Aaron Balick

Why organisations work with Aaron Balick

• He sits at an uncommon intersection: clinical psychotherapy experience, a former directorship of the MA in Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, and a foundational book on the psychology of social media that is still cited in practitioner and academic literature.
• His media record gives audiences a speaker whose voice they already know: longest-serving mental health agony uncle on BBC Radio 1’s The Surgery, alongside regular appearances on BBC Radio 4’s Digital Human and The Moral Maze.
• His published writing runs from serious academic work to accessible self-help, which lets him move between main-stage keynote and in-depth workshop without dropping register.
• As founder and former CEO of Stillpoint Spaces, the international applied-psychology hub he built across London, Paris, Berlin and Zurich, he developed his reading of digital life from inside an operating organisation, not only from a consulting desk.
• His framing of AI and social media is psychological rather than technical, which is exactly the angle most executive teams are missing when making decisions about generative AI and platform strategy.

Biography highlights

• Founder and former CEO of Stillpoint Spaces, an international applied-psychology hub formerly with locations in London, Paris, Berlin and Zurich
• Former director of the MA in Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex; continues as associate post-graduate supervisor in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
• Psychotherapist in private practice in London, with over 20 years of clinical experience
• Author of The Psychodynamics of Social Networking (Karnac), The Little Book of Calm and Keep Your Cool
• Longest-serving mental health agony uncle on BBC Radio 1’s The Surgery
• Regular BBC Radio 4 contributor; published in Wired, The Guardian, The Independent and Newsweek

Biography

The Psychodynamics of Social Networking, published by Karnac Books, remains one of the most widely cited practitioner texts on how the platforms senior leaders are now running their strategies through actually affect the people using them. Aaron Balick wrote it at a point when most commentary on social media was still either evangelical or dismissive, and the book set the register for a more serious psychological reading of digital life.

His work sits at the seam between clinical practice and public commentary. He has maintained a private psychotherapy practice in London for more than two decades, trained in depth psychology and psychoanalysis, and formerly directed the MA in Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, where he continues as an associate post-graduate supervisor in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies. The applied side of that work ran through Stillpoint Spaces, the international applied-psychology hub he founded and led across London, Paris, Berlin and Zurich.

The media presence anchors him inside a mainstream audience. He was the longest-serving mental health agony uncle on BBC Radio 1’s The Surgery and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Digital Human and The Moral Maze. His writing has appeared in Wired, The Guardian, The Independent and Newsweek. Alongside his academic book, he has published two accessible titles, The Little Book of Calm and the children’s book Keep Your Cool.

For organisations making senior decisions about generative AI, platform strategy, employee wellbeing or customer engagement, Balick brings something their technology advisers do not: a trained clinical reading of what digital experience actually does to the people on the other side of it. That perspective is increasingly what the better boards want on the table.

Key speaking topics

• Psychology of social media, AI and digital connectivity
• Digital wellbeing and hyperconnectivity at work
• The psychologically intelligent workplace
• Personal leadership and authenticity
• Mental health in technology-mediated environments
• Ethics and psychology of generative AI

Ideal for

• Executive teams and boards making decisions on AI deployment, platform strategy or digital customer experience
• CHROs, wellbeing leads and chief people officers designing mental health and engagement strategy
• Technology, media and platform leadership teams looking for a psychological voice on product and user impact
• Conferences and leadership events needing a media-recognised speaker who can connect AI, wellbeing and culture

Audience outcomes

• A working psychological framework for understanding social-media and AI effects on people and behaviour
• Specific implications for wellbeing, engagement and customer experience strategy
• A clearer language for the ethical questions senior teams are quietly asking about generative AI
• Reference material from The Psychodynamics of Social Networking and his BBC contributions for internal follow-up