Lead Trainer, Coach and Trainer

Anna Marsden

MA, BA Hons · Trainer | Coach | Facilitator · ICF Member

Helping people and teams grow, communicate more effectively, and navigate today’s ever-evolving world of work.

We support professionals to shrink the gap between intention and impact and create more compassionate, effective workplaces for us all.

20+

YEARS' EXPERIENCE

96.5%

TRAINER EXCELLENCE RATING

90%

IMPLEMENT INSIGHTS POST-TRAINING

40+

ORGANISATIONS SERVED

A trainer, coach and facilitator who brings genuine energy to every room

Anna Marsden is Co-Founder and Lead Trainer at Luminescence Communications, with over 20 years in designing and delivering bespoke training programmes, Anna draws on social neuroscience and behavioural insights to help people and teams grow.

Anna is a qualified trainer (PTLLS /AET), a certified Barefoot® Coach (ICF-accredited), and a licensed Emergenetics® practitioner. Her programmes are rooted in real evidence — academic rigour translated into practical, interactive and energising sessions that inspire lasting action.

A proud member of the LGBTQ+ communities, Anna is deeply committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. Her expertise spans leadership and management communication, psychological safety, DEI, digital wellbeing and behavioural insights — and she brings a personal authenticity to every topic she teaches.

Since completing her MA thesis on Identity in Cyberspace at San Diego State University in 2005, Anna has tracked how digital and social media transform the way we communicate, run businesses and live our lives online. That intellectual curiosity shapes the freshness and relevance of everything she creates.

What working with Anna Marsden looks like

Anna designs and delivers training using Luminescence’s proprietary Think. Share. Grow. methodology. Every session is thoroughly researched and tailored to the specific sector and organisation — so content feels immediately applicable rather than generic.

Her sessions blend theoretical insight with storytelling, experiential exercises and collaborative group work. She is equally effective in the live room and online, and consistently receives top delegate feedback across all formats.

What you get with a Trainer, Facilitator and Coach

By balancing purpose, people and process, Anna can provide focus on learning and skill development, as a trainer; on enabling a group to achieve something together as a facilitator; and on enabling the individual to think, learn and act for themselves as a coach.

In every session

  • Establishes psychological safety for participants
  • Storytelling and sector-relevant cultural references
  • Experiential learning and participatory exercises
  • Evidence-based frameworks grounded in theory
  • Builds rapport, reads the room and creates the conditions for trust and engagement
  • Practical tools participants can use immediately
  • Adapts in the moment depending on what is happening in the room
  • Checks for learning, insight or progress using questions, reflection, and feedback
  • Tiny Noticable Things to take away as actions
  • Post-training evaluation against clear objectives

Delivery areas

  • 1-2-1 Coaching
  • Cultural humility and inclusion
  • Delegation, supervision & feedback
  • Digital Wellbeing
  • Emergenetics® Profiling
  • Growth Mindset and Resilience
  • Influence and Impact in your Role
  • Managing Upwards
  • Motivational Map® Profiling
  • Navigating Change
  • Resilience RQi® Profiling
  • Team Dynamics

The proof is in the room

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Kylie Seaman

Head of Client Solutions, Emergenetics UK & IE

“Your feedback was phenomenal!! Literally amazing”!

Thank you; you make me look very good in front of the client as a result and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Jeffrey Bucholtz

Learning & Development Specialist, (R)Evolve Consulting

“Anna is REMARKABLE. She is productive, efficient, creative, and empathic.

She is a superb communicator with an uncanny ability to connect with people.

Her expertise around issues of gender, sexuality, and the workplace is only surpassed by her ability to share that knowledge with others — to educate and to advocate.”

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Deborah Larder-Shaw

Account Director, Oakridge (training provider)

“Anna is a joy to work with. She sees the good in everything and she cares deeply about what she does.

Every interaction I have with Anna is positive. She makes my life so much easier and I always know she will do what she says she will, exactly when she says. Paperwork – tick. Slides – tick. Materials – tick. Amazing feedback – tick.”

