Three Pillars Training

14/10/2026

As Lincoln Laughs gets closer, I have been thinking about what I actually hope people take away from the weekend.

The obvious answer is laughter, of course, and I hope there is plenty of that.

But I also hope people discover something unexpected. A comedian they had not heard of, a venue they had never visited, a part of the city they had not explored recently or perhaps simply the pleasure of spending a few hours with people they care about.

We sometimes place an enormous amount of pressure on our experiences to be worthwhile. We want them to teach us something, improve us, make us more productive or contribute towards some larger goal.

There is certainly a place for all of those things.

But I think there is also something to be said for doing something simply because we enjoy it.

So, if you are heading out to Lincoln Laughs this weekend, I hope you have a brilliant time.

And if you happen to see me, please come and say hello!

12/10/2026

It is Lincoln Laughs week, and I have to admit that I am rather looking forward to seeing what happens when comedy takes over the city.

Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking and talking about some of the reasons I was so pleased that Three Pillars Training could support the festival: the importance of community, the value of shared experiences and the fact that people need opportunities to do things simply because they enjoy them.

Now it is time to stop talking about it and enjoy it.

There is something rather lovely about a city coming together around an event like this. Different venues, different comedians, different audiences and, inevitably, very different opinions about what constitutes good comedy.

I hope lots of people take the opportunity to discover something new, spend some time with people they care about and perhaps have a very good laugh along the way.

I will certainly be doing my best to enjoy the festival rather than analysing it.

Although I make no promises about that last part.

Lincoln Laughs runs from 16–18 October, and Three Pillars Training is very pleased to be supporting the festival.

09/10/2026

09/10/2026

We are now only one week away from Lincoln Laughs Comedy Festival .

I am looking forward to seeing the city come alive with comedy, and particularly to seeing people discovering new venues, new comedians and perhaps a few new favourites along the way.

If you have not already looked through the programme, this is probably a good time to do so.

And if you have already chosen your shows, I hope you have a brilliant weekend.

Have you decided what you are going to see?

08/10/2026

What makes a genuinely good night out?

I have been thinking about this as Lincoln Laughs gets closer, and I suspect the answer is different for everybody.

Sometimes it is the event itself. Sometimes it is the people you are with. Sometimes it is discovering somewhere new, hearing somebody you have never seen before or simply having a reason to leave the house on an otherwise ordinary evening.

And sometimes, if we are honest, it is the fact that somebody else has organised everything and we can simply turn up!

I think we can become rather focused on making experiences worthwhile in a measurable sense. What did we achieve? What did we learn? Was it productive?

There is nothing wrong with any of those questions, but not everything we do needs to have an outcome.

Sometimes a good evening is simply a good evening.

So, with Lincoln Laughs approaching, I would love to know:

What makes a genuinely good night out for you?

Good company? Great food? A brilliant performance? Discovering somewhere new? Or simply having a reason to laugh?

Check out the lineup for Lincoln Laughs Comedy Festival here: https://www.lincolnlaughs.co.uk/

07/10/2026

I have always been interested in the idea of community because it is such a simple word for something that is actually rather complicated.

Being surrounded by other people does not necessarily mean that we feel connected to them. Community involves something more: participation, shared experiences, relationships and a sense that we have some place within the wider world around us.

And it does not have to be profound.

Sometimes connection comes through something as ordinary as sitting beside somebody at a comedy show and laughing at exactly the same moment.

We cannot know in advance which experiences will matter to people, which is perhaps why creating opportunities for people to come together is worthwhile.

That is something I hope Lincoln Laughs Comedy Festival will do across the city this October.

What is Lincoln Laughs? It’s a comedy festival that’s coming to our city 16th - 18th October! There are many cracking comedians coming to bring some laughter to your weekend.

To see all of the 20+ venues around the city, names of famous comedians that you will recognise! Check out the lineup here: https://www.lincolnlaughs.co.uk/

05/10/2026

Lincoln is about to get considerably louder, and I think that is rather a good thing.

We are now getting very close to Lincoln Laughs Comedy Festival , and I have been thinking about what I particularly like about the idea of a comedy festival taking place across the city rather than being confined to one venue.

