidence to speak up in class — and to ask for what you need without embarrassment
- A response ready for being teased or made the subject of jokes, and the mindset that rises above it
- Friendships, dating, and group conversations you can take part in fully — without bluffing
- Technology that genuinely helps: your hearing aids, your phone, and features you did not know you had
- Someone who has been exactly where you are now
For Adults
- Composure in meetings, presentations, and video calls
- A clear strategy for interviews, career moves, disclosure, and accommodation
- The exact words to ask your manager for what you need
- A plan for hearing fatigue, built around how you actually listen
- Relationships and a social life on your terms, not around your ears
- The full value of your hearing aids and assistive technology
For Hearing Parents
- Clarity in the first weeks after diagnosis, from someone who was that child
- A realistic picture of the mainstream path, from first fitting to first job
- Questions to take into appointments, so you leave with real answers
- An honest account of how one family navigated hearing aids, implants, and communication — experience, never a recommendation
- Ways to build your child’s confidence and independence at home and at school
- Ask me anything, and get an honest answer: what your child’s life might look like, what mine has looked like, the good and the bad, what I wish I had done and what I wish my parents had done
- Someone beside you who has lived the journey you are beginning
Shared candidly from my own experience — clinical decisions always remain with you and your clinical team. For 13–17s, a parent joins each session or signs the Parental Consent Agreement.
In every session you work on what matters most to you, no platitudes, no script, and leave with one clear next step, recapped in writing within 24 hours.
Common Ground
What We Work On
Method, technology, and tactics for real situations — and the mindset that makes them work.
Presence
Confidence In The Room
The meeting that moves to a glass-walled room. The panel seated against the window.
At school, at work, and in company: presence as a discipline — carriage, delivery, and composure, constructed deliberately.
Self-Advocacy
Speaking Up
The seat you need, the captions you need, asked for once and without apology.
Disclosure and self-advocacy, framed so that the request lands and the relationship survives it.
Tools
Hearing Technology
The app that fills a gap. The setting nobody showed you. The device that carries a long day.
Hearing aids, the apps around them, the accessibility features already built into your phone, and the everyday technology that makes daily living easier: the tools I could not do without, offered as experience, never as a prescription.
Energy
Lip-Reading & Fatigue
The echoing restaurant. The group that talks across itself. The long afternoon.
Adverse acoustics, group conversation, and the management of auditory fatigue across the day.
Resilience
Being Teased
The joke at your expense, and the silence while you decide what to do with it.
Being teased or made the subject of jokes: coping with it, and the mindset to rise above it.
Work
Interviews & Careers
The panel interview. The open-plan office. The promotion that means more meetings.
Interviews, meetings, open-plan offices, and the step into leadership.
Connection
Relationships
The third date. The question of when to say it, and how.
Dating, relationships, and friendships — including when, and how, to tell someone you are hard of hearing. I have made that disclosure myself; I know what works.
The First Weeks
For Hearing Parents
Diagnosis day. The first fitting. The questions that arrive at two in the morning.
From the first weeks after diagnosis: appointments, school, and the systematic building of your child’s confidence.
Lived Experience, Named
You Have Lived These. They Have Names.
Most of what makes the hearing world tiring has a name. Hard-of-hearing people rarely learn the names, because no one around us ever needs them. I did, and I know every one of them from the inside.
Lip-Reading Against The Light
The Halo Effect
The interview panel with the window behind them. The café table facing the afternoon sun.
Backlighting floods the eye and reduces the speaker to a silhouette; the mouth you are reading disappears into glare. The remedy is a different seat, and the confidence to ask for it.
Family Gatherings
Dinner Table Syndrome
Everyone laughs. You ask what was said. “I’ll tell you later.” “Never mind.”
The name the Deaf community gave to being left outside a conversation that moves too fast to follow, and to the promise that is never kept. Naming it is the first step to changing the table.
The Cost Of Concentrating
Listening Fatigue
Done by Wednesday. Silent in the car home. Nothing left for the people who matter most.
Hearing through loss is cognitive work, measured in research as listening effort. The tiredness is real and physiological, and it becomes manageable once you budget for it.
Noise
The Cocktail Party Problem
The open-plan office. The wedding reception. The pub after work.
Hearing brains separate one voice from many without trying. Hearing loss removes the trick, which is why a “mild” audiogram and a ruined evening can both be true.
Nodding Along
Bluffing
Laughing a beat after everyone else. Answering the question you reconstructed from two words.
