About

Since the Maxims of Ptahotep, written in roughly 2800 B.C., human beings have been writing down advice for each other, and for themselves, on how to live a better life. When Samuel Smiles’ book Self Help was published in 1859, it outsold everything except the Bible. Self-help is popular.

And yet for the longest time, academic and clinical branches of psychology have derided self-help. Perhaps it was because the quality of such books was so variable. Perhaps it was because psychologists had vested interests, wanting people to come to their clinics instead of buying books.

Hopefully that trend is now changing, because psychological research has a lot to offer to help improve people’s lives. And ‘giving psychology away’, as the late President of the APA put it, is a noble task. We have to meet people where they are. And where they are is standing in line to buy self-help books.

As a Senior Lecturer in psychology (University of Chester) and a coaching psychologist (registered with the British Psychological Society), I am passionate about finding ways to ‘give away’ psychological interventions and insights. Whether that is through the development of self-help techniques or training non-psychologist professionals in appropriate interventions. Whilst I am especially interested in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, I am fairly eclectic in my approach.

Though I teach the history, theory, and practice of psychological therapy, I am not a therapist. Coaching psychology is not just another name for therapy. If you have a diagnosable mental health problem, there are other people better equipped to help. Please don’t treat anything on this site as medical or clinical advice.

Feel free to DM me on twitter @drleehw

If you’d like to email, it’s easy. Just put my first name in front of the URL of this site, with @ in between. (Sorry for being cryptic, but I was getting huge amounts of spam.)