3. The Life Coach

·30 min·2 clips

Lighthouse mentor Jay told Anthony, a suicide attempt survivor, to reduce his psychiatric medication and scripted what to say to his specialist.

1. BBC Radio 4's investigative series A Very British Cult examines Lighthouse International Group, an organisation that presents itself as a life coaching and mentoring company. 2. Reporter Katrin Nye hosts and co-wrote the series with journalist Jamie Bartlett; her producer Osman Iqbal arranged a session with legitimate Irish coach Mark Fennell to establish a baseline for what real life coaching looks like. 3. The episode's central question is whether Lighthouse is a legitimate coaching organisation or something more controlling — tested by placing standard life coaching practices against what former members describe. 4. Mark Fennell, who holds a life coaching qualification certified by the Irish state regulator for higher education, describes the discipline as future-focused and explicitly says he would never advise clients on medication, family separation, or financial investments. 5. Katrin, a self-described sceptic, found her session with Fennell moderately useful and says he 'changed my mind a little bit' about life coaching, though she remains uncertain about the wider industry. 6. Lighthouse leader Paul Waugh has no formal coaching qualifications and states on record that 'qualifications don't matter in this industry' and that 'mentoring isn't a qualification — it's an experiential thing.' 7. Former member Simon Pereira, an IT professional in his late 30s, was involved with Lighthouse from mid-2018 to mid-2022 and spent approximately £60,000, much of it through loans, on mentoring and the organisation's discipline programme. 8. Simon was asked in early 2019 to contact up to 10 people a day from a list of recent university graduates provided by his mentor, reaching out to roughly 400-500 people and successfully recruiting one. 9. A separate former member was instructed to target recently-redundant Thomas Cook employees — those made jobless when the holiday company went into liquidation — and contact them about mentoring opportunities. 10. Multiple former members say Lighthouse mentors repeatedly revisited traumatic childhood experiences during sessions, with one person saying her mentor 'would collect your secrets and then use them to throw back at you.' 11. Former member Erin told Katrin that Lighthouse mentors repeatedly brought up the sexual abuse she had suffered as a child, a practice Mark Fennell says has no place in life coaching and belongs exclusively with trained therapists and counsellors. 12. Several members were encouraged to cut off family members, particularly mothers described as 'too strong' or 'too dominant,' with mentors telling members to 'choose us over her.' 13. Anthony Church, a 30-year-old from Peterborough who had taken an overdose and later did a Masters in Applied Computing, found Lighthouse online and began as an unpaid web developer before Lighthouse mentor Jay Singh offered him free then paid mentoring at £400 a month — equal to his entire Universal Credit income. 14. Anthony invested approximately £5,000 — half his life savings — in a more advanced Lighthouse scheme after Jay helped him explain the investment to his parents by referencing how far Anthony had come since his overdose. 15. Jay Singh advised Anthony, who was on two types of psychiatric medication for depression and anxiety, that medication 'just numbs things' and suggested reducing the dosage, then coached Anthony on what to say to his GP and psychiatrist to justify the reduction. 16. Caroline Jesper, Head of Professional Standards at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, reviewed several hours of calls between Jay and Anthony and found 'no recognisable therapeutic model' and said the conduct would trigger a professional conduct investigation if done by a BACP member. 17. The episode uses actors to voice former members' words and incorporates extended audio recordings from Anthony's calls with Jay, giving the investigation a documentary intimacy unusual for radio. 18. The tone is methodical and measured: Katrin asks Fennell about each alleged Lighthouse practice as a series of hypotheticals, letting his plainly horrified reactions ('That's like a crook!') carry the judgment rather than editorialising herself. 19. People interested in cult psychology, investigative journalism about unregulated wellness industries, or the mechanics of coercive control will find this episode substantive. 20. Listeners who find detailed accounts of mental health crises and financial exploitation distressing may want to approach with caution.

As heard by us

A slow-burn look at how coaching language can harden into control.

A Very British Cult uses life coaching as the door into Lighthouse International, and the choice pays off because the episode keeps showing how persuasion can look ordinary while it is doing real damage.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a careful BBC investigation into a life-coaching world that pulls people in gradually, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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