The hard-of-hearing community’s own word for pretending to follow. Everyone does it, and the cost compounds. Recovering from it is a skill, and we practise it.
One Ear Better Than The Other
The Head Shadow Effect
Always taking the seat on the left. Walking on the “right” side of a friend without thinking.
Your own head blocks sound arriving from the weaker side. Where you sit, where you walk, and where you stand in a room are strategy, not habit.
Your Own Voice
The Occlusion Effect
Your voice booming inside your head. Chewing that sounds like a landslide.
An earpiece that seals the ear canal traps the sound of your own voice. Common, well understood, and worth describing precisely to your audiologist.
Loud Rooms Get Louder
The Lombard Effect
The restaurant that starts quiet and ends in a roar.
People raise their voices in noise without noticing, and the room climbs with them. Knowing it lets you choose the table, the hour, and the moment to leave.
Words That Look The Same
Homophenes
Pat, bat, mat. Fifteen, fifty. The number you got wrong on the phone.
Many sounds are invisible on the lips, which is why lip-reading alone captures only a fraction of speech. Context, not extra effort, does the rest.
Seeing Changes Hearing
The McGurk Effect
The sentence that changes when the speaker turns away.
What you see on a mouth alters what you hear. It is why a face turned towards you, good light, and captions beside a voice do more than any volume dial.
Louder Is Not Better
Loudness Recruitment
“Just speak up” does nothing, and then the shout hurts.
With some kinds of hearing loss the gap between too quiet and too loud narrows sharply. Clarity, not volume, is what to ask for.
The Subtitles Are Late
Caption Lag
Laughing two beats behind the room. Missing the timing of the joke in the meeting.
Live captions run a second or two behind speech. Planning for the lag, and asking for the transcript, turns a disadvantage into a record everyone else wishes they had.
Five Stages · One Process · Two Disciplines
The HEARD Method
Hear, Envision, Analyse, Reframe, Decide: how every session moves, and why you leave with one step you chose yourself
The Five Stages
How Every Session Moves
The structure that holds a session together, so that the time goes on your situation rather than on finding a way in. Every session follows the same five stages, in the same sequence, and each stage holds both disciplines: the coach’s question, which draws out your own insight, and the mentor’s experience, offered where it will serve and never as a prescription.
Presence
Hear
I ask: “What would make this hour worth your while — and how will we know?”
What happens: We begin with you, not the problem. You set the agenda in your own words, and the practical conditions of communication are settled first: captions if you want them, my face in good light, one voice at a time. I listen for what is said and for what is withheld.
From experience: I have sat on your side of this conversation. You do not need to explain what hearing loss is like; that time is yours.
ICF: Establishes Agreements · Cultivates Trust · Listens Actively
Future
Envision
I ask: “If this went exactly as you wish, what would you notice about yourself?”
What happens: Before we examine the difficulty, you describe the outcome in concrete terms — the meeting chaired with composure, the first date on which your hearing loss is a fact rather than a confession, your child at eighteen. Beginning with the future alters how every obstacle presents.
From experience: Where it helps, I describe what the mainstream path has actually looked like at fifteen, at twenty-five, and at thirty-six — not as a promise, but as evidence that the picture is attainable.
ICF: Evokes Awareness · Maintains Presence
Clarity
Analyse
I ask: “What is actually happening — and which part of it lies within your control?”
What happens: We set the situation out in order: what you avoid, what you infer, what depletes you by late afternoon. I reflect back the words you return to, and we separate the urgent from the important and the changeable from the given.
From experience: Many difficulties that feel personal are structural — acoustics, seating, the settings on a device. Naming the mechanism is often half the remedy.
ICF: Listens Actively · Evokes Awareness
Insight + Experience
Reframe
I ask: “What are you assuming that makes this feel impossible?”
What happens: Your insight comes first: questions, silence, and the occasional challenge, until you articulate something you have not said before. Then, where it will serve, I offer what I have lived — a technique, a tool, a form of words, an account of what worked and what did not.
From experience: This is where both disciplines are most visibly at work together: the coach’s question opens the door, and the mentor’s experience shows what lies beyond it.
ICF: Evokes Awareness · Coaching Mindset
Action
Decide
I ask: “What is the one step you will take — and what would make it certain?”
What happens: You choose one step, sized to be done before we next meet, and we equip it: the technology settings, the sentence for your manager, the seat in the lecture theatre. Within 24 hours you receive a written recap, and the next session begins from it.
