I am one of those people who may appear chaotic – health, social and behavioural sciences researcher mostly in palliative and end of life care, global and humanitarian health, digital health and innovation implementation, with a PhD in the philosophy of science, on methods of research synthesis, who loves applied, urgent-pain-point-needs research; a psychologist – both clinical and counselling and work and organisational; an author of a book on house moving (based on personal experience of over 20 moves) … Then that’s just the headlines, and mostly the professional ones.

 

I hope you are one of the “others” – of those who trust that there is method in the madness and/or recognise themselves in the “impossible synthesis”.

 

There is method in the madness. Brutally systematic, even if organically inspired. Two of my favourite descriptions of it are of “finding message in the mess” and “seeking light where it is darkest”.

 

I explore life circumstances, personal experiences, relationships, contexts which are complex, emotionally intense, dynamic, ethically fraught, hard, dark or at least uncertain, indeterminate, confusing … which may tie the mind in knots, paralyse action, bring out the worst of us, and scar us forever.

 

I want to help, and I do help people and, by extension, the groups and organisations they are part of, to continue to act (and think and feel) effectively, creatively and with hope in and around such circumstances. 

 

I am interested in such messes also because this is where the sublime shines. This is the place of exceptional courage, true love, real friendship, honour, nobility, freedom, mind-over body endurance, forgiveness … This is the space of miracles.

 

For most of the working week, I engage with contexts and issues as the above as a health, social and behavioural sciences researcher. 

 

I seek to understand how multiple elements of complex systems (of various types – health systems, knowledge systems, digital systems, organisational systems, etc.), particularly those under pressure of limited resources, conflict and politics, can be made to work as a viable, and hopefully organic, whole.

 

I’ve conducted academic research, for longest at the University of Cambridge, in each of the following areas for about ten years: palliative and end of life care, digital health and innovation implementation, global and humanitarian health, ethics and values, knowledge synthesis and management. 

 

(And no, I’m not in my 70s! Mid-40s, if you care). I’ve just always worked simultaneously on several topics others make lifetime careers of, or on interactions of these, as in “digital innovation in palliative and end of life” or “ethical issues in humanitarian health”.)

 

My clients are typically teams and organisations which seek academic-level rigour or independent evaluation of some of their flagship projects. I may talk a lot of chaos and messes, but my research has steely logic and systematicity, even in its pragmatic solutions.

 

I also work with teams and organisations seeking a new vision for their data and knowledge management infrastructure. I help you reimagine, reconfigure, plan for your organisational ‘DEKADE’. 

 

DEKADE stands for Data, Evidence, Knowledge, Action and Dissemination Ecosystems.

 

Your routinely collected data need to be collected, organised and analysed in a way that allows them to become evidence, which, combined with other forms of knowledge, needs to inform the strategic and daily actions you take as well as the messages you put out. (A rough description which doesn’t acknowledge the complexity of concepts like data, evidence and knowledge, but I hope you get the general idea!)

 

I first crystallised core ideas of the DEKADES through my PhD in 2014, but the beginnings of the work date back to 2004. I’ve thought about organisational knowledge systems for about 20 years now. Finally, organisations have also begun to think about them with intent. 

 

As a researcher, I also support individuals – typically PhD students, early career researchers or non-academics seeking to publish in peer-reviewed journals –  to refine their papers.

 

I may butcher your original draft. Make you to do three times more work than you thought remains to be done. Or more likely ten times more. But you will love the outcome – in the form of the published paper, in the inner clarity, and the (sometimes unexpected) joy of being made to work to standards which were higher than what you thought you needed, or even wanted!

 

See my research pages for more on methods and topics.

 

As a psychologist/ counsellor, I work primarily with the mess most relationships and break-ups end up being or have a stage as; on dark experiences and emotions, such as depression, grief, loss and bereavement; and on the banes of not enoughness, not belonging or not being yourself. 

 

More lightly, but it is only so on the surface, as it goes as much to the core of your being as all the above, I also work on career transitions and, uhhhm, helping you declutter the spaces you inhabit! 

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I have a BA in psychology and MA-level specialisations in both clinical and counselling psychology and work and organisational psychology. I have been trained in the psychodynamic tradition, with specialisations in psychodrama and arts therapy. I often suggest writing exercises and other forms of creative endeavours as a path to awareness and healing. 

 

If I were formally qualified as a personal trainer or yoga instructor, I would also be prescribing physical activity, but that I can only full-heartedly encourage you to do! I believe that the back door of the body is one of the best ways to re-enter the mind in a way that saves you when you need to be saved.

 

I listen with the whole of my being, but I also engage in dynamic conversations with the people I am working with. I may challenge and push you, interrupt your dysfunctional stories, share my own experiences if I feel them relevant. My work as a psychologist/ counsellor draws extensively on lived experience too.

 

As a psychologist who is also a researcher, critical thinker (and a philosopher as per two degrees), I may also end up doing hardcore uncomfortable thinking and digging for truths with you. There are enough cases when standard psychological advice and approaches won't cut through the existential fog we are trying to lift together. There are many ways in which our society is sick and over-adapting to it makes us sick too.

 

As an author (outside of my academic publications, most of which you can find on my Google Scholar profile) I tend to explore the complex intersections between deep, intense and highly emotional experiences and the daily, routine, pragmatic that needs to be handled, even when the world is falling apart.

 

Most fully, you can see this approach in my book “House Moving Therapy”.

 

I wrote it having moved 21 times (or 33, depending on how you count) over the course of 19 years. It is a book about using the need to sort through your physical possessions to clear the mess in your head and heart. 

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It is a book for those of us who are about to move and are also possibly (over)thinking, (over)feeling, (over)conscientious, occasionally (often?) troubled souls who are still seeking their true home.

 

I think it’s good, even if crazy! I believe some parts of it are extraordinary. Original, clear-sighted and exceptionally briefly expressed. I know, awfully immodest. 

 

I gave it my heart. I consistently challenged myself to write the truth, even when it was HARD. I mercilessly cut out fluff and wordiness. I have 49 versions of it only on my current laptop. I self-published it so that its truth is not skewed by the needs of a market which is not my market. I did not ask any family member or friend to read it or write a review for it. 

 

I will be grateful for any feedback and reviews that help readers to choose or un-choose it and help me make it better for those who need it! And I mean that 'any', just as peer reviews of academic papers have been helping me for about 20 years, some lifting me up to the clouds, others having me slam doors and cry on reading them. If its messages need to be clearer for those whom it was meant to serve and it needs revising, I shall revise it.

 

Before I sign off, it may be worth adding that I live in Cornwall (and have no desire to go anywhere else, no matter my history of moving!). I do most of my work remotely but am happy to discuss projects which require travel.

 

Let me know if I can help! Whatever your reason to get in touch, including ‘just because’, please do!

 

Yours, 

Mila x