About Us

Director & Manager

Gemma Mills

Gemma developed the idea for Lancashire Wildflowers Learning Hub following some personal struggles with her own son and the limitation of mainstream educational settings; she could see that there was so many children and young people falling through the gaps and wanted to help. Her son now attends university and has thrived in a different setting that has supported his needs. He is an inspiration to her and a reason to push forward and provide a warm and safe environment for other children and young people.

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Gemma is a graduate of Blackburn University for Positive Practice with Children and Young People, she also passed her first year of Social Work before becoming a mother to her daughter where her path went in a different direction. 

Gemma went on to work at Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council. During her time with Blackburn with Darwen Council, she worked as an intensive family support worker with families on child protection plans, she focused on supporting the families to make positive changes and remain united. Furthermore working as a family time worker supporting children to spend quality time with their family members. During her time at Lancashire County Council she worked as a residential childcare worker and a child and family support worker in a primary school. All jobs she loved and learnt so much from.

She is a trauma-informed practitioner with a good understanding of neuro diverse challenges, in and out of the classroom. Gemma has spent a lot of time learning over the past 13 years and believes that anyone can fall in love with learning when it is something they feel passionately about.  

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Gemma is a Mental Health First Aider, Drawing and Talking practitioner, Lego Therapy practitioner and has multiple certificates regarding children's mental health, understanding trauma, the impact of domestic abuse and much more! She is currently completing an outdoor mental health practitioner training programme and is looking forward to supporting young people with her new knowledge and by making the most of the benefits of the outdoors. 

Director & Manager

Emily (Milly) Glaister

Milly came to our open day and was so inspired, she started volunteering with us!

After completing her degree at Oxford University, Milly studied Fashion and Journalism at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. She spent 10 years working in Journalism and Marketing, writing and editing for international publications including The Independent, The Guardian, i-D Magazine and Arena Homme+. She developed her Journalism, Coding and Programming skills as a Online Marketing Manager at Liberty London historic department store, and won several industry awards for her innovative copywriting and marketing campaigns.

Milly grew up on a farm in Lancashire, and decided to return to her home county in 2014 to re-train as a Teacher so that she could share her love of our beautiful countryside with a younger generation. She has a wealth of experience in Primary and Early Years, and is passionate about bringing a play and curiosity based style of learning back to education. Milly loves learning herself, and really knows how to bring the fun!

Milly is a fully qualified Level 3 Forest School Leader, and loves nothing more than finding woodland treasures and having adventures in our local woodlands. 

Milly has an excellent understanding of neurodiverse challenges, sensory differences and developing emotional intelligence for children and young people. During her career in London, she regularly volunteered assisting music therapy sessions for teenagers and young adults at The Priory Hospital. She has also held the SENCO role at two different settings in Preston, has a Level 2 in Understanding Autism & ADHD and is certified in using Augmentative and Alternative Communication Tools.

Milly is currently training to become a Mindfulness-Based Forest Therapist and is looking forward to using her new skills to support the young people we work with.

Child and Young Person Psychotherapist

Leanne Chance

Leanne is the founder of Whole Thread Therapy, a neuroaffirming, integrative, creative psychotherapy practice supporting children, young people, adults, and families across Lancashire and online throughout the UK.

Leanne holds an MSc in Creative Psychotherapy and a PGCert in Advanced Humanistic Counselling, and is a fully accredited member of the NCPS (MNCPS Acc., NCS24-03096). She is also an Anna Freud/NHS England Autistic Workplace Trainer and an NCPS Quality Checked CPD Provider, regularly delivering training to professionals on neuroaffirming practice.

Before training as a psychotherapist, Leanne spent years working in musical theatre — and if you ask her nicely (or even if you don't), she will absolutely tell you about it. That background in performance and storytelling never really left her; it shows up in the way she connects with people, the creativity she brings into therapy rooms and group sessions, and her enduring, slightly unstoppable love of musicals. Ask her for a recommendation. She has one ready.

Leanne is AuDHD herself, and is mum to a wonderfully demand avoidant AuDHD home-educated son. This lived experience sits at the heart of everything she does — she knows first-hand that support only works when it bends to fit the person, not the other way round, and she brings that understanding into every session, workshop, and resource she creates.

She is deeply passionate about working closely and flexibly with the families she supports, building therapeutic relationships that meet people exactly where they are rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach. Leanne designs and delivers emotional wellbeing group programmes for neurodivergent children and young people, runs parent workshops that demystify and de-stigmatise neurodivergence, and is a committed SEND advocate — campaigning for identity-affirming, low-demand approaches to be recognised as genuinely effective alternatives within education, health, and family support systems.

Whether she's developing a new therapeutic group, writing training for fellow practitioners, or sitting alongside a family working out what support actually looks like for them, Leanne's approach is always rooted in the same belief: every thread is different, and every thread deserves to be understood on its own terms.