Welcome to my website.
My work weaves together the following themes:
Empowering:
for Resilience and Positive Change
For over 30 years, my work has been about helping people access resilience and bring positive change into their lives and our world. My book Active Hope, co-authored with Joanna Macy, published in eighteen languages and recently revised as new edition, explores how to grow our capacity to make a positive difference in the world. I also wrote Seven Ways to Build Resilience, which introduces skills, insights and practical strategies that help us deal with difficult times. Living in the north of Scotland, I teach a range of online courses at CollegeofWellbeing.com, with a free online course in resilience training (about one hour), a longer video-based online course Seven Ways To Build Resilience (3 hours CPD), and a more in-depth Resilience Practitioner Training (20 hours CPD).
Nourishing:
for Sustainable Wellbeing
Working many years as a doctor and group therapist in the addictions recovery field, I saw how 'unsustainable wellbeing' involves attempts to feel good in the moment, but with costs carried into the future and/or onto others. My training work is based on the 'me, you and us’ model of wellbeing that explores how our lives can have positive ripples of benefit that extend beyond the moment and beyond ourselves, so deepening our sense of purpose and satisfaction in life. I train people in self-help practices that nourish their energy and enthusiasm, interventions we can use to help others be at their best and ways to cultivate wellbeing at the level of 'us' in groups, teams or communities. Two approaches I'm much influenced by, and run courses in, are Positive Psychology and Motivational Interviewing. More recently, I’ve been developing Su Ha as a new hybrid practice for personal and collective wellbeing, introducing this with a free online course.
Inspiring:
for Active Hope
We live at a time of uncertainty where the future we're heading into might seem bleak and it may sometimes feel like there is little we can do to change this. Active Hope is not the same as feeling hopeful. It is a practice we can bring to any situation, and it involves three key elements. First we start from where we are, acknowledging current realities even if we find them disturbing. Then we identify our preferred version of the future from this starting point. Thirdly we take steps guided by the intention to make our hoped-for future more likely. My writing and free video-based online course in Active Hope explore skills, practices and insights that help us get better at doing this.
Uplifting:
with Beautiful Images, Music and Ideas
My wife, Kirsty Reid, runs a small market garden growing herbs and cut flowers. On this website I share my photos (mostly from our garden) of the natural beauty around me I find so uplifting. Another source of beauty that lifts me is music, one of my joys being playing the hammered dulcimer and other instruments. I include some of my music among the videos and there will be more coming soon. I also find beauty in ideas that can guide us to better ways of being. One of my favourites (that I learned from eco-philosopher Arne Naess) is the idea of a beautiful life that combines care of self with care of our world. If you like this idea too, then I'm pleased to share the purpose of living this way with you and hope you'll find resources in my work that support you in this.
“Resilience isn’t just about coping – it is also about recovery and positive transformation. Wellbeing is a direction you can move in from any starting point.”
– CHRIS JOHNSTONE
Upcoming Courses & Events
The new edition of Active Hope has been updated and improved to better address our planetary emergency.
Building on the momentum of the bestselling first edition of Active Hope which, published in 14 languages, sparked an international movement transforming the way we think about hope, the updated 10th anniversary edition shares powerful new tools, practices and inspiration to help us rise to the challenge of addressing the disturbing global issues we face, and in doing so discover a fresh sense of meaning and satisfaction in our lives.
Here’s what people are saying about it:
“Hope without action is naive optimism. Action without hope can fail because it doesn’t believe in its goals. Active Hope is a compassionate and wise guide to bringing these forces together to understand who we are, what we need and what we are capable of.”
– Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark
“Active Hope is not just a book but a gateway to transformation.”
– James W. Douglas, author of JFK and the Unspeakable
