I am a clinical psychologist and Professor of Health Care Communication in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Wales, UK.
I grew up and graduated in psychology in Cape Town, South Africa, did further training in research in Glasgow (Scotland), and then went to Cardiff (Wales) where I trained as a clinical psychologist and obtained my PhD. I worked as a clinician in the UK National Health Service for 16 years, initially in the addictions field, then in community mental health and primary care settings.
In the late 1990s I moved across to the School of Medicine in Cardiff, where I have been working ever since, as a trainer and researcher on the subject of communication & behaviour change. This work has involved studying consultations, developing new interventions, evaluating the efforts of practitioners to change their consulting styles and exploring ways of improving practice in larger service systems. I have written a number of books with colleagues on motivational interviewing and health behaviour change and have published widely in scientific journals. Recent work has included a role in developing a new organisation, Paediatric Aids Treatment in Africa (PATA), the development and evaluation of video rich, web-supported learning programmes, and a training and mentorship role in the UK roll-out of the Nurse Family Partnership project. I was one of the co-founders of the MINT network (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers) and its system for training trainers, and I have run workshops in diverse cultures and settings all over the world.
I have four children, Jacob, Stefan, Maya and a very very baby boy. I live with my partner Nina in Cardiff. We spend as much time as possible in our small oak woodland in Mid-Wales, where we play, learn, chop wood and listen to the cricket on the radio.
