Simon is currently a Deputy Course Leader, running a doctoral training programme for Counselling Psychologists. He completed his PhD with the Open University and his DCPsych with the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling. He retired from his career in NHS Community Mental Health Services, having worked in these services for thirty years, managing community teams for twenty years. He worked as a counsellor at diploma level for several years and took on roles in the voluntary sector. Research interests have ranged from ‘social inclusion,’ to ‘decision-making in mental healthcare’ and more recently ‘resilience,’ ‘trauma’ and ‘post traumatic growth.’ He has published articles and book chapters on; the design and implementation of secondary mental health services; managing mental health conditions such as bi-polar and psychosis. He has also written on homelessness; the use of a hermeneutic phenomenological research methodologies, and the application of certain philosophies in therapeutic practice.