My Interesting Job: Neuroscientist

In its simplest form, neuroscience is the study of the brain and nervous system. I was two years into medical school when we had to choose special topics for the third year, and I chose the neuro- element of everything: anatomy, physiology, pharmacology – I just found the human brain fascinating.

After medical school I did a PhD in neuroscience, before specialising as a psychiatrist. I then practised psychiatry for six years before setting up my neuroscience-based leadership development consultancy, which was initially designed to help business leaders going through unprecedented levels of stress and change during the global financial crisis. 

Usually, I do six 90-minute face-to-face sessions with clients once a month, but during lockdown I’ve been doing nine hourly sessions by phone every fortnight. The pace and rhythm is definitely different, but being flexible is a key part of what I do and underpins a lot of what neuroscience is about. 

When an individual client comes to me, they’re usually looking for a way to deal with high levels of stress due to a demanding job and poor lifestyle habits. The other common areas include building better emotional intelligence, accessing intuition and unleashing creativity. My goal is always transformation for the client, both personally and professionally. Ultimately, I’m working with them to unlock the full potential of their brain.

When I’m working with clients, I use a scientific framework, but an intuitive approach. It’s about raising them from non-conscious to conscious and identifying the patterns of behaviour that may be holding them back. We always work on the basics like sleep, diet, hydration, exercise and mindfulness to create the physical condition for peak brain performance. The patterns that emerge are different because people have different life experiences which become embedded in their neural architecture. Everything is very goal orientated, too, so there’s a finite number of sessions and my clients know they have to work hard to get the most out of them.

The biggest breakthrough in our industry has been understanding that, due to neuroplasticity (how the brain grows and changes), patterns of thought and behaviour are repeated throughout life – both in terms of time, so repeating certain mistakes but expecting a different outcome, and across life, in marriages, parenting and different social interactions. 

There’s still a huge need for research in neuroscience – especially when it comes to alleviating situations like the growing dementia crisis. At the moment, a lot of funds go into research around military warfare, financial risk-taking and competitive sport. As for other exciting developments in the field, there are some interesting ideas around creating art using just our minds and medical implants that can help people walk and talk again.

As part of my job, I often give keynote talks. I’m also an advisory board member for several businesses, ranging from private equity to asset management, as well as a smart supplement and a manifestation brand. Most of this work is done remotely, but I occasionally host talks for them or help their teams build better mental resilience.