My Story
I didn’t arrive here in spite of my moods - but through them.
My therapeutic work is shaped by the same moods and questions I now help others explore.
Looking back, I can see that working with moods has been the quiet thread running through my life—the light that guided me when things felt unclear or overwhelming. It was powerful moods—especially anxiety and depression—that first drew me toward both philosophy and psychology. These weren’t just academic interests; they became lifelines, helping me find direction and meaning when I needed it most.
By learning to stay with these moods rather than avoid them, I eventually found my way into practice—as a psychologist and philosophical counsellor. I didn’t arrive here in spite of my moods, but through them.
Over the years, my academic work has also centred around moods—what they reveal, how they shape us, and how they open new possibilities. Whether I’m working with psychologists, psychotherapists, leaders, managers, or parents, I keep returning to one truth: moods matter. They shape how we think, relate, act, and become.
I’ve written three books exploring the emotional and existential dimensions of leadership, management and practice: Business Feel: Leading Paradigm Shifts in Organisations (Palgrave Macmillan), Existential Skills for Managers (Routledge), and, most recently, Mandela’s Leadership Legacy: Emotional and Existential Wisdom (Routledge, 2026).
I’m currently writing Moods of Disruption: The Practices of Psychotherapy and Philosophy, which explores the role of moods in the history of philosophy and how philosophy can deepen the way psychotherapists, psychologists, leadership coaches and other reflective practitioners understand their own way of being as practitioners.
Mandela’s Leadership Legacy explores Mandela’s capacity to engage with the emotional and existential dimensions of profound social and political change, and what his way of leading can teach us about responding to disruption, uncertainty, and unfamiliar situations.