From experience: Confidence is built by small, repeated acts in uncomfortable situations until they become comfortable. That is how I built mine, and it is how your step is sized.
ICF: Facilitates Client Growth · Establishes Agreements
The Promise
Heard, Clear, Equipped
Every session ends in the same place.
Steadier than you arrived, clearer about where you are going, and equipped with one step you have chosen yourself.
And with a written recap, so that nothing depends on what you managed to catch in the moment.
Five stages · Two disciplines · One session
The Standard
Built On The ICF Core Competencies
ICF Level 2 Coach (In Progress) · ACC (In Progress)
What Is The ICF?
The Gold Standard In Coaching
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is the world’s largest professional body for coaches, and its credentials are widely regarded as the gold standard in coaching. Founded in 1995 and recognised internationally, the ICF sets the profession’s core competencies and Code of Ethics, which every credentialed coach commits to. An ICF credential — Associate, Professional, or Master Certified Coach — is earned, not bought: it requires accredited training, hundreds of logged client hours, mentor coaching, and a formal assessment. When you see “ICF” next to my name, it means my coaching is held to the ICF Core Competencies and Code of Ethics — a published standard, not just a promise I’ve made. It does not yet denote a credential. I am ICF-trained; my ICF Level 2 coach education and my ACC are both in progress. Coaching clients during training is part of the ICF pathway — the logged hours count towards the credential — and the ACC will be shown here only once the ICF has awarded it.
Boundaries
Coaching, Not Therapy
Coaching has clearly defined boundaries, so you always know precisely what you are receiving.
Future-Focused
Self-efficacy, decisions, and the next step. You set the agenda, and we build forward from where you stand today.
Clear Clinical Boundaries
It is not therapy or counselling, and I will never represent it as such. Should anything clinical arise, I will say so and direct you to the appropriate professional, every time.
Experience, Without Attachment
My experience is offered where it will serve — a technique, a tool, an account of what worked — and it is always yours to adopt, adapt, or set aside. The decisions remain yours.
Inaugural Offer · The First Ten · Pro Bono
Packages
Mentoring and life coaching, as a single session or three sessions, pro bono for the first ten clients
Two Ways To Begin
Choose Your Package
Both are without charge for my first ten clients, in exchange for an honest testimonial at the end.
Inaugural Offer · The First Ten
Single Session
Pro Bono
One session of 60 minutes, by video
- One focus, set by you in the first minutes
- Live captions on the call, switched on if you want them
- A written recap and one agreed next step within 24 hours
No Fee · One Honest Testimonial At The End
Inaugural Offer · The First Ten
Three Sessions
Pro Bono
Three sessions of 60 minutes, over three to six weeks
- Three focuses, one per session, each building on the last
- Live captions on every call, switched on if you want them
- A written recap and one agreed next step after each session
No Fee · One Honest Testimonial At The End
Three sessions are recommended because one agreed next step can be tried, reviewed, and built upon; a single session suits a specific, well-defined question.
How It Works
The Inaugural Offer, In Three Steps
While the practice is new, my first ten clients work with me without a fee; in return I ask for an honest testimonial at the end.
Step One
Claim A Place
Book a free discovery call, or go straight to a session.
Ten places, for teenagers, adults, and hearing parents. We agree the focus, and you sign the Client Agreement electronically before the first session. For teenagers, a parent consents too.
Step Two
We Do The Work
One session, or three over three to six weeks, by video.
Mentoring and life coaching together, through the HEARD Method, with nothing to pay, now or later. Reschedule or cancel with 24 hours’ notice.
Step Three
An Honest Testimonial
In your own words, whatever your experience.
Shared with your first name, age, and occupation, whether student, professional, audiologist, or clinician, and never edited to change its meaning. You may withdraw consent to publish at any time.
Good To Know
The Practical Details
No Fee
What It Costs
Nothing, during the Inaugural Offer.
There is no fee, no payment page, and no card to enter. Paid packages will be introduced once the ten places are filled; anyone who books during the Inaugural Offer is never asked to pay for those sessions.
24 Hours’ Notice
Cancellation & Rescheduling
The same standard binds us both.
Sessions can be rescheduled or cancelled with at least 24 hours’ notice before the scheduled start. A session missed with less notice counts as used; if I cancel late, that session is rescheduled at a time that suits you. Notice is counted in Dubai time (GMT+4), and every change is confirmed by email.