Trusted by organisations investing in their people

From global financial institutions and leading law firms to universities, charities and public bodies — we work wherever there are people who want to communicate, lead and collaborate better.

✓  Public, private and third sector   ✓  UK and international delivery   ✓  Fully bespoke to your organisation

Academic & professional highlights

Case Study in Pearson book: 'New Business, Next Steps' (Luminescence)

Cotton Metzger Scholarship for Gay & Lesbian Students at San Diego State University

Published: Lesbian Identity and Community Online

CIPR PRide Gold Award (Luminescence)

CIPR PRide Finalist (Luminescence)

CMA Award winner (Luminescence)

Guest Presenter: The Social Media Show podcast

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Values in action

 Anna’s commitment to inclusion isn’t limited to the programmes she delivers. She has volunteered in community roles throughout her career — advising police, chairing local forums, supporting young LGBTQ+ people, and mentoring professionals from underrepresented groups.

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Volunteer Mentor — Pride in Leadership

2025 – Present

Providing space, experience and insight to LGBTQ+ workplace mentees to support their professional development and growth.

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Chair — Southwark LGBT Forum

2006 – 2008

Organised and chaired the multi-agency group addressing LGBT community issues across the borough, including public speaking, consultation engagement and cross-partnership working.

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Trustee & Trainer — The Kite Trust

2013 – 2020 · 7 years

Supporting Cambridge’s LGBTQ+ youth charity on the management board, ensuring the charity could deliver on its vision of full inclusion and equal opportunity for young LGBTQ+ people.

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Diversity Trainer & Community Volunteer — Metropolitan Police

2007 – 2011 · 4 years

Delivered LGBT diversity and community awareness sessions to new police and PCSO recruits at Hendon Metropolitan Police Centre.

Rigorous credentials. Ongoing development.

Anna holds a portfolio of recognised qualifications spanning coaching, facilitation, behavioural science, digital wellbeing and academic research.

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Barefoot® Coaching Trained Coach & ICF (International Coaching Federation) Member

An ICF-accredited, university-approved coaching qualification from Barefoot Coaching, the UK’s coaching pioneer for over 30 years. For Luminescence clients, it means a coach trained to genuine professional standards recognised across the industry.

Clients gain reflective space to think clearly and decide well on the issues that matter most, with the coaching benefits rippling out across areas of their work, their lives and to the communities they serve.

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Emergenetics® Certified Associate — Licensed psychometric practitioner for team communication and self-awareness profiling

A licensed practitioner credential from Emergenetics, the neuroscience-based psychometric profile that maps how people think and behave across seven attributes. For you, it means a facilitator who turns profiling into a shared language for your teams.

People understand themselves and each other faster, collaborate with less friction, and channel that clarity into better service for those they support.

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Resilience Quotient RQi® Certified Practitioner

A certified practitioner qualification from Kirros, using the RQi® — a resilience psychometric that measures how people cope under pressure and recover from setbacks. In a volatile, fast-changing economy where employers now rank resilience among the skills they most need, it means you can measure this capability precisely and build it with intent.

Your people gain a clear, detailed picture of their resilience across dozens of factors, then coaching to strengthen the areas that matter most. As individuals grow steadier under pressure, teams sustain performance and wellbeing through change, which matters more now than ever.

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Motivational Maps® Accredited Practitioner

[Soon to be…] an accredited practitioner qualification in Motivational Maps®, an ISO-accredited diagnostic that reveals what truly drives each person and team.

For you, it means training and coaching tuned precisely to people’s real motivators. Your people gain a shared language of motivation and practical steps to stay energised, lifting engagement and performance for those they serve.

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World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL Certified Accredited Practitioner)

[Soon to be …] A certified Action Learning qualification from the World Institute for Action Learning, the world’s leading certifying body for the method.

For you, it means facilitation that solves real business problems while developing your people at the same time. Your teams learn to ask sharper questions, think together, and turn live challenges into progress for those they serve.

