Stephen May is a teacher, film-maker, psychologist and certified therapist.
His career has followed twin paths: creative work as a storyteller (theatre, film, TV), and the use of story in therapeutic settings (work with traumatised children, survivors from civil wars, and on outreach programmes with organisations such as the British Film Institute).
Stephen May founded The Screen Arts Institute in 2011 with a group of like-minded colleagues, determined to champion diverse story voices, working in London, in Europe and in the United States. His mentees and colleagues have won many Oscars and BAFTAs and broken box office records.
At the same time, he and associates were developing Story-Guided Therapy initiatives to address the ever-growing mental health challenges of young (and not-so-young) people in the United Kingdom and abroad. This work has led to the formation of the Institute for Story-Guided Therapy (SGT) and Mentoring which has drawn together an extraordinary team of gifted and passionate colleagues who straddle the worlds of creativity, personal development and mental health provision. The Institute provides Clinical Foundation training in SGT for existing therapists, teachers and mental health workers, and promotes SGT initiatives to schools, universities, parents, business and individuals.
Stephen is strongly influenced by a nomadic life, particularly in childhood - he was brought up in East Germany, Libya, Scotland, England, Dubai (when it was just desert) and Saudi Arabia. As an adult he has worked all over the world, including Spain, Central America, the United States and in the Middle East. He attended 14 schools, at last count, and was only thrown out of 1. He has a couple of degrees from the University of Oxford and has taught there - but has learned much more from his three children and being gently beaten-up by life on a regular basis. He and colleagues profoundly believe in a glass-half full approach to even the most challenging of circumstances - and continue to be amazed by the ability of humans to rise out of "impossible" challenges, stronger than ever.
