Dr Amy Silver ClinPsyD MPhil MA BSc(Hons) DipCAT MAPS. Amy is a a psychologist, speaker, author and mentor on building cultures of courageous collaboration for remarkable growth. Her background includes working as a Clinical Psychologist and Academic Tutor for Oxford University (in the UK). She has spent three decades developing IP on how fear and habit restrict our growth and achievement. She now works mainly in Professional Services and Public Services, particularly with those who are embracing the move towards a more connected, agile workforce.
She is obsessed with the ripples that our behaviours have and passionate about people feeling safe enough to be the very best of themselves. Amy regularly publishes on growth, trust and collaboration in her ‘Silverlinings’ blog (www.DrAmySilver.com/Silverlinings). Her book Conversations Create Growth shows managers how to lead performance conversations that drive engagement and achievement. She is currently working on her new book The Safe Space: For courageous collaboration which will be the essential guide for team and cultural success in our agile future.
Amy has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Masters in Forensic Psychiatry, Masters in Performance and a BSc Hons in Psychology. She worked as a practicing Clinical Psychologist and an Academic Tutor and researcher at Oxford University, UK. After her career in Clinical Psychology she has worked in corporate for 15 years using psychological knowledge, trust and collaboration to improve growth (after a short stint as a professional actress).
Dr Amy Silver was told in university that there was a 1 in 200 chance that someone in her class would become a clinical psychologist. The fact that it drove her rather than deterred her sets the scene for her story.
After graduating from university, she went on to work in the clinical psychology field at Oxford University in tutoring, therapy and research roles. Her focus was on helping individuals overcome their fears in understanding their psyche across their life span and thus which levers to pull to enable change.
She then had what she refers to as her first mid-life crisis. Given her job was quite ‘still’ in terms of the lack of physical movement as well as the immersion in dealing with issues and academic rigour – she wanted ‘to go out and play’. She took a year off with the intention to come back, which she never did. She ended up doing a couple of years of acting, drawing the parallels with psychology in the dynamics behind what we say, how we think and how we behave in a particular way.
Her role moved into corporate acting, again seeing the knowledge transfer from psychology in teaching individuals to make choices that unlocks growth and opens up opportunities both personally and professionally. She feels it was a significant role to help those realise their potential, as often we have the tendency to ‘lock down’ on who we think we are early on in our lives
Unlock New Experiences
Don’t necessarily get better at what you’re doing, go and do different stuff. Read different books, meet different people and see new experiences. This gives us flex around our habits and way of thinking. .
Meta Awareness
Meta awareness is looking down at why you’ve done what you’ve done and how you think in a particular situation. Doing this allows us to recognise that we are not of our thoughts, and our thoughts don’t determine our behaviours. It gives us the platform to step above our emotions and engage our critical actions.
Dr Amy firmly believes that better is on the other side of uncomfortable. We should face risks, stay away from the safe option at times and embrace our growth mindset. This allows us to face our fears of expectations and make better decisions under pressure. It is also key to give us the drive to move into a place of excellence, where we start to imagine what achievement looks like for us – rather than what it has defined to be by our peers or workplace.