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Psychological Safety Institute® Champion

An accredited Champion credential from the Psychological Safety Institute, grounding practitioners in the science of psychologically safe workplaces. For you, it means a facilitator who can spot cultural risks and help teams speak up, challenge and collaborate openly.

Your people gain the trust to contribute their best thinking, and that openness reaches everyone they serve.

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Restorative Practice® Certified Conference Facilitator

A certified qualification in facilitating restorative conferences — structured conversations that repair relationships after conflict or harm. For you, it means workplace disputes resolved through accountability and repair, protecting your culture and reducing the costs conflict quietly drains. Your people take honest responsibility, rebuild trust across teams, and carry that steadiness to everyone they serve.

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The Neuroscience of Personal Excellence — University of Colorado, Boulder

A University of Colorado Boulder programme applying neuroscience to how people lead themselves, their teams and their organisations. For clients, it means leadership development grounded in how the brain actually works.

Your people gain brain-based tools for focus, resilience and influence, leading with more clarity — and the teams and clients they support feel that steadier leadership.

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Coglode® Certificate (Behavioural Insights) 

A behavioural science certificate from Coglode, whose training equips practitioners to apply evidence-based behavioural research to real problems. For you, it means design and facilitation informed by how people genuinely decide and act.

Your people learn the ‘why’ behind behaviour and how to shape better choices — sharpening the experiences they create for those they serve. In select sessions, Anna brings Coglode Nuggets into the room — a physical toolkit of bite-size behavioural research that turns proven science into hands-on, workshop-ready prompts.

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Center for Humane Technology Certificate 

A certificate from the Center for Humane Technology, the US non-profit behind Netflix sensation The Social Dilemma. This course examines how technology shapes attention, wellbeing and behaviour.

For you, it means a facilitator who helps people protect focus and genuine connection during sessions, and an executive coach versed in the neuroscience behind ‘always-on’ tech anxiety shared by many leaders, with valuable tips for reducing technology’s harms while harnessing their productive benefits.

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Consciously Digital — Digital Wellbeing Certificate 

An ICF- and NBHWC-approved digital wellbeing certification from Consciously Digital, grounding training and facilitation in the neuroscience of attention, focus and healthy tech habits.

For you, it means a credentialed specialist who can lift teams out of digital burnout, protect focus and wellbeing, and support the productivity and retention that constant connectivity erodes. 

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The Science of Wellbeing — Yale University 

Yale University’s renowned Science of Well-Being course, taught by Professor Laurie Santos and grounded in the psychology of happiness and behaviour change.

Anna Marsden draws on this science to deliver exceptional human-led training. Because change lasts when people understand what genuinely makes them happy and fulfilled, that insight helps growth take root and fosters lasting behavioural change.

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PTLLS — Qualified Trainer (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector)

PTLLS stands for Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, which is now officially replaced and rebranded as the Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET).

For you, this means peace of mind that your training provider explicitly knows the importance of interactive teaching methods for superior engagement and information retention. Using qualified trainers may also helps your organisation meet regulatory and industry compliance requirements.

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BA Hons, Sociology & Gender Studies – University of Leeds

An honours degree grounded in gender studies at the University of Leeds, whose Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies spans the social sciences, humanities and health.

For you, it means facilitation informed by a deep, interdisciplinary grasp of people and social dynamics. Your teams gain sharper awareness of how identity and context shape behaviour, relating better to those they serve.

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MA Hons — Women’s Studies, San Diego State University · Cotton Metzger Scholar

Anna has an academic grounding in gender studies from San Diego State University, home of the first Women’s Studies programme in the United States.

For you, it means training built on a rigorous understanding of people, identity, power and inclusion. Your teams explore difference and group dynamics with real insight, creating fairer, more inclusive workplaces for everyone they serve.

Anna won the Cotton Metzger Scholarship prize for LGBTQ+ Students who make a positive impact on other students and areas of study.