About WyrdWise

wyrdwise (pronounced either as "wheredwaiz", "wordwaiz", or "weerdwaiz"!) is a play on words, emphasising the importance of language in communicating ideas and shaping thinking and also paying tribute to the idea that our lives are guided by both individual choices and events outside of our control but hopefully having a perceptible pattern or harmony.

So being wyrdwise is about trying to do things differently. A synthesis of consensus-based science and individual-focused intuitive/experiential approaches, valuing both for the points where they come together, and the points where they diverge. Understanding that science and subjectivity, self and other, person and planet are all continua, needing a variety of approaches to explore their full range, with different insights being gained from different perspectives.

What this means is that how we explore our inner worlds — our minds, our individual experiences — can often require different techniques to those used to explore our outer worlds — the places in which we live and work. Yet those worlds aren't separate: events in each have reflections and reverberations in the others. Where we are changes who we are; our emotions and expectations change how we perceive things; the state of our planet has a profound effect on the state of our minds.

By offering therapeutic approaches, reflective/spiritual practices, and lecturing/consultancy work, wyrdwise offers you new ways to experience your worlds, to help you better understand how you fit in and make sense of it all, and to bring about the changes you want to see.

Based in the beautiful Shetland Islands, wyrdwise is run by Paul Stevens, PhD Psychology (Edinburgh), BSc.Hons Astronomy (UCL), Certificate in Ecopsychology (University of Strathclyde/CHE), Hypnotherapy in Practice Diploma (NCH/NCFE), Diploma in Hypnotherapy & Psychotherapy (ACMH), Certificate in Clinical Hypnosis (Brief Strategic Therapy Foundation, London), Certificate in Stress Management (ACMH).

Photo of Paul Stevens

Paul has a background in science (Astronomy, Parapsychology, Physiology, Psychology, Environmental Sustainability) with 28 years of experience as a researcher and lecturer in academia. He was a Research Fellow with the Koestler Parapsychology Unit, University of Edinburgh for 10 years, as well as holding Senior Lectureships at the University of Bournemouth, Derby University, the Open University, and the Centre for Alternative Technology. He has been a Director of Ethics with the National Council for Hypnotherapy and a Director/Trustee of the Centre for Human Ecology. He has long been interested in the gulf between scientific and subjective worlds, and experiences which might help bridge the gap: altered states of consciousness, shamanic practices, and everyday acts of creativity.