Steve Peters (psychiatrist)

After graduating as a doctor he undertook several positions within hospitals and institutions across the UK in disciplines of surgery, medicine, general practice and various branches of psychiatry. He gained his membership exams for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and became a Consultant psychiatrist within the National Health Service, where he worked for twenty years.[2] During this time he was Clinical Director of Bassetlaw District General Hospital[2] and worked at the Special Hospital at Rampton working with patients with personality disorders.[3]

In parallel to his hospital clinical work he worked at Sheffield University as a Senior Clinical Lecturer in medicine where he became Undergraduate Dean [4] and Professor of Psychiatry (positions which he still currently holds as of 2015).

During his time at the University he gained a master's degree in Medical Education, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Sports Medicine and was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine. Peters set a precedent by being bestowed the Senate award for teaching excellence on two occasions, still a unique achievement, and represented the University at a meeting to celebrate teaching excellence at Downing Street. Peters set up the mentoring system for student support within the medical school and led on this for several years.

In 2001 a former student at Sheffield recommended Peters to the British Cycling team, and he moved from part-time to full-time work with the team in 2005.[5] Peters has been recognised by Olympic cyclists Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton, as having helped them in their careers.[6] Sir Dave Brailsford has described Peters as "the best appointment I've ever made."[7] Peters stepped down from his role with British Cycling in April 2014 when Brailsford left his position as Performance Director.[8]

Peters has worked with Ronnie O'Sullivan since 2011 working with him when he won his 4th and 5th World Snooker Championships in 2012 and 2013.[9] O'Sullivan has acknowledged Peters' influence and help in his continued success.[10]

After the 2012 Olympics Peters was appointed by UK Athletics to work with the country's high performance athletes.[11] Sprinter Adam Gemili, who won gold at the 2014 European Athletics Championships in the 200 metres and silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the 100 metres, attributed his ability to perform under pressure at major championships to his work with Peters.[12]

In November 2012 Peters started to work with Liverpool F.C.[13] In March 2014 he was recruited to help the England football team.[14]

Peters first book, The Chimp Paradox, was published in January 2012 and has since gone on to sell 615,000 copies in the UK (as of 31 March 2019).[15] In the book Peters uses his 'Chimp Model' to depict the irrational, emotional areas of the brain as a chimp and the logical areas as a human.[6]

Released in November 2018, My Hidden Chimp , is an educational children's book written to help children understand and manage their emotions.[16] It has sold over 50,000 copies (as of 24 February 2019).[17]

Released in November 2018 as a companion book to My Hidden Chimp, the book is aimed at adults, to help them understand their own mind and to support their children reading My Hidden Chimp.[16]