Andy Hardie

It's my responsibility as Clinical Director to ensure that all the therapy offered throughout Lifelink’s services is high quality, appropriate and ethically robust. People seek therapeutic intervention for very personal and entirely unique reasons. It can take a huge amount of courage to seek out and engage with this process. I want people who reach out to Lifelink, to have the experience of being cared for by a supportive, professional organisation.

I am a professionally registered Forensic Psychotherapist, Clinical Supervisor and hold associate teaching posts at two universities. I am a member of the British Psychoanalytic Council, and an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). I have worked for charities, in schools, hospitals and prisons, as well as the social enterprise and private sectors developing both operational as well as clinical management expertise. My work to-date has included fusing therapeutic experiences with expeditions in wild places, particularly with adolescents. Working life began as an outdoor learning and education practitioner, eventually specialising in intensive, extended personal development programmes in wilderness environments.

Even before my time working professionally in the outdoors, I had a passion for adventures in the mountains. Walking, sometimes climbing or scrambling, and when conditions allow, skiing and mountaineering are my favourite things to do. I also love bike adventures and canoe journeys anywhere I can feel a sense of space and perspective. Scotland has been my home since 2008 and offers a lifetime of opportunity for continued learning in some of the most inspiring landscapes anywhere.