Authors

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…

Dr Lucy Johnstone is a consultant clinical psychologist, author of Users and Abusers of Psychiatry (Classic editon, 2022) and co-editor of Formulation in Psychology and Psychotherapy: Making sense of people's problems (Routledge, 2nd edition 2013) and co-author with Mary Boyle of A Straight Talking Introduction to the Power…

Philip Thomas worked as a full-time consultant psychiatrist in the NHS for over twenty years. He left clinical practice in 2004 to write. He has published over 100 papers mostly in peer-reviewed journals, latterly in philosophy and its relevance to madness and society. He is well known for working in alliance with…

Kay Aranda is a Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Applied Social Science at the University of Brighton in the UK. She has worked in the NHS and voluntary sector, and in commu¬nity nursing, primary care and women’s health.  With an academic background…

Dr Laetitia Zeeman has a clinical and academic background in mental health, narrative therapy and clinical governance, gained in South Africa and England. This exposure acts as foundation to her current teaching, scholarly activities and research as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Social Science at…

Dr Bruce Scott, PhD, completed his existential and phenomenological informed training in psychoanalysis with the Philadelphia Association in London, an organisation founded by R.D. Laing and others in 1965. He is a trained experimental psychologist and has conducted research into the cognitive model of depression (the theoretical model which informs…

Peter is Head of the Person-Centred Department at Metanoia Institute where, amongst other trainings, he runs an MSc in Contemporary Person-Centred Psychotherapy, BA in Counselling, and the Practitioner Certificate in Person-Centred Practice at the Difficult Edge. He has provided person-centred counselling for nearly twenty five years, predominantly in ‘difficult…

Dr Els van Ooijen is a retired psychotherapist, writer and climate advocate. She had a private psychotherapy, counselling and supervision practice in Bristol, and co-developed and co-taught a Diploma/MA in Consultative Supervision at the University of South Wales. Her website is: nepenthe.org.uk

Brendan Stone has lived with mental health problems for nearly 40 years. He lives in Sheffield and has worked extensively with users of mental health services. He is a Professor in the School of English at the University of Sheffield.

Jennifer Maidman (Dip. Couns. MBACP) is a freelance singer, musician and producer who has been making music for over forty years. She appears on hundreds of recordings and has performed internationally with Joan Armatrading, Gerry Rafferty, David Sylvian, Robert Wyatt, The Proclaimers, Bonnie Raitt and Terry Reid  amongst others.…