One ride into the unknown—My threshold story.
I'm Dr. Patrick O'Neill.
I guess you could say I’m a Work Psychologist gone rogue.
For over 15 years, I applied the science and principles of psychology to help address one of humanity’s most intractable challenges – underutilized human potential where we spend most of our purposeful lives – at work.
Then I hit a wall.
Humanity was hit with a polycrisis, the world became exponentially more complex and I met the limits of my discipline. It became painfully clear to me that deep, abiding change would require a fundamental shift in human consciousness, cultural frameworks, and our ability to perceive and respond to complexity.
I had a question that psychology couldn’t answer - How do we lead at the threshold?
When the fog of complexity is so thick that we lose our way. When we dis-integrate into a fragment of ourselves. When the knowledge and skills we learned in school fall away.
This one question compelled me to make the most difficult decision of my life – to leave my academic position and the students I loved to embark on a nomadic journey into the unknown.
I sold my stuff, got on a motorcycle, and rode. No timeline. No agenda. One clear intention - to let my intuition and the people I met along the way guide my path.
4 years • 14 countries • countless teachers
Along the way, new ways of seeing, relating and acting in world were unveiled in ordinary moments with ordinary people living from the whole of their being – mind, heart, body, and soul – in service of the whole.
A Buddhist nun in the mountains of Thailand, a pottery maker in Bali, a “motorcycle whisperer” in Big Sur, a sea gypsy in the Philippines, a Shaman in the Brazilian amazon, my own father grappling with dementia, and many more-than-human beings.
I returned convinced that leadership is not a position but a moment-to-moment choice – to live in alignment with who we are at our core and the work that is ours to do. To lead at the threshold is to become an integrated human being.
To cross this threshold, we need a radically different kind of leadership education. One that enables a deeper, expanded awareness - to see beyond the edges of our identity, reawaken dormant capacities, and develop new skills and sensibilities needed to find our way when the map is unclear.
That's what I do now.
I work with leaders and teams who have met their threshold and sense there's a different way to navigate complexity. I curate and facilitate spaces of deep learning and healing for leaders and teams that bring the intellect into coherence, with the sensing, feeling and imaginative capacities that make us fully human.
Organizations I’ve coached or consulted:
Organizations I’ve coached or consulted:
1:1 Coaching
"A new passion has been unveiled in me - connecting my greatest gifts with a great need in my community. I feel a deep sense of connection to my creative capacities, and a sense that I am closer to my purpose."
— Shauna
Leadership Course
"I loved how the course was designed to foster vulnerability. I was able to peel away some of my shell and work through biases and behaviors that weren't serving me."
— Role • Company Name
1:1 Coaching
"Patrick is one of the two most influential individuals that I have experienced in my adult life."
— James
Leadership Course
"This was the most interesting and directly applicable approach to leadership. Absolutely relevant for today's time. The content is empowering and refreshing. Absolutely recommend!"
— Role • Company Name
Curriculum Vitae
Ph.D. Industrial and Organizational Psychology • 2012
Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
M.Psych. (with distinction), Industrial and Organizational (I/O) Psychology • 2002
Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
4th Year Honours (First Class), Industrial and Organizational Psychology • 1998
University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
B.A., Psychology • 1997
University of British Columbia, Canada
Program Director M.A in Organizational Psychology • 2013 – Present
Adler School of Professional Psychology
Industrial and Organizational Psychologist • 2009 – 2013
Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC), Corporate Management Practices and Evaluation
Industrial and Organizational Psychologist • 2003 – 2009
Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC), Personnel Psychology Centre (PPC)
Organizational Development Consulting • 2002 – Present
Led organizational change and development initiatives with the following public and private clients focusing on employee engagement, corporate culture, and organizational restructuring.
Strategic Human Resource Management Consulting • 2002 – Present
Provided consulting services to the following international organizations in the areas of competency modeling, employee recruitment, personnel selection, training and development, succession planning, and performance management.
Executive Coaching and Leadership Development • 2002 – Present
Provide leadership coaching services and experiential retreats to public and private sector clients as part of my private practice.
Corporate Training • 2003 – Present
Provide leadership coaching services and experiential retreats to public and private sector clients as part of my private practice.
Associate Faculty, Royal Roads University • 2019 - 2023
Program Director M.A in Organizational Psychology • 2013 – 2019
Contract Instructor, I/O Psychology 3105 • 2012
Guest Lecturer, I/O Psychology, HR Management, Research Methods • 2006 - 2012
Guest Lecturer, I/O Psychology • 2002 - 2004
The influence of positive affect, meaningful work and employee engagement on individual well-being and organizational performance.
The psychosocial dynamics of job insecurity and corporate restructuring.
The meaning and measurement of corporate social justice, corporate social responsibility, and workplace spirituality.
Skilled in robust measurement validation procedures, longitudinal panel designs using structural equation modelling (SEM), and advanced meta-analytic techniques.
Universities I’ve lectured at:
Universities I’ve lectured at:
Non-profits I’ve partnered with:
Non-profits I’ve partnered with: