About Sarah

Sarah McCalden, PGDip is a certified coach, mentor, an expert in children and young people’s development, play and learning, and a Canfield Success Principles Trainer.

Sarah has worked with children, teens young adults and youth services for over 16 years and has a PGDip in Professional Studies in Children’s Play. She has worked with local authorities, schools, adventure playgrounds and other organisations to plan for children and provide child-led opportunities, boosting young people’s self esteem, fulfilment and self-actualisation.

Throughout her years working with young individuals and reflecting on her own early experiences, Sarah has identified a crucial pattern: a robust connection to oneself and others, expansive beliefs about potential, and a clear vision for the future are vital for nurturing high self-esteem. Conversely, a lack of these elements often results in diminished self-worth, which can stifle ambition and hinder personal development. Low self-esteem can lead to challenges like reluctance to take on new opportunities and difficulty in interpersonal relationships, while high self-esteem promotes resilience, enhances problem-solving skills, and promotes a positive outlook that significantly boosts overall achievement in life. As individuals strengthen their self-esteem and refine their self-concept, they unlock a transformative improvement in their life’s trajectory.

 When Sarah was first introduced to Jack Canfield’s Success Principles, she recognised their potential to profoundly enrich the lives of children and young adults, enhancing their educational experiences and personal growth in diverse environments.

She reached out to friends and acquaintances involved in schools, colleges and other institutions to find a way to reach these young people and help them to have amazing transformations from the inside out. She knew deep down, that this work was the most important work she could do. 

 Sarah has an Enhanced DBS and is registered on the Update Service.

About the Success Principles

Human Potential Thought Leader

Jack Canfield began his career as a high school teacher in inner city Chicago. While struggling to get his students engaged in learning, Jack found that the power of story help him connect with his students and ignite their spark for learning. This experience was the inspiration behind the world famous Chicken Soup for the Soul series and his Building Self Esteem in the Classroom teacher’s guide. Jack Canfield has been teaching the principles outlined in his book, Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, to adults interested in personal development, leadership development and business success. The success principles work is a compilation of over thirty years of research, experience and powerful content including activities, strategies, exercises, tools and techniques designed to build self esteem and self advocacy, manage stress, overcome limiting beliefs, process emotions, expand creativity and harness the power of the brain and the heart to create a life of passion, purpose and success, however we choose to define it. The experiential nature of the work promotes connection with self and others while creating an environment that is safe, supportive and conducive to learning and growing and now the Success Principles are being taught to young people too.

To achieve this, Sarah, a Certified Canfield Success Principles Trainer, offers a comprehensive, evidence-based curriculum to young individuals across a variety of settings, including educational institutions and community centers. Leveraging a coaching framework that has demonstrated success for over 40 years, she employs tested tools and techniques to help students enhance their self-esteem and seize control of their futures.

Delivered in a fun and engaging way, the bedrock of the curriculum is the idea that leadership qualities and personal achievement are not accidents of birth or privilege. They are the result of thinking and doing – of planning and following through. Moreover, the power to achieve and lead are skills that can be learned.

So let’s use these proven tools and techniques from the Canfield Training Group to help your young people aspire to and achieve greatness.