- London, UK
Aaron Balick Keynote Speaker
- Director of Stillpoint Spaces London (2016 - 2022)
- United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy Media Spokesperson
- University of Essex Honorary Senior Lecturer - Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Aaron Balick's Biography
Dr Aaron Balick is an author, psychotherapist, an academic and cultural theorist with more than two decades of clinical experience in the industry. He is a prominent international keynote speaker dedicated to simplifying psychological concepts to society, organisations, and corporations in practical and beneficial ways.
He was the Director of Stillpoint Spaces London, an international organisation with events hubs in London, Paris, Berlin and Zurich (2016 – 2022). The company explores psychology through engaging events programmes and provides access to expert psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors both in person and virtually. Aaron is also a senior lecturer at the University of Essex in the Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies Department.
As a registered integrative psychologist with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, Aaron has been the UKCP’s media spokesperson since 2005. He has also been the Resident Psychotherapist on BBC Radio 1’s The Surgery with Aled and Dr Radh. Aaron provided mental health information and advice on the show both in-studio and outside broadcasts, fulfilling the role for over 20 years, making him the longest-serving mental health agony uncle. He founded The Relational School during this period. He served as an executive chair for 11 years until 2015 and chapter chair of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He also served as a columnist for CBBC children’s website Bugbear and the Ask Aaron column, where he helped children understand and overcome psychological and emotional matters in their everyday lives.
Aaron is a beloved and respected author who has published several mental health and self-help books, including The Psychodynamics of Social Networking (2013) and Media and the Inner World (2004). In 2020 he published a book to help teenagers build their resilience and develop life skills in the modern world titled Keep Your Cool. He has contributed and been a consultant on other publications, including Depth Psychology and the Digital Age (2016), Psychotherapy 2.0 (2014) and the New York Times Best Seller The Book of Hope (2021).
As an advocate for mental health, Newsweek Magazine has named him a 21st Century Professional. He is highly active in print media and has contributed to various publications and journals, including; The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Wired Magazine and The Independent.
A celebrated international speaker, Aaron has delivered numerous keynote speeches at various conferences, events and podcasts on topics relating to depth psychology, culture and technology. His fascination with contemporary culture and its developments is evident in his speaking engagements which offer psychological insights to various global audiences.
Aaron Balick's Speaking Topics
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AI, Ethics, and the Modern Psyche: How artificial intelligence is reshaping minds, meaning, and human relationships
AI isn’t just changing the world of work, it’s influencing the architecture of our inner -worlds. As people increasingly turn to machines for reassurance, advice, intimacy, and decision-making, new psychological and ethical challenges emerge. Organisations are navigating anxiety, uncertainty, over-reliance, moral unease, and a profound shift in how people relate to their work, their leaders, and themselves.
This keynote cuts through hype and and moral panic to explore the psychological reality of AI: what it does to identity, thinking, emotional regulation, and human connection.
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The Digitally Mediated Self: Emotion, Intimacy, and the Loss of Interpersonal Complexity
People are more “connected” than ever, and yet struggling with loneliness, polarisation, emotional avoidance, burnout, and relational shallowness. Organisations feel the knock-on effects like conflict avoidance, communication breakdowns, overstimulation, collapsing attention and the challenges of working with difference. By using depth psychology to understand digital culture, we can reveal what technology is doing to our inner lives, and how we can recover depth, presence, and human connection.
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The Elements of Personal Leadership: Building psychologically intelligent organisations in an era of uncertainty and change
Modern leadership demands far more than communication skills and strategic vision. Leaders must navigate anxiety, change, emotional complexity, unconscious group processes, and the human consequences of hybrid working and technological acceleration.
This keynote gives leaders a psychological map of their organisation: how people defend, project, fragment, idealise, resist, avoid, and attach — and how understanding these processes is the key to trust, clarity, and high-quality decision-making.
Why Book Aaron Balick as a speaker?
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He brings more than two decades of clinical and academic expertise, helping leaders understand how psychology shapes behaviour, culture and decision-making at work and in society.
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He translates complex psychological and psychoanalytic concepts into practical insights that organisations can apply to wellbeing, leadership, communication and change.
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Drawing on extensive media experience as the UKCP’s long-standing spokesperson and BBC Radio 1’s resident psychotherapist, he engages audiences with clarity, credibility and warmth.
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His keynotes equip organisations to navigate the mental health impacts of technology, culture and pressure, strengthening resilience, empathy and performance across teams.
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