Dr Lucy Johnstone is a consultant clinical psychologist, author of ‘Users and abusers of psychiatry’ (3rd edition Routledge 2021) and ‘A straight-talking guide to psychiatric diagnosis’ (PCCS Books, 2nd edition 2022); co-editor of ‘Formulation in psychology and psychotherapy: making sense of people’s problems’ (Routledge, 2nd edition 2013); and co-author of ‘A straight talking introduction to the Power Threat Meaning Framework’, 2020, PCCS Books) along with a number of other chapters and articles taking a critical perspective on mental health theory and practice. She is the former Director of the Bristol Clinical Psychology Doctorate in the UK and has worked in Adult Mental Health settings for many years, most recently in a service in South Wales. She is Visiting Professor at London South Bank University, an Honorary Fellow of the BPS, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Lucy was lead author, along with Professor Mary Boyle, for the ‘Power Threat Meaning Framework’ (2018), an alternative to the medicalisation of distress. Lucy is an experienced conference speaker and lecturer and currently works as an independent trainer. She lives in Bristol, UK.

Zebra Collective have been delivering training & facilitating reflective learning spaces around the variables that can shape a person’s life - adversity in childhood, complex & developmental trauma, adverse community environments, adverse cultural environments & the presence (or otherwise) of protective factors - since our inception over 20 years ago. We take pride in thinking critically about prevailing narratives around how we conceptualise ‘mental health’ & emotional distress. Our approach aligns with a non-pathologising, non-medicalising mindset that sees someone’s presentation, behaviour & distress as reflective of things that have happened – or are happening - to them.