Boarding School & Our Leaders

Today I will be updating you on the latest progress of the new film project that I have undertaken. Below I will be giving some updates and some background into why I am so passionate about this film about boarding school, our leaders and how it impacts society.

1. The Backstory 2002-2022 - The Idea for The Film is Born

For those of you who know my journey and my work, you will know that I have spent nearly 20 years studying, doing self-healing, and researching the work of Nick Duffell and Joy Schaverien and their ideas around boarding school syndrome and boarding school survivors.

For those of you who don't know this story, here is a brief synopsis... After a breakdown while working in the financial sector in London and Paris in the 00s I eventually found myself in a Buddhist monastery in 2002.

While living as a Novice Buddhist monk, aged 26, I was handed Nick's book, The Making of Them, which is about boarding school syndrome. I finally understood why I was struggling as much as I was. Boarding school. What had happened at school had deeply impacted me. The journey of recovery began.

After leaving the monastery in 2005 I began studying different modalities and in 2006 began work as a coach and a therapist. In 2015 after sharing on Youtube my boarding school journey, ex-boarders started to reach out to me asking me to work with them. I began to work nearly exclusively with male ex-boarders from that time until now.

At the beginning of 2022 I started to join the puzzle pieces together. I knew first hand how boarding school had impacted myself and other ex-boarders: anxiety, struggle with emotional intelligence, a disconnection from vulnerability, difficulties in intimate relationship, workaholism, addictions and many other traits.

Through listening to Joy Schaverien speak at a conference last year and through reading many books I started to realise just how many well-known leaders in the media, politics, business and the military went to boarding school. I started to wonder what the impact of having leaders who had had to survive at boarding school might have on the rest of society.

Could any of the current issues around the environment, the cost of living crisis, or the energy crisis have anything to do with trauma? With the upbringing of our leaders?

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2. The Idea For The Film

So this is the inspiration of this film.

Could any of the current issues have anything to do with trauma?

And especially the fact that our many of our leaders have had to survive as children in boarding school?

More and more are speaking up about the impact of trauma and our current global issues.

Christiana Figueres, who worked for the UN Climate Control, is spoken about in this article by Matthew Green: "Figueres is among those who argue that the industrialized world’s failure to mount a meaningful response to climate change is itself a symptom of collective trauma, rooted in patterns of exploitation handed down over generations." (Matt will be appearing on my podcast this week to speak on this subject).

Could part of this collective trauma be from the education our elites have been through?

Nick Duffell argues that yes, boarding school creates specific traits that make them poor leaders, outlined in his book Wounded Leaders.

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3. The Outline of the Film

The film will be split into four parts. In these 4 parts we will be interweaving my own story of boarding school and recovery to help to bring some context into what the specialists will be talking about.

Part 1: How does boarding school impact a child?

Part 2: What are the impacts of boarding school on an adult ex-boarder?

Part 3: How does this education affect our leaders and what is the impact on the rest of the world?

Part 4: And what are the solutions?

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4. The Team Involved in The Film

So far we have a great team involved in the film.

Ben Cole, the director and film-maker, will be working as the director. Ben, was involved in the film, 1 Giant Leap, which featured the music of Faithless, and many luminaries speak about the universal themes of life. Ben was also involved with Bruce Parry in the film Tawai.

Simon Hinkly, who has joined as an executive producer, has been involved in the film industry and TV since the 60s mainly as a first assistant director. Simon has a great passion for telling stories that have a big impact on the world.

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5. What Has Happened So Far

The plan is that in order to raise funds to get this film made we realise that we will need to create a promo.

This promo will last 3-5 minutes and will work as a trailer that we can show potential funders and commissioning editors.

We would like to do some crowdfunding in the Spring of 2023 and the promo will help to support that.

So far we have created a pitch deck for the film. And we have started to film.

In September the team of us went to film Nick Duffell in London. And in a few weeks in November we will be returning to London to film Joy Schaverien.

The work will then begin on filling in the gaps of the promo - filming footage and making the promo.

6. How You Can Help

What would be great is if you can think of friends, family or colleagues who might want to support the film being made to share this article or share this page with them. You can also sign up just below.

Once we have a promo then it would be great to have your help in spreading the word - sharing it, and letting others know. This will probably be in Spring 2023.

I feel that the film at the beginning will be word of mouth so your support will be most needed.

Thank you so much for your support.


Many blessings,


Piers