Harry is an experienced medical doctor who qualified in 1976 and has worked as a senior GP within the Irish Health System for over thirty-five years. He has a long-standing interest in mental health especially the management of anxiety, depression and toxic stress, as well as the prevention of suicide.
He is especially interested in the concept of emotional resilience and how developing skills in this area could transform our mental health. He has developed a holistic approach with an emphasis on the combination of Neuroscience concepts, lifestyle changes and drug therapy with the application of simple CBT approaches to effectively manage these approaches. He retired from general practice in 2013 to focus solely on mental health. He now works on a consultancy basis, combining clinics, writing, media and public information lectures, as well as assisting fellow GPs, nurses and therapists, with lectures and workshops. He is a member of an international group of experts exploring how best to measure cognition in depression.
He has written extensively on the subject and his Flag series of books have been widely read by professional and lay people interested in the area. His 6th book on Anxiety and Panic got to number one in the best–seller nonfiction list in Ireland. It offers a novel approach to combining Neuroscience concepts with CBT to assist people eliminate or learn to deal with panic attacks, phobias, social anxiety and general anxiety.
He is a regular contributor to national press and media and is a monthly contributor to the Sean O’ Rourke show for almost four years. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Psychiatry and former Board member of the national depression group Aware.