For years, I worked with people chasing their outer own outer adventures: qualifying for the Olympics, building sustainable physical activity habits after years of stop-starting, or making bold career leaps. My aim was to help people access life in its richest form, pursuing the experiences that bring the highest meaning.
But over time as I observed what genuine enjoyment, meaning and peak performance really demanded of people, all the while pursuing my own challenges, my perspective changed in a few major ways, influenced heavily by my ongoing study of Carl Jung’s work and the field of depth psychology (for details see The Framework)
MY STORY
QUALIFICATIONS
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Level 3 Personal Training Qualification
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BSc Psychology - University of Warwick
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MSc Sport & Exercise Psychology - Brunel University
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Stage 2 Qualification in Sport & Exercise Psychology - British Psychological Society
AFFILIATIONS
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Health & Care Professions Council (Chartered Member)
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Centre for Heterodox Social Science - University of Buckingham (Research Fellow)
The dual path I offer – outer and inner adventure – reflects my own journey. I've always been drawn to life's more creative and spiritual dimensions, as well as a voracious reader – I wanted to know everything about everything, from Ancient Egypt and African animals to astronomy, languages and biochemistry. In the absence of knowing how to channel these interests I decided to study psychology – not just as a career step, but to explore the mysterious layers beneath the surface of human experience. This intrinsic love for learning and understanding what is beyond our immediate vision resulted in a 7-year stint as a university lecturer in psychology.
Simultaneously, my own convoluted history with achievement shaped my attitudes – from music and academia to exercise, competitive distance running and an early career as a personal trainer. I loved the challenge of improvement, and over time I found that everything I pursued was not only rewarding because of the results, but because of the psychological changes those results demanded of me. External activities became vessels for psychological development, but on the other side of that coin was the reality that the further I progressed the more psychological barriers I seemed to face - ironic but common. It struck me that one of the most potent mediators of success and enjoyment is the mind, a realisation that guided me to train as a sport and exercise psychologist.
REVELATIONS
I realised that pursuing external challenges goes hand in hand with more general psychological development and mental health improvements. It’s hard to make significant psychological changes without doing something significantly different, and having these outer adventures provides instant access to new outer and inner territory. Equally, external challenges also require more general psychological development if we are to make the most of them.
I also noticed that outer adventures inevitably reveal broader psychological patterns that echo across other areas of life – common barriers such as anxiety, perfectionism, self-sabotage and fluctuating motivation are merely situation-specific variants of deeper psychological workings. It struck me that outer adventures then can serve as a fantastic arena in which to address these broader patterns – to explore the psyche, forge character and reorient to who we really want to become. Whilst achievement outcomes are valuable, there is yet more to be gained through these endeavours.
Finally, I felt that many approaches fell short when it came to pursuing these more transcendent goals – a focus on mental skills or solely conscious processes that lacked incorporation of the how or why of psychological barriers. The truth is that the significance of the change available to you generally corresponds to the depth of your approach, because the psychological forces holding us back are often unconscious. And not everyone is seeking a big change, but the big changes are the ones I like to pursue.
These revelations led to the development of my current work – the dual adventure. My mission is to support people in illuminating their inner world so they can overcome barriers to wholeheartedly pursuing their outer experiences of interest, living a more expansive and meaningful life, and to explore the richer experiences their psyche has to offer.
We get one body and one mind on this earth, and what we do with those has a profound effect not only on the trajectory of our lives but on the lives of others around us. In knowing ourselves better and pursuing the inner adventure alongside the outer, we are free to make the most of our own lives and make the best impact possible.