Episode 19 – Christopher Connolly, pioneer in applied sports psychology, speaks to us about Navigating Transitions: Expertise, Identity, and Purpose

Christopher Connolly, PhD. co-founded SyCon -The Sporting Bodymind Group – with John Syer in the 1980’s. They pioneered applied sports psychology working with Premiership football clubs, Olympic teams, and professional athletes in Britain, Europe and the USA. He has subsequently applied his expertise in the private and public business sectors worldwide for over 30 years. Christopher has given talks at numerous colleges and universities and at governing bodies of sport and performance related fields. He helped develop psychology curricula for the Royal College of Music under a Leverhulme Trust grant and has lectured at the Royal Academy of Music. He has taught at Psychosynthesis training organisations in Holland, Sweden, Italy, Spain as we’ll as the United Kingdom and has focused on the role of the transpersonal in guiding and directing career and life choices. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Psychosynthesis Trust in London and Growing2gether, a charity dedicated the to empowering at-risk young people in Scotland. He co-leads programs in Spirit at Work, which develops Transpersonal Leadership Coaching for professional coaches. He has co-authored a number of books including Sporting Body Sporting Mind, Team Building Leaders Guide, and How Teamwork Works. His most recent book with Fernand Gobet, Transition Expertise and Identity, is based on research on career transitions amongst elite performers in business, music, and sport was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.

Find out more about Christopher and Transition Expertise here – website: www.transitionexpertise.com.