Dr Matt Slavin · Clinical & Performance Psychologist
About Matt
I'm a UK-trained Clinical and Performance Psychologist, EMDR therapist, speaker and consultant.
I work with leaders, professionals, teams and individuals to help them understand how pressure shapes the way they think, feel and perform, and to build more sustainable, grounded ways of operating.
My work spans 1:1 therapy and performance psychology, leadership and organisational consulting, team workshops and keynote speaking. In 2025 my family and I relocated to New Zealand, I'm now based in Auckland and work globally across NZ and UK time zones.
Clinical Psychologist
Performance Psychologist
Psychological Consultant
EMDR Therapist
Keynote speaker
DClinPsy
HOW I SEE THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
An integrated lens
Human experience is never just psychological. It is biological, emotional, relational, developmental, cultural, and ecological, all interacting at once, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in tension.
My work sits at the intersection of all these layers.It’s shaped by years of working with:
children and adolescents
adopted and care-experienced young people
individuals and families recovering from trauma
adults facing anxiety, depression, burnout
professionals and leaders carrying the weight of responsibility
athletes pushing the limits of human performance
It’s also shaped by my early life as an outdoor instructor and my academic grounding in geography, sensory perception, and the psychology of place, an understanding that environment shapes us just as much as experience does.
This integrated lens informs everything I do.Whether I’m supporting an individual, a family, or a high-pressure team, the aim is the same: to help people feel more anchored in themselves, more regulated in their nervous systems, and better able to show up - for their work, their people and themselves.
The Four Pillars of My Work
These four pillars are the organising principles that run through everything I do, from therapy and EMDR, to leadership work, to workshops, to performance consulting. Together they reflect how humans actually function: biologically, relationally, psychologically, and ecologically.
01 Mind
Understanding the Machinery
Your mind is not a random collection of thoughts and feelings. It’s a highly adaptive survival system shaped by evolution, early experience, stress, and environment.
Anxiety, overthinking, emotional reactivity, trauma responses, burnout, they are survival system trying to protect you. Understanding that changes everything.
→ Understanding emotional and physiological responses
→ Recognising survival patterns that once kept you safe
→ Strengthening regulation, flexibility and self-awareness
→ Building a healthier relationship with your inner world
02 Connection
Because We Are Wired to Relate
Humans regulate through other humans. This is true in therapy rooms, families, relationships, teams, and leadership cultures.
When connection breaks down, we see:
anxiety - shame - conflict - disconnection - loneliness - relational patterns that repeat themselves
And when connection strengthens, people regain:
safety - perspective - confidence - emotional range - the capacity to think clearly under pressure
Whether I’m working with a teenager, a parent, a couple, or an executive team, connection is the context in which change becomes possible.
03 Nature
Remembering We Are Nature
We talk about nature as if it's somewhere you go on weekends. But biologically speaking, we never left it.
Our nervous systems, stress responses, sensory systems and emotional rhythms were shaped over hundreds of thousands of years - calibrated for environments of movement, tribe, unpredictability and rest. That wiring hasn't changed. What's changed is everything around it.
Modern life - fast, sedentary, screen-saturated, socially complex - places demands on a nervous system that was never designed for it. Much of what we experience as anxiety, burnout, reactivity, disconnection or chronic stress makes complete sense when you understand the mismatch between the system we inherited and the world we're actually living in.
This isn't an argument for retreating to the wilderness. It's a framework for understanding why humans function the way they do and what that means for how we work, lead, relate and recover.
It informs everything on this site: why pressure affects thinking the way it does, why connection matters so much for regulation, why purpose anchors us, and why the most effective psychological work meets people at the level of the body and the nervous system - not just the mind.
04 Purpose
The difference between being busy and going somewhere
High-performers are rarely short of activity. What they're sometimes short of is the sense that it's adding up to something & that the effort, the pressure, the sacrifices are pointing somewhere that actually matters to them.
Purpose isn't a motivational concept. It's a psychological anchor. When it's present, people tolerate difficulty better, lead more consistently, and recover more quickly from setbacks. When it's absent or blurred - through burnout, trauma, relentless demand, or simply never having stopped to examine it - people start to feel like they're performing a version of their life rather than living it.
This shows up differently depending on who I'm working with. For a founder, it might be the sense that the business they built no longer reflects who they are. For a leader, it might be the exhaustion of performing a role that's disconnected from what they actually value. For an individual in therapy, it might be the feeling that something important has been lost.
The work isn't about finding purpose as if it's buried somewhere waiting to be discovered. It's about building it, through honest self-examination, understanding how past experiences shaped present direction, and making deliberate choices about what to move toward and what to let go of.
Purpose, when it's real, doesn't just feel good. It changes how you lead, how you perform, and how you live.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Credentials & experience
Because credentials matter and people deserve to know who they're trusting.
QUALIFICATION
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy)The highest level of psychological training in the UK and New Zealand.
SPECIALIST TRAINING
EMDR TherapistTrained and experienced in EMDR for trauma and stuck patterns
REGISTRATION
HCPC Registered Clinical PsychologistThe regulatory body that protects public safety in the UK.
REACH
2500+ professionals trainedAcross clinical, educational and organisational settings.
Trusted By
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
In their words
"Before working with Matt I was feeling lower and lower, easily overwhelmed. Sessions evolved from session to session and I felt more relaxed and grounded after each one. I feel in control. It has made the biggest shift in my day to day."
- 1:1 Client (Founder)"The work we have done together has been genuinely life changing. My performances have dramatically improved and most importantly I feel I'm ready to fly the nest. I can't thank you enough."
- 1:1 Client (Athlete)"These sessions have had a transformational impact on my life. I was at risk of burnout, lacking the awareness and strategies I needed. Dr Slavin is highly responsive, tailoring his approach in every session to your mood, needs and goals."
- 1:1 Client (Senior Exec)"The workshop was easy to follow, engaging with everyone, and interactive, which I liked more. We took away valuable tools that anyone can implement straight away for a better, healthier mind."
— Workshop Participant“I can’t believe how much of a difference it has made to me. I feel in control. It is very hard to explain but it has made the biggest shift in my day to day. If you have ever thought of getting help then, I would say you should get it as soon as possible so you can make the change quicker. I would just like to say how much you have helped and how much I appreciate it.”
— 1:1 Client (Athlete)What People Say
"I really appreciated Matt's knowledge, professionalism, pace and grounded humility."
"Matt inspired confidence and backed up what I believed with science, history and humanity."
"Matt's facilitation style was clear, well-paced and thoughtful. I appreciated his calmness and attentiveness."
Across these settings, people consistently describe feeling:
More capable
More understood
More steady
More themselves
More hopeful
More decisive
More connected
More consistent
Work with Matt
Whether you're looking for individual support, leadership consulting or something for your team - here's where to find the right place to start.
Not sure where to start?
If you're not certain which service fits best, get in touch and tell me a little about what you're navigating. I'll point you in the right direction and if I'm not the right fit, I'll say so.