I come from a dusty Mallee town and left home at 17, a high-school drop-out, and made a living as a musician for two years in Melbourne. Then my adventure in mindset, philosophy, and spirituality began. At 20 I entered an Italian monastery for a year. After returning to Australia and while working in a factory, I discovered philosophy. So I found my way into The University of Melbourne where I studied and eventually taught it.
I love philosophy for its ability to help us shape a powerful outlook. I have a passion for the theory and practice of mindset. This includes shaping our minds in ways which lead us to face suffering well. But also creating ways of thinking that make good things happen, that lead to a flourishing life. For this reason I decided to become a counsellor and coach, but one who draws deeply on philosophy, to help people develop their mindset in good times and bad to create stronger, better lives.
I became a qualified counsellor and have now practiced for over a decade. Unlike a psychologist who assesses and treats disorders, a counsellor is trained to connect with people and to help them deepen their understanding, motivation, and way forward. In that mode I worked with organisations at some of the darker edges of life, talking people back from bridges, counselling parents and partners bereaved after suicide, and supporting people through painful separations. I did a lot of long-term therapy with shattered people and my role was to help them rebuild their lives. I paid close attention to what it was that led some to cope, heal, and ultimately flourish. I saw that people who accepted reality and then changed their perspective and thinking radically for the better - and acted on that - changed their lives radically for the better. People who had tried to kill themselves turned around and built wonderful lives. At the same time my deepest passion was not for life at the extremes, but ordinary life and how people there can do much better. What if I could help people in normal or even good circumstances to transform ourselves that powerfully? I had just spent a decade focused on therapy, and decided it was time to give expression to my other passion: coaching.
Coaching originated from sports and the arts where people try to perform at a high level. Coaching is focused on building, growing, and making great. So it's a natural step to apply this mentality to life, to help people become much better in themselves and to make life great.
As a coach I help people with their problems, and their goals, but the focus is on positive growth. My service is for people who want to work at change. With my background I help my clients do that at both the inner and outer level. To change inwardly is to genuinely change, to change in the most powerful and long-lasting way. And so I work with mindset, and help people translate theirs into courage and action.
A personal growth professional like myself cannot hide behind objective expertise; we have to do the work ourselves. I walk the talk. I have invested a great deal in my own personal growth with wonderful counsellors, therapists, coaches, and philosophers, and I continue to do so. This has transformed my own life, and I'm a very different person to who I was in the past. When I teach practices that help people take control of their thinking, their action, their emotions, and their lives, I'm teaching universal practices which I have become skilled in. I have never been so strong and happy as I am now, I'm able to choose much of how I feel and think, and this has a clear and direct effect on the effectiveness of my work and the way I am present with my clients: I work from a place of deep experience and authenticity.
In 2018 I left Melbourne and bought a mud-brick cottage by a forest in central Victoria (as a further part of my own plan in creating my ideal life). From there I see clients from anywhere in the world by phone and online, but I am also available in-person in Melbourne two days a week.
– Matthew Bishop (MAppSocSci(Couns); BA (Hon); Dip. Prof. Couns.).
I love philosophy for its ability to help us shape a powerful outlook. I have a passion for the theory and practice of mindset. This includes shaping our minds in ways which lead us to face suffering well. But also creating ways of thinking that make good things happen, that lead to a flourishing life. For this reason I decided to become a counsellor and coach, but one who draws deeply on philosophy, to help people develop their mindset in good times and bad to create stronger, better lives.
I became a qualified counsellor and have now practiced for over a decade. Unlike a psychologist who assesses and treats disorders, a counsellor is trained to connect with people and to help them deepen their understanding, motivation, and way forward. In that mode I worked with organisations at some of the darker edges of life, talking people back from bridges, counselling parents and partners bereaved after suicide, and supporting people through painful separations. I did a lot of long-term therapy with shattered people and my role was to help them rebuild their lives. I paid close attention to what it was that led some to cope, heal, and ultimately flourish. I saw that people who accepted reality and then changed their perspective and thinking radically for the better - and acted on that - changed their lives radically for the better. People who had tried to kill themselves turned around and built wonderful lives. At the same time my deepest passion was not for life at the extremes, but ordinary life and how people there can do much better. What if I could help people in normal or even good circumstances to transform ourselves that powerfully? I had just spent a decade focused on therapy, and decided it was time to give expression to my other passion: coaching.
Coaching originated from sports and the arts where people try to perform at a high level. Coaching is focused on building, growing, and making great. So it's a natural step to apply this mentality to life, to help people become much better in themselves and to make life great.
As a coach I help people with their problems, and their goals, but the focus is on positive growth. My service is for people who want to work at change. With my background I help my clients do that at both the inner and outer level. To change inwardly is to genuinely change, to change in the most powerful and long-lasting way. And so I work with mindset, and help people translate theirs into courage and action.
A personal growth professional like myself cannot hide behind objective expertise; we have to do the work ourselves. I walk the talk. I have invested a great deal in my own personal growth with wonderful counsellors, therapists, coaches, and philosophers, and I continue to do so. This has transformed my own life, and I'm a very different person to who I was in the past. When I teach practices that help people take control of their thinking, their action, their emotions, and their lives, I'm teaching universal practices which I have become skilled in. I have never been so strong and happy as I am now, I'm able to choose much of how I feel and think, and this has a clear and direct effect on the effectiveness of my work and the way I am present with my clients: I work from a place of deep experience and authenticity.
In 2018 I left Melbourne and bought a mud-brick cottage by a forest in central Victoria (as a further part of my own plan in creating my ideal life). From there I see clients from anywhere in the world by phone and online, but I am also available in-person in Melbourne two days a week.
– Matthew Bishop (MAppSocSci(Couns); BA (Hon); Dip. Prof. Couns.).
