Seven virtues of our psychology

We love psychology. But we don't think good psychology means having a neat answer for everything.

People are complicated. Context matters. Evidence changes. We don't always do what we know we should do. And psychologists are human too.

These seven virtues shape how we work at Your Chief Psychologist — whether we're helping someone understand their attention, coaching someone through change, exploring what makes it easier to act when something doesn't feel right, or simply trying to make sense of human behaviour.

The first explanation isn't always the best one. Neither is the best known! We stay curious about people, behaviour and what else might be going on. Sometimes the most useful psychological question is simply: what haven't we considered yet?

People behave differently in different situations. Relationships, environments, expectations, culture, power and what happened five minutes ago can all matter. We try to understand the person and the world around them before deciding what something means. It's more data!

Context can help explain behaviour. It is said all behaviour makes sense in context.  It doesn't necessarily excuse it. 

People get distracted. We freeze. We avoid things. We make mistakes. We don't always say what we wish we'd said or do what we know we should do. We all have bad days - that includes us.

We believe understanding usually gets us further than shame. Compassion doesn't mean abandoning boundaries or accountability. It gives us a better place from which to learn and change.

People should have meaningful influence over their own lives. Our founder is free born by name. And we all are by nature!

Good psychology should expand people's choices rather than simply tell them what to think, feel or do. But agency over our own lives is different from seeking power over somebody else's.

We want to help people recognise where they have choices — and make more of them. 

None of us exists in isolation. Our decisions, behaviour and use of power can increase or diminish the choices available to other people. 

We can understand why something happened and still take responsibility for what happens next. Individual freedom matters. So do other people.

 We take psychology seriously — evidence, professional standards, competence and ethics included.

That's precisely why we're willing to challenge it.

Psychological ideas can become fashionable. Research can be flawed. Evidence changes. And psychologists are sometimes surprisingly bad at psychology.

We'd rather change our minds than defend something simply because psychology once said it was true.

We deal with serious subjects. That doesn't mean psychology has to be joyless.

We value humour, creativity, stories, experimentation and occasionally doing something simply to see what happens.

Sometimes change starts with “I wonder what would happen if…”

And sometimes the psychologically sensible response really is to laugh.

We don't think any one of these virtues provides all the answers.

Agency without responsibility can become power over others. Responsibility without compassion can become judgement. Context without agency can leave people feeling powerless. Rigour without curiosity can become dogma. Play without compassion can hurt.

Good psychology means holding more than one thing in mind at once.

The individual and the community.
Freedom and responsibility.
Acceptance and change.
The person and their context.
Evidence and uncertainty.
Seriousness and play.

That's the psychology we want to practise.