Ages 13 and up. For 13 to 17-year-olds, a parent joins each session or signs a Parental Consent Agreement. This is mentoring and coaching, not therapy, medicine, or audiology, and no outcome is ever promised.
Free · 15 To 30 Minutes · Video, Phone Or Chat
Book A Discovery Call
Meet me, ask me anything, and establish the fit — before you commit to anything
Choosing whom to work with is a consequential decision, and you should not have to make it from a web page. So before you select a package, book a free discovery call: 15 to 30 minutes, by video with captions, by telephone, or as a conversation over WhatsApp. Meet the person you would be working with, ask me whatever you wish, and by the end we will both know whether this would work and where to begin. No pressure, no commitment, nothing to prepare.
What Happens On The Call
Three Things, In Half An Hour At Most
Get To Know Me
Who you would be working with, how I practise, and the thirty-six years behind it — so that you may judge for yourself.
Ask Me Anything
A single session or a package? What is a session actually like? Whatever is on your mind — ask, and I will answer directly.
Decide Together
We determine whether we are the right fit — in both directions — and, if we are, which service and which package is appropriate for you. Then you book when you are ready.
Good To Know
What The Call Is & Isn’t
It Is
- Free, and 15 to 30 minutes
- For teenagers with a parent, adults, and hearing parents alike
- By video with captions, by telephone, or a conversation over WhatsApp: quite literally a chat, if that suits you
- A genuine conversation with me, not a sales pitch
- The only thing you commit to is turning up
It Isn’t
- A session: that begins once you have decided how you would like to work
- Clinical: questions about hearing technology or treatment belong with your clinicians, and I will say so
- A commitment to anything: you decide afterwards, in your own time
- A test of you: there is nothing to prepare and nothing to prove
Pick A Time
Choose A Time That Suits You
Live availability syncs with my calendar at launch, so every time you see is genuinely free. You’ll get a calendar invite and a video link straight away — captions can be switched on if you need them.
Three Steps · Inaugural Offer · No Fee
Book A Session
Choose a session, choose a time, confirm — one page, start to finish
Three Sessions 3 × 60 Minutes
Three sessions over three to six weeks, so that each agreed next step can be tried, reviewed, and built upon — pro bono for the first ten clients who agree to provide an honest testimonial.
Pro BonoInaugural Offer · The First Ten
Step Two
Pick A Time
Live availability syncs with my calendar at launch, so every time you see is genuinely free. Every confirmed booking sends a calendar invite and a video link instantly — captions can be switched on if you need them — with a reminder before we speak. Reschedule or cancel up to 24 hours ahead.
Step Three
Confirm
There is nothing to pay. Confirm your time and a calendar invite and video link arrive at once, with a reminder before we speak. Before the first session you sign the Client Agreement electronically, which records the Inaugural Offer terms, including the honest testimonial you have agreed to give at the end.
Booking engine: Cal.com, embedded here at launch — chosen for its calendar sync across Google, Outlook, and Apple, and for the intake questions asked at booking, so that every call starts prepared. This page is a non-functional design preview.
Before you book, you may wish to read the Code Of Practice, the Disclaimer, or the FAQ.
A quick question? Message me on WhatsApp and I will reply as promptly as I can — usually within a few hours during the Dubai daytime — so that you need not compose an entire email.
Standards · Boundaries · Confidentiality
My Code Of Practice
How I work — in plain language, before we start
- Mentoring And Coaching, Together. Every session combines mentoring — counsel from my experience: techniques, tools, tactics, and real situations — with life coaching to the International Coaching Federation’s standards and Code of Ethics: self-efficacy, strategy, and substantive solutions. We go wherever the session needs to go, as I judge best and as you choose; you may ask for either at any moment, and my experience is always offered without attachment, never imposed. I am ICF-trained; my ACC credential is in progress, and I claim no credential before it is awarded.
- Confidentiality. What you share remains between us — in every part of every session — within the limits set out in your agreement: a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else, a safeguarding concern involving a child or vulnerable person, or a legal obligation to disclose. Sessions are never recorded without your written consent.
- Clear Boundaries. I am a mentor and coach — not a physician, audiologist, therapist, or legal advocate. Should anything clinical or legal arise, I will direct you to the appropriate professional. I never take a position for or against any hearing device, treatment, or communication approach: when I describe what I use, it is my experience, not a recommendation.
- Clear Fit. I work with people who communicate by listening, lip-reading, and speaking. If you or your family rely on sign language, I am not the right fit — and I will say so plainly before we begin. Your decisions remain yours, and clinical decisions remain with your clinical team.
