I’m Peter W. I came to this work by an unusual route.
Independent mental health advocate, author, and the founder of Mental Understanding.
Twenty years of building things
For twenty years I worked as an architectural technician and designer, on commercial projects and for homeowners: loft conversions, extensions, kitchens, new builds. I was formerly an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists.
That career taught me how to take a vague, messy brief and turn it into something ordered and buildable — to know what’s load-bearing and what’s decoration, and to see where things fail first. I didn’t know then that it was training for the most important project of my life.
Raising my son
I’m a single father. I raised my son on my own, and he has high-level ADHD. No textbook fitted the boy in front of me, so I learned by doing.
What worked wasn’t trying to make him think differently. It was giving him order — a system, a pattern to follow, an outside structure he could lean on until he could manage himself from the inside.
Everything I write here comes from that practical experience, backed by the reading, the training and the research that followed.
Why this site exists
So much mental health information is either too clinical to use or too vague to trust. I wanted something in between: real research, explained in plain English, so you can understand your own mind, and the minds of the people around you, a little better.
Most days I take a newly published study on anxiety, depression, ADHD, sleep, loneliness, or the way screens and the news affect us, and write it up in full — what the researchers found, what the findings can’t tell us, and what you might try next. Every piece links back to its source so you can check the evidence yourself.
What Mental Understanding does
Mental Understanding started as a place to put what I was learning, and it has grown into something with a clearer purpose: making mental health information usable by ordinary people, in the middle of ordinary weeks. Not clinical language that needs a translator, and not wellness slogans that fall apart the moment you try to act on them.
The writing here is the heart of it. Alongside it, the work falls into three strands. There are practical guides and resources — the observation diaries, routines and reading systems I used with my own son, written down so another parent doesn’t have to invent them from scratch. There are talks and workshops on anxiety, low mood, sleep, screens and ADHD, written for people who aren’t clinicians: parents, teachers, managers, colleagues. And there is signposting, which matters as much as the rest.
On that last point I want to be plain. I’m not a therapist and I don’t offer treatment or diagnosis. What I do is explain, organise and point — towards your GP, towards NHS Talking Therapies, towards the charities and services that are qualified to help. Knowing where to go, and feeling able to go, is often the step people get stuck on.
Working together
I’m based in Milton Keynes, and I’m particularly interested in working with people here: schools and colleges wanting something honest to give students and staff, employers thinking seriously about the pressure their people are under, and community groups running support on very little money. If that’s you, I’d like to hear from you — whether it’s a talk, a set of resources, or simply a conversation about what would actually help.
Get in touch
You can email me at mentalunderstanding@gmail.com, or use the form below — it comes straight to the same inbox. I read everything, and I answer as quickly as I reasonably can.
Please don’t send anything urgent through this page. If you need help now, call your GP, NHS 111, or Samaritans on 116 123 — free, any time of day or night.
Thank you for your response. ✨
Training
- Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills (2025)
- Mental Health First Aid & Advocacy in the Workplace (2021)
- Safeguarding and Prevent (2024)
- Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties (2021)
- Understanding Behaviour that Challenges (2021)
Books & Resources
Finding a Way Through
How our thoughts shape our experience, and practical ways to lift your mental state. Kindle, paperback, hardcover, audio.
The Mind’s Hidden Potential
How the human mind is put together, with techniques for developing your own ability. Kindle, paperback, hardcover, audio.
Understanding Anxiety and Depression
How anxiety and depression show up at every age, the biology behind them, and what helps. Coming soon.
What this site is, and isn’t
Everything here is for education and understanding. It isn’t medical advice, and it isn’t a substitute for talking to your GP or a qualified professional.
If you’re struggling: speak to your GP or call NHS 111. Samaritans: 116 123, any time. In an emergency: 999.
