Chris Johnstone is a codirector of ActiveHope.Training, a nonprofit organization offering online courses that help people grow their capacity to make a difference in the world. He is also one of the United Kingdom’s leading resilience trainers, having taught resilience skills for more than thirty years and pioneered the role of such training in mental health promotion, in coaching practice, and in relation to addressing concerns about the world. After training in medicine and a range of psychological therapies, Chris worked for nearly twenty years as an addictions specialist in the UK National Health Service. Moving over the past two decades more into coaching, training, and writing, his work explores what helps us face disturbing situations (whether in our own lives or in the world) and respond in ways that nourish resilience and well-being. He is author of Find Your Power (2010) and Seven Ways to Build Resilience (2019). An activist since his teenage years, Chris first encountered Joanna Macy’s work while he was a medical student in London. He’s been a trainer in the Work That Reconnects for more than three decades, working closely with Joanna on many occasions and running facilitator trainings in the United Kingdom. Moving to the north of Scotland in 2011, he began developing his training work online. His video-based online courses now reach many thousands of people, with participants in more than sixty countries. Chris lives with his wife Kirsty in a small Scottish village. He loves growing fruit and has a passion for playing music, particularly with melodic percussion and hammered dulcimer.