- No Promises I Cannot Keep. Every child, every family, and every person is different — no outcome is ever guaranteed.
- In Writing, Before We Begin. Every client signs the Client Agreement & Informed Consent electronically before the first session; it sets out the service, the Inaugural Offer terms, cancellation, the limits of confidentiality, and the recording policy. For 13–17s, a parent or guardian signs too. Pro bono places are on exactly the same terms as any other.
- Honest Testimonials. A testimonial is only ever shared with your written consent. Pro bono clients under the Inaugural Offer agree, by signed agreement, to give an honest one at the end of their sessions, whatever their experience, and it is published with a first name, age, and occupation only. Some testimonials were given by clients who received their sessions without charge during the Inaugural Offer. A testimonial is never edited to change its meaning, and consent can be withdrawn at any time.
- Ages 13 And Up. For 13–17s, a parent or guardian either joins or stays nearby for each session, or signs a Parental Consent Agreement that allows sessions without them. Either way, parents are copied on every message, can join any session at any time, and sessions are never recorded without their written consent.
- A Written Recap Within 24 Hours. Every session ends with a written recap and one agreed next step, sent within 24 hours, so nothing we decide is lost.
- 24 Hours’ Notice, For Both Of Us. Sessions can be rescheduled or cancelled free of charge with at least 24 hours’ notice. A session missed with less notice counts as used; a session I cancel with less notice is rescheduled at a time that suits you.
- Not An Emergency Service. Sessions are scheduled, and WhatsApp and email are not monitored around the clock. If you or anyone else is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first.
- Captions Available On Every Call. Live captions are available on every call, switched on if you need them; if you are unsure how, I will show you.
Referrals · No Fees · Confidential
Clinicians & Audiologists
Refer with confidence. Your patients will never have to explain hearing loss to me: I have sat on their side of the booth for thirty-six years
I am a hard-of-hearing mentor and ICF-trained life coach, with my ICF Level 2 coach education and ACC credential in progress, and I have lived the spoken-language, mainstream pathway for the whole of my life: school, university, and a professional career across six countries. Audiologists, ENT specialists, and speech and language therapists refer patients to me for the part of the journey that lies outside the clinic. Every referral begins with a conversation, by telephone or video, at a time that suits you.
Outside The Clinic
What Your Patients Gain
Someone who has lived their situation, practical strategy for the moments no fitting can solve, and support that reinforces the plan you set.
Your Paediatric Caseload
Parents Who See The Path
The weeks after identification, when the plan is set and the questions begin.
Hearing parents of a newly identified child meet someone who has walked the mainstream path from first fitting to first job, learn the questions that make every appointment count, and build their child’s confidence deliberately.
Your Teenage Patients · 13+
Confidence To Wear It
The realities around the fitting, from the classroom to the group chat.
Actually wearing the technology, self-advocacy at school, confidence with friends, and being teased or made the subject of jokes, handled with a mindset that rises above it. A parent joins each session or signs the Parental Consent Agreement.
Adult & Late-Deafened Patients
Strategy For Real Life
Meetings, careers, relationships, and listening fatigue, after the appointment ends.
Workplace accommodations, hearing fatigue, and relationships, with practical strategy from lived experience. For a patient adjusting to a late-onset or changing loss, someone who has lived the social and emotional side as well as the technical.
Referring A Patient
How A Referral Works
Step One
You Contact Me
Telephone, video, WhatsApp, or email.
We discuss the situation in general terms only, with nothing that could identify your patient, within your professional obligations and my Code of Ethics.
Step Two
You Introduce Me
If it fits, and with the patient’s consent.
In whatever way suits your clinic: a mention at the appointment, a pamphlet in hand, or a note with the website address.
Step Three
A Free Discovery Call
15 to 30 minutes, by video, telephone, or a simple exchange over WhatsApp.
The patient asks me anything, sees how I work, and decides whether it fits, before committing to anything.
Step Four
The Decision Is Theirs
No referral fees, ever, in either direction.
I report back only with the client’s written consent, and I never offer clinical advice or second-guess your care plan. Clinical decisions remain with you.
Governance
What Your Referral Stands On
- ICF Code of Ethics: confidentiality covers every part of every session, mentoring and coaching alike.
- Informed consent: every client e-signs the Client Agreement; a parent consents for 13 to 17-year-olds.
