Ep68: Peter Quarry, Psychologist, Media Presenter & Writer

Today my guest is Peter Quarry, a psychologist, media presenter and writer. In this episode, we find out about Peter’s early life and upbringing living between Australia, Germany, and other parts of Europe, his burning urge to be an actor, further studies in law, psychology and philosophy, his professional practice as a psychologist and counsellor, and forty years as a corporate training and development presenter and video producer. Peter shares his life highlights: being a presenter for several years on the popular live national television program ‘Good Morning Australia’, dropping LSD, and marrying his husband. We discuss adaptability, resilience, and constructive feedback. Peter shares his reflective self-dialog - in the form of writing and answering letters to different aspects of himself, switching hats and perspectives between Pete and PQ – in correspondence. This approach, based on an established therapeutic technique, informed his recently published psychological memoir ‘If I were you: A psychologist puts himself on the couch’. We also chat about delivering effective training workshops, engaging with an audience, the role of silence, and how to improve an educational video. Peter offers tips and advice on scripting, performance, practicality, purpose, addressing a learning need and generally moving away from ‘death by PowerPoint’ approaches with large amounts of text on screen. Peter emphasises the importance of humility, connections and networks, the value of trying out new things outside of your comfort zone and having an approach to life that’s energised and full of self-awareness and ongoing learning. Links: https://www.peterquarry.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterquarry/