About us and our aims
A little of our history
Since 1992, we have worked and studied together, dedicating more than seven decades of combined experience to understanding human behaviour, psychology, and the processes that underpin lasting behavioural change. Our shared passion has always been to offer genuine hope and empower people to live happier, freer, and more fulfilling lives. This commitment has led to a series of significant therapeutic breakthroughs, culminating in the development of our own behavioural change approach, Schema Conditioning®. Building on this foundation, our work with individuals affected by trauma and its associated symptoms inspired the creation of two additional trauma-focused therapies. One of these has been subjected to extensive scientific and clinical evaluation, with research demonstrating its effectiveness as an evidence-based treatment.
Currently
Alongside supporting members of the public, we have had the privilege of working with a diverse range of clients from across the world, including many high-profile individuals, helping them achieve meaningful and lasting change. For more than sixteen years, we have served as resident therapists on ITV's multi-award-winning This Morning, in addition to presenting our own television series, The Speakmans, which was broadcast on ITV and internationally. Over the past almost three decades, we have also appeared as psychological experts on numerous television programmes, including the multi-award-winning Saturday Night Takeaway.
Everything we do is driven by a single belief: that there is always hope. We are committed to demonstrating that recovery from trauma, overcoming psychological challenges, and achieving a better quality of life are possible with the right support and evidence-based approaches.
Sadly, many people have never been given reason to believe that positive change is achievable, while others have had that hope diminished by previous experiences. Our purpose is to restore that belief by sharing knowledge, practical strategies, and real hope through every platform available to us, including live workshops, theatre tours, books, podcasts, radio, television, social media, and YouTube.
At the heart of our work is an unwavering commitment to helping as many people as possible rediscover hope, embrace change, and realise that a brighter future is within reach.
Our mission is to illuminate a simple but powerful truth:
"There is always HOPE. No matter what someone has experienced, meaningful recovery, personal growth, and an improved quality of life are entirely possible."
A little on our therapies
Our work has led to the development of three therapeutic approaches: Schema Conditioning Psychotherapy®, Visual Schema Displacement Therapy (VSDT®), and Visual Schema Detachment & Restructuring®. Each has been created to help people achieve meaningful, lasting psychological change through innovative, evidence-informed methods. Recognition of this work has resulted in invitations to deliver training to psychology professors, medical doctors, and master's students at leading universities in the Netherlands, including those in Amsterdam and Utrecht. In 2015, this collaboration laid the foundation for a programme of independent scientific research comparing our therapeutic approach with Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR). Since then, a growing body of peer-reviewed evidence has continued to evaluate the effectiveness of VSDT®.
In June 2019, the first major study demonstrating the therapy's efficacy was published in the Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. This was followed by a further peer-reviewed publication in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology in April 2021, which reported comparable therapeutic outcomes. Most recently, in March 2024, a clinical study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry found that VSDT® was an effective treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), supporting its use as a valuable therapeutic option with outcomes comparable to EMDR.
Today, this growing programme of scientific and clinical research continues to strengthen the evidence base for VSDT®, reflecting our ongoing commitment to developing innovative therapies that are both clinically effective and rigorously evaluated.