- Safeguarding: enhanced background checks and safeguarding training, in place before any session.
- Indemnity: professional indemnity insurance covering every session.
- Access and records: live captions available on every call; sessions are never recorded without written consent.
- Scope: not therapy, counselling, psychology, or clinical care of any kind, and no outcome is ever promised.
Referrals are a professional courtesy, never a transaction. Nothing I offer constitutes medical, audiological, or legal advice; my Code Of Practice and Disclaimer govern everything I do. A one-page pamphlet for clinicians is on the Pamphlets page, to download, read on screen, or keep in the clinic.
Get In Touch
Tell Me A Little About Your Patient’s Situation
Describe the situation in general terms only, with nothing that could identify your patient, and I will reply within one business day. If you would rather talk, say so and I will arrange a call, by telephone, video, or WhatsApp, at a time that suits you.
Refer With Confidence
A Trusted Place For The Questions That Run Past Your Appointment Time
One confidential call, in general terms only, with nothing that could identify your patient: telephone, video, or WhatsApp, whichever suits your clinic. No referral fees, ever, in either direction. Any introduction happens with your patient’s consent, and I report back only with the client’s written consent.
Please Read Before Booking
Disclaimer & Client Acknowledgement
What this practice is, what it is not, and what every client agrees to before the first session
Please read this page before booking. It applies to the service offered by Nicholas Scarcliffe — mentoring and life coaching, provided together — to every client, in every country, and it forms part of the Client Agreement you sign before your first session.
The Short Version
- I am a mentor and an ICF-trained coach. I am not a doctor, an audiologist, or a therapist, and nothing I say is clinical advice.
- Decisions about devices, treatment, and communication approaches stay with you and your clinical team.
- I never promise results. Every person and every family is different.
- I am not an emergency service. If someone is in danger, contact your local emergency services.
- Clients aged 13 to 17 need a parent’s written consent, and everyone signs a short Client Agreement before the first session.
- What you tell me stays between us, with the usual safety exceptions.
The full terms follow. They say the same things in more detail.
The Terms
What This Practice Is
I provide mentoring and life coaching as a single service: advice drawn from my own lived experience of profound hearing loss, and coaching delivered to the standards and Code of Ethics of the International Coaching Federation, combined within each session as the work requires. Both are educational and developmental. I am ICF-trained; my ICF Level 2 coach education and my ACC credential are in progress, and I hold no ICF credential at the date of this page. Coaching clients during training is part of the ICF pathway. A free discovery call (15–30 minutes) is a conversation about working together — it is not a session, and no reliance should be placed on it as advice. Free sessions, including pro bono places and the discovery call, are offered on exactly the same terms as paid ones: a session being free changes nothing about what it is, or the care I take over it.
What This Practice Is Not
Nothing I offer is therapy, counselling, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, audiology, speech and language therapy, education law, or legal or financial advice. I am not a healthcare professional and I am not licensed or regulated as one in any country. An ICF credential is a professional coaching credential, not a clinical licence — and mine, as stated above, is in progress. No clinician–patient, therapist–client, or professional–client relationship of any regulated kind is created by working with me.
Clinical Decisions Stay With Your Clinical Team
Decisions about hearing aids, cochlear implants, bone-conduction devices, surgery, medication, communication approaches, education placements, and any assessment or treatment belong to you, your family, and your qualified professionals. When I describe what I use or what worked for me, it is personal experience, not a recommendation to start, stop, or change any care. Always take medical and audiological decisions with your clinical team.
No Outcomes Are Promised
Every person, every child, and every family is different. I do not promise, guarantee, or predict any result — academic, social, professional, emotional, or otherwise. Testimonials describe individual experiences and are not a promise of yours.
Not An Emergency Or Crisis Service
Sessions are scheduled and are not a substitute for urgent care. WhatsApp and email are not monitored around the clock and are never for emergencies. If you or anyone else is in immediate danger or at risk of harm, contact your local emergency services or a crisis line in your country straight away. If a serious concern arises during our work, I will pause the session and help you find appropriate support. Coaching is not the right support for everyone at every moment: if it becomes clear that what you need sits outside what I offer, I will say so, pause or end our work with care, and help you find the right person. That is a safeguard for you, not a judgement.
General Information, Personal Experience
Everything on this website and in sessions is general information and personal experience. It may not apply to your situation, and it does not account for the laws, schools, healthcare systems, or services of your country, which differ widely. You are responsible for how you use it. I keep this website as accurate as I can, but things change and errors are possible, so please check anything you intend to rely on. Where this site links to other organisations, that is for your convenience and is not an endorsement; their content is their own.
