About

Over 30 years of experience.

Chris has worked as a Clinical Psychologist for over three decades. He trained at Birmingham University in England, before emigrating to New Zealand in 1979. He has since worked extensively as a clinician in both the public and private sectors, specialising in a wide range of personal and interpersonal problems.

In March 2014, Chris closed his clinical practice to focus totally on writing, presenting workshops, and promoting his personal development books.

 

Professional History

Chris was a founding partner at Psychology Associates in Dunedin, New Zealand’s largest group clinical psychology practice. He has also held many significant roles in professional organisations over the years. He has served as the Psychology Advisor to the Otago Area Health Board, and has sat on the National Councils of both the NZ Psychology Society and the NZ College of Clinical Psychology. He spent a four year term as the editor of the NZ Journal of Clinical Psychology.

In 2007, he became a Fellow of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychology, and has recently been made a Life Member. He was also a foundation member of the Board of the Aotearoa NZ Association for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (AnzaCBT). He is also a Life Member of the British Assn for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP).

Chris was a foundation Coach with the Institute for Strategic Leadership, based in Auckland. He coached for nearly 10 years on the Institutes week long residential programmes for Chief Executives at Millbrook Resort, Queenstown. He has also consulted to the University of Otago through its Academic Leadership programme, and has worked under contract for many of New Zealand’s leading Change Management consultants.

Chris is married with 2 adult daughters; one with two granddaughters in Melbourne, and the other in Christchurch with one granddaughter. In 2013 he lost his 21 year-old son Henry to epilepsy.

Chris lives in Warrington, a semi-rural coastal community just north of Dunedin in New Zealand’s South Island. He regularly contributes light-hearted feature articles to newspapers and popular magazines. His style is accessible and invariably thought provoking.

In 2011, Chris published his first personal development book, the highly-acclaimed self-help book When Happiness is not Enough – Balancing Pleasure and Achievement in your Life. He followed this up in 2014 with The Power of the Second Question-finding simple truths for complex lives. Both books have sold well internationally, and now form the basis of popular half day workshops.

In 2019, Chris released his new book When Trust Goes Missing – A Clinical Guide. This is intended as a clients guide to managing trust issues in their life. It provides ground breaking new concepts of trust, including a new definition and many practical techniques for the re-installation of trust when it has been lost.

In 2013 Chris spoke at the Happiness Conference in Sydney on the same stage as the Dalai Lama and several other high-profile speakers. He appeared at this event again in 2015.

The key theme to his presentations is always to find simple truths to manage complex lives. In 2016 he gave a keynote address on Lifestyle Balance and Happiness to the global G200 forum in Baden-Partenkirchen, Germany, at a gathering of young politicians from around the world.

If you would like Chris to speak to your group or to present a workshop in your area, please contact him via the form at the bottom of the Home page.