I dreamt up the idea of The Travel Psychologist sitting in a sunny square in Funchal, with a coffee and pastel de nata. It was June 2021 and a bizarre time. The covid-19 pandemic was still ongoing and the UK government had mandated that the only country Brits could visit was Portugal. So here I was in Madeira.

Burned out from my NHS role, I needed a project that would help to recharge my curiosity and creativity. I loved travel and I believe strongly in the transformative effect it can have. So I thought the psychology of travel would be a good place to start.

I started writing as soon as I got home. It flowed naturally as if it were meant to be. They say that if your first blog post is good then you’ve started too late. I think that was the case; the first article remains one of our most popular in terms of views and engagement time.

Researching the travel and psychology space, I noted that there is very little research in this area and the information out there is not always well informed or trustworthy. As psychologists we have an academic and research background as well as being practicing clinicians. This puts us in a good position to provide credible information and advice.

BUT I couldn’t do it alone. I knew that bringing other psychologists on board would bring different expertise, perspectives and experiences. Having a team would provide richer information and increase our impact. So, I reached out, and in the first few months Dr Jill and Dr Nicola joined the team. And just like that the Travel Psychologist was created.

Naturally our content has evolved over time and we’ve become clearer about what we want to do and why. The most common feedback we get is that people find our content ‘helpful’, ‘interesting’ and occasionally ‘inspiring’. This reflects what we are trying to achieve. We believe that credible information and advice doesn’t have to be boring. We encourage our contributors to bring in their experience as well as their professional expertise, because learning from experience is what makes life interesting.