Ages 13 & Up; Parents & Guardians
I work with people aged 13 and over, and with hearing parents of hard-of-hearing children. For clients aged 13–17, a parent or legal guardian must give written consent before the first session, and either joins or stays nearby for each session or signs a Parental Consent Agreement allowing sessions without them. Parents are copied on every message and may join any session. If the age of consent for services is higher where you live, the higher age applies.
Confidentiality & Its Limits
What you share stays between us — in every part of every session, whichever hat I am wearing — in line with the ICF Code of Ethics, except where I am required or permitted to act: a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else, a safeguarding concern involving a child or vulnerable person, or a legal obligation to disclose. Sessions are never recorded without your written consent.
Formal Acknowledgement Before Your First Session
Before any session takes place, every client — and, for clients aged 13–17, a parent or legal guardian — must sign the Client Agreement & Informed Consent electronically. It records that you have read and accepted this Disclaimer, the scope of the service, the Inaugural Offer terms and cancellation terms, the limits of confidentiality, the testimonial condition that applies to every pro bono place, and the recording policy. No session is delivered until the signed agreement has been received, and I may decline or end an engagement that falls outside the scope described here.
Fees, Cancellations & Rescheduling
During the Inaugural Offer no fee is charged and no payment is taken: the first ten clients receive a single session or three sessions pro bono, in exchange for an honest testimonial recorded in the Client Agreement. Sessions may be rescheduled or cancelled with at least 24 hours’ notice; a session cancelled or missed with less notice counts as used, and a session I cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice is rescheduled at a time that suits the client. Should paid packages be introduced in future, their payment and refund terms will be published here and in the Client Agreement before any payment is taken, and nothing in them will remove the statutory rights you hold as a consumer where you live.
Testimonials
Testimonials are shared only with written consent and always in the client's own words. Pro bono clients under the Inaugural Offer agree, by signed agreement, to give an honest testimonial at the end of their session or sessions, whatever their experience, and those testimonials are published with a first name, age, and occupation only. Some testimonials were given by clients who received their sessions without charge during the Inaugural Offer; no testimonial has ever been paid for. A testimonial is never edited to change its meaning, and consent to publish can be withdrawn at any time.
Your Data
Personal data is handled under the data protection laws that apply to you — including the UAE Personal Data Protection Law and, where you are in the United Kingdom or European Union, the UK GDPR or EU GDPR. Booking and video services are provided by Cal.com and Zoom (captions available), each under its own terms. A full privacy notice is provided with the Client Agreement.
Intellectual Property
The content of this website and of sessions — including materials, frameworks, and written recaps — is my intellectual property and is provided for your personal use only. It may not be copied, published, or used commercially without written permission.
Limitation Of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, I am not liable for any indirect, consequential, or special loss arising from the use of this website or of the services, and my total liability to you is limited to the fees, if any, you have paid for the services concerned. Nothing on this page limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything that cannot lawfully be excluded, and nothing on it removes the consumer protections that apply to you where you live.
Governing Law & Jurisdiction
Services are provided from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by Nicholas Scarcliffe through his licensed entity. This Disclaimer and the Client Agreement are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates, and the courts of Dubai have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, except that you keep the right to bring a claim under any mandatory consumer law of the country where you live. Clients outside the UAE accept that the services are delivered internationally by video and that no licence, registration, or regulatory approval is held in their country.
Changes & Contact
This page may be updated from time to time; the version in force is the one published here on the date you book. Questions are welcome before you sign anything — send me a message.
Plain-language draft prepared for review by qualified counsel before launch, alongside the Client Agreement & Informed Consent, the Parental Consent Agreement, and the privacy notice. Last updated 6 October 2026.
Before You Book
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions people ask before a discovery call, answered directly — so the call itself can go further
Questions And Answers
How do mentoring & life coaching work together in your sessions?
Every session combines both. Mentoring is counsel drawn from my own lived experience of profound hearing loss — techniques, assistive technology, tactics, and real situations. life coaching is mindset coaching delivered to the International Coaching Federation’s standards: questions that help you reach your own answers. In my coaching process, the HEARD Method, we go wherever the conversation needs to go — guided by what you need and by my professional judgement — and you may ask for either at any moment. My experience is always offered, never imposed.
Who do you work with?
