Pittwater Life December 2020 Issue

Books
Local’s grey matter
guide to self help
Bayview resident, psychotherapist, executive coach and author Gail
Pemberton’s new self-help book Your Brain – Friend and Foe provides
practical information for understanding how our brains are wired and
how this knowledge can help us to reach our full potential.
Books
Q: When and why did you start to
write?
I started writing financial reports with
my first full-time job in London, after
university. We then moved to South
Africa for five years and I became a
financial journalist. It was many years
later after I had retrained
as a psychotherapist that
I felt inspired to write my
first book You Can Live
with Anyone, well Almost.
I felt this information was
so important for everyone
who wanted to improve
their relationships,
because it had made such
a radical difference to my
life. It came on the back
of all I had learnt and my
experience of working
with hundreds of people,
from heads of industry to
people mandated by the
courts. I subsequently wrote The Brain’s
Business Psychology & Neuroscience for
Exceptional Leadership, which is geared
to the corporate market.
Q: What inspired you to write Your
Brain – Friend and Foe?
Many of us do not understand simple
basic psychology and tend to selfsabotage
almost daily, with our negative
thoughts and our projections. We
are not taught this information and
it largely stops us achieving our full
potential. I want people to have the
awareness so they can take back some
control to live more fulfilling lives.
Q: What can readers expect to learn?
Understanding in a very
simple way how the
brain is wired, how it
evolved and how it tries
to protect us. While our
brain is our greatest
protector, it can and
does sabotage us in the
process… it is a strange
conundrum. Knowing
this information can
really help us stop
negatively impacting
so many of our
relationships and our
lives.
Q: When did you write it and how did it
come to be published?
I started this about three years ago
knowing I wanted it to be a really
easy read with lots of examples and
cartoons to illustrate what I am saying.
I don’t really have a disciplined writing
approach but when I know what I want
to write, after doing the reading and
research, I write whenever I get the time
and because the urge is strong, I don’t
hang around. To get published, I wrote
to several publishers both here and
overseas, and Kharis Publishing (USA)
were keen to publish.
Q: Any interesting or surprising
feedback from readers?
Many people have no idea of the power
of our magnificent brains but 95% of
the information it processes is out
of our conscious awareness – a fairly
scary thought! We need to understand
more and know how to stop our brains
hijacking us.
Q: What are you working on now?
I’m working on The Energy That
Connects Us, putting together a more
personal story that illustrates how at an
unconscious level, beliefs influence you
and impact who you are, often without
our knowledge. We all read others’
energy but don’t necessarily bring it up
to consciousness. When we do, life is
easier.
– Lisa Offord
* Gail’s book is available through
Amazon and some local bookstores.
54 DECEMBER 2020
The Local Voice Since 1991