Professor David Collins

Professional statement

Professor David Collins is a highly experienced chartered psychologist based in London. He is lead performance psychologist at HOOKE London, a highly innovative lifestyle medicine and longevity research centre. He specialises in performance and counselling psychology as well as coaching. He is also a leading expert in psychophysiology, anxiety and depression.

After more than a decade in military service with the Royal Marines and UK Land Forces, Professor Collins qualified with a bachelor’s degree in education from Brunel University London in 1980. Whilst teaching as a visiting professor, he undertook a master’s in sports psychology at Penn State University, USA before returning to the UK to complete a post graduate diploma in counselling at Swansea University. In 1990, he was also awarded a PhD in psychology from the University of Surrey. He is recognised by the British Association of Sports and Exercises Sciences (BASES) as an accredited sports scientist, including high performance pursuits. He is also accredited by the British Psychological Society as a chartered psychologist and scientist and was additionally elected as an associate fellow of the society in 2009.

Professor Collins has extensive experience in high-level coaching, having worked with over eighty Olympians, world medallists and performers throughout his career. He is a former programme director of UK Athletics and led the country’s best athletes to success at the 2008 Beijing Olympics amongst other international events. He has coached to a national level in three different sports and has been director of the Rugby Coaches Association since 2013. He has also lead Grey Matters, a team of specialists who combine academic research with second-to-none performance coaching, as director since 2003.

Combined with his wealth of clinical experience in coaching and performance psychology, Professor Collins is a highly esteemed academic researcher in his field and has authored more than four hundred peer reviewed papers and eighty books and book chapters. He has held the position of professorial fellow in human performance science at the University of Edinburgh since 2019 and was previously professor of coaching and performance at the University of Central Lancashire for ten years. His excellence has been recognised throughout his career with numerous awards, including a distinguished contribution career award from the British Psychological Society’s sport and exercise division, which he received in 2013.

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