Three groups, equally: hard-of-hearing teenagers aged 13 and over, hard-of-hearing adults, and the hearing parents of hard-of-hearing children — particularly those confronting all of this for the first time. All of them live in the hearing world: spoken language, lip-reading, hearing technology, mainstream school, university, and work.
I am hard of hearing, not deaf. Is this for me?
Yes — that is precisely who it is for. I was born with profound hearing loss and have lived my whole life in the mainstream with hearing aids, lip-reading, and speech. If you rely on sign language, my experience will not serve you well, and I will be candid about that and direct you to people who can.
Is this therapy, or medical advice?
No. Mentoring and coaching are not therapy, counselling, medicine, audiology, or speech and language therapy, and I am not a clinician. Decisions about hearing aids, cochlear implants, treatment, and communication modality remain with you and your clinical team. When I describe what I use, it is personal experience, not a recommendation.
What happens on the free discovery call?
It is 15 to 30 minutes, by video (captions available if you need them), by telephone, or as a conversation over WhatsApp — whichever you prefer. You meet me, ask anything you wish about how I work, I ask a little about your situation, and we determine together whether we are the right fit and where to begin. No pressure, no commitment, nothing to prepare.
What does it cost?
Nothing, during the Inaugural Offer. My first ten clients receive a single session or three sessions pro bono, with no fee and no payment page, in exchange for an honest testimonial at the end. Paid packages will be introduced once those ten places are filled, and anyone who books during the Inaugural Offer is never charged for those sessions.
How do sessions work if I am not in Dubai?
Sessions themselves are always by video, with captions available to switch on if you need them; only the free discovery call can be a phone call or a chat instead. The booking calendar shows times in your own time zone automatically. I take sessions between 6 am and 9 pm Dubai time (GMT+4), every day.
Can my teenager work with you?
Yes, from age 13. A parent or guardian gives written consent before the first session and either joins or stays nearby for each session, or signs a Parental Consent Agreement for sessions without them. Parents are copied on every message and can join any session.
We’re hearing parents & our baby was just diagnosed. How can you help?
I was that infant, in 1990. I can show you what the spoken-language, mainstream pathway can look like — school, university, career, marriage — and share what made the difference, from the first appointments to hearing technology and self-belief. The clinical decisions remain with you and your team; I bring the experience, and well-founded hope.
What is the cancellation policy?
Sessions can be rescheduled or cancelled with at least 24 hours’ notice. A session cancelled or missed with less notice counts as used. The same standard binds me: if I cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, that session is rescheduled at a time that suits you.
Is what I share confidential?
Yes — the same confidentiality applies to every part of every session, whichever hat I am wearing. What you share remains between us, in accordance with the ICF Code of Ethics, subject to the customary limits: a serious risk of harm to you or to another person, a safeguarding concern involving a child, or a legal obligation to disclose. Sessions are never recorded without your written consent.
What do “ICF Level 2 Coach (In Progress)” and “ACC (In Progress)” mean?
The International Coaching Federation is the world’s largest professional body for coaches, and its credentials are widely regarded as the gold standard in coaching. ACC — Associate Certified Coach — is earned through accredited training, logged client hours, mentor coaching, and a formal assessment. I do not yet hold it. I am ICF-trained and completing ICF-accredited Level 2 coach education, with the ACC in progress. Coaching clients during training is part of the ICF pathway — the hours we spend together count towards the credential — and the ACC will be shown here only once the ICF has awarded it.
Something not covered? Send me a message or start a WhatsApp chat.
Read · Download · Print
Pamphlets
Two one-page editions, each A4, to read on screen, print, or pass on
For Teenagers, Adults & Hearing Parents
What mentoring and life coaching involve, how every session runs through the HEARD Method, the Inaugural Offer for the first ten clients, and how to book a free discovery call.
For Clinicians & Audiologists
What your patients gain outside the clinic, when a referral fits, how a referral works, and what every referral stands on: the ICF Code of Ethics, indemnity, safeguarding, and scope.
Both editions are free to print and share, and are refreshed whenever the practice details change, so the file you download is always the current one. Please pass them on unaltered, with the practice details intact. Current editions: 8 October 2026.
Replies Within One Business Day
Contact
Questions before you book? Ask away
Tell me a little about your situation and I will reply within one business day. Ready to begin? Book a session, or explore the packages first.
WhatsApp or call: +971 58 882 2795 (Dubai, UTC+4)
Email: contact@hohcoach.com