Authors

Jonathan Gadsby qualified as a mental health nurse in Bristol in 2001. He did a Masters in the philosophy and ethics of mental health at the University of Warwick and a PhD at Birmingham City University, under the direction of Mervyn Morris and Marius Romme. He now works as a teacher…

Pete Bull spent six months as a day hospital outpatient in South London in 1997 when he was 18, attended several universities, dropped out, had more than 40 jobs and travelled through Australia before qualifying as an existential counsellor and psychotherapist in 2010. Since then he has qualified and worked as a CBT therapist…

Philip Teasdale is a pseudonym. He is a therapist, clinical supervisor, trainer and, most importantly, adoptive parent. He qualified as a person-centred counsellor in 2009, having retrained following a successful career in research and business. He has worked in private practice, primary care and, for several years, in acute mental health…

Jude Boyles is a BACP senior accredited psychological therapist and feminist activist. She has been practising for the last 24 years. Before qualifying in 1994, Jude worked in the women’s movement, in a Rape Crisis centre and in Women’s Aid refuges for women fleeing domestic violence. She then…

Helen Leigh-Phippard has a PhD in international relations and was a university lecturer until she developed mental health problems in the late 1990s and was diagnosed with psychotic depression. In late 2004, she joined Brighton & Hove Mind’s LiVE (Listening to the Voice of Experience) project and, since then,…

Sam Taylor is co-founder and Director of Veritas-Justice, an independent stalking advocacy service. In 2011 Sam gave evidence and was instrumental in the stalking law reform campaign, having experienced four years of stalking by her former partner. This landmark campaign led, on 25 November 2012, to stalking becoming a criminal offence in England…

Barbara and Heather Williams are mother and daughter; they wrote this book together. Barbara has a background in psychotherapy, play therapy, teaching and social work. Heather grew up with person-centered parents and went to a student-centered school. Her background is psychotherapy, social work and art and she specializes in working…

Katie McArthur is a humanistic counsellor, supervisor, researcher and writer working with young people and adults in Glasgow. She has been an advocate of school-based humanistic counselling for several years, and works to promote research and evaluation among counsellors, including working with BACP to set up their Children and Young…

Jasna Russo comes from the former Yugoslavia and is based in Berlin, Germany, where she works as an independent researcher. She is a long-term activist in the international user/survivor movement. Jasna has an MA in clinical psychology and has worked on both survivor-controlled and collaborative research projects, including several…

Gary Sidley worked within NHS mental health services for 33 years in a variety of nursing, psychological and managerial roles. In the 1980s he was employed as a psychiatric nurse in a large asylum in Manchester. He left nursing in 1987 to pursue clinical psychology training and subsequently worked as a clinical…