There is something quite different about seeing a whole city come alive around an event.

People will be heading to places they may not normally visit, discovering comedians they have never seen before, meeting friends for an evening out and, I hope, spending a little more time enjoying everything Lincoln has to offer.

It is easy to underestimate the value of those things because they are not necessarily connected to work, education or anything we would describe as particularly productive.

But perhaps they do not need to be.

There is value in having somewhere to go, somebody to meet and something to look forward to. There is value in discovering something new and having a conversation about it afterwards. There is value in simply being part of something happening around you.

That is one of the reasons I am pleased that Three Pillars Training is supporting Lincoln Laughs.

It is also why I am looking forward to October being a particularly lively month for Lincoln.

02/10/2026

Lincoln Laughs Comedy Festival is getting rather close now, and I am beginning to think that October is going to be a very good month for comedy in Lincoln.

With performances taking place across the city, there should be plenty of opportunities to discover somebody you have never seen before, revisit a favourite comedian or simply spend an evening laughing with friends.

Three Pillars Training is very pleased to be supporting the festival, and I am looking forward to seeing it all come together.

Have you decided which show you are going to?

01/10/2026

This post has been a little while in the making: 😬

One of the worst things to happen to me has actually turned out to be one of the BEST things to happen to me...

Little over a year ago today, I was told that my position was no longer tenable. I had worked at a training centre, created, produced and delivered over half of their courses with excellent feedback and then found myself ‘surplus to requirements’. 😐

So, (in true Sharon style) that very night, I registered Three Pillars Training Limited at Companies House and set about creating my own training centre. 👌

One year on...all that hard work has been officially recognised and what better first birthday present than WINNING AN AWARD! 🥳 (and shortlisted for another too! 🥳 )

My company has won a Lincolnshire Marketing Award for Professional Services Growth in its very FIRST YEAR! 🥂 🙌

Ok, it’s taken me a little while to post about this, but I needed a well earned holiday and to let this moment really sink in.

I wanted to do this post justice.
I wanted to give you some sort of idea of how quickly Three Pillars Training has grown.

I have spent days rewriting all of my courses, revising, improving and tailoring everything to align with my values. I have had each of the six courses I have put blood, sweat and tears into reviewed, assessed, critiqued, tweaked and approved with the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding body CPCAB and NCPS accreditation for our centre is in progress. 🎉

This award means the absolute world to me to win!
I had no idea that the judges would review me and my company and award Three Pillars Training as ‘Professional Services Growth’ Winner + shortlist me in the ‘Business Brand Growth’ award!

On the evening of the award ceremony, I was teaching online with it being the first week back after the summer holidays but Emily Shorten (who was there for her own award 👏 ) who only started working with me three days previously, collected it on our behalf. What a week that was for us both! 😂

Sometimes, things can get forced upon you. Sometimes they are the BEST THING THAT HAPPENED to you - just come back with integrity, determination and drive to make the most of the situation. 💪

I’m the only person with the unique therapeutic experience, years of lived experience of unexpected physical and mental health challenges and the tenacity to draw on that to make what we have today… An award winning training company in it’s first year! 🏆

We’re opening cohorts for our Level 3 counselling and Level 4 counselling courses imminently. Sign up at threepillarstraining.co.uk or get in contact for a chat about your options with our award winning Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB) approved training centre.

01/10/2026

I think there is sometimes an expectation that, because somebody works in a helping profession, they should somehow have everything completely worked out themselves.

Counsellors are people too.

They have good days and difficult days. They have families, friendships, interests, frustrations and responsibilities. They laugh at things that other people might not find funny, they have opinions they occasionally reconsider, and they have lives that exist entirely outside the counselling room.

I actually think remembering this is important.

Being a counsellor does not mean becoming some perfectly composed, endlessly patient version of a human being. It means developing the self-awareness and professional understanding to recognise your own responses and take responsibility for how you work with another person.

There also needs to be room for life outside the role.

So, as we approach Lincoln Laughs Comedy Festival, I am rather pleased to have an excuse to think about something other than counselling training for a little while.