Hey,
I'm Manu.

Our mind is the lens through which we experience and respond to life.

As Epictetus wrote:

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.

Every feeling, thought, and behaviour happens through our mind. The purpose of my professional life is to figure out how we can create the healthiest possible conditions for our mind to flourish. Then, we set ourselves up for a life of presence, peace, and fulfilment.

I study how minds become the way they are, with a subspecialty focus on childhood and adolescence.

Understanding these underlying structures of our psyche is one of the highest leverage strategies to improve our mind because they reach far back into the past and reconfigure the patterns that shape us.

In my research and writing, I map these structures in a living model — Garden of the Developing Self. Here, the Self is framed as an ongoing process in need of cultivation — just like a garden.

I operate across the full spectrum of the mind — from helping people recover from mental illness as a psychiatrist-in-training, to helping people overcome the final barriers to flourishing as a coach.

Enabling people to find their own answers as a coach enhances my ability to empower patients in psychiatry, and my scientific understanding of our core human needs enhances my ability to facilitate insight as a coach.

Across this spectrum, I work with individuals to provide a deeply personalised approach to transformation.

I do not share insights about the mind from having arrived at some sort of finish line — but from ongoing self-inquiry.

I am lucky that there is an overlap between my own personal journey through life and the professional contribution I get to make to others. Then again, how can there not be when what I am pursuing is common to us all: self-understanding, self-development, and self-fulfilment.

This personal investment is what led to The Mind, Explored. Here, I research to discover what is true, and write to clarify how this can be useful.