Mental Health Awareness

Ann McCracken

Wellbeing and Stress Management Consultant

Ann is an experienced and highly successful scientist, educationalist, speaker, writer, trainer, coach and therapist. She specialises in developing positive and resilient work cultures in organisations through effective performance and wellbeing strategies. An employee wellbeing expert, her post-graduate published research in immunology has given her great insight into the recently publicised topic of psycho-neuro-immunology which explores and explains the interactions and impact of stress, wellbeing, mental toughness, optimism and resilience. In her book, Stress Gremlins (2005), Ann demystifies the word ‘stress’ and takes a down to earth approach to dealing with life’s everyday hassles, offering new insights into managing stress and a dynamic approach to tackling the challenges on a much broader, accessible scale.

Ann was a research scientist for ten years and, after teaching, began working as a coach and therapist in 1998. Since then she has built a wealth of experience as a consultant and has become a highly sought after speaker and chair for conferences, including chairing the Symposium Wellbeing and Stress Summit for the last five years. Her extensive work delivering training now includes two new and exciting Symposium workshops on mental health awareness and personal and organisational wellbeing and resilience.

Ann is the current vice-president and former chair of the International Stress Management Association (ISMA), a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster and a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Institute of Biology. She holds a BSc in biology and MSc in immunology from the University of Edinburgh, both with honours, and is an associate member of the Royal College of Pathology.