Dr. Barbara Mariposa

Barbara is a medical doctor, thought leader and educator in the fields of leadership, performance and wellness, for organisations and their staff. The Presence Pyramid is the simple, powerful model she created in collaboration with Dr. Andy Parsons, as the culmination of years of experience working in the fields of emotional intelligence, leadership, mindful self-awareness and mental health.

The book, Leading with Presence, arose from their mutual desire to make this model widely available as a tool for leaders, coaches, managers, health care professionals and everyone who works with people. It forms the basis of their work supporting organisations in making the most of their people, through effective, collaborative alliances, intelligent, values-based management, and aligned, productive communication.

One of the challenges of co-authoring a book is to find a common voice, and to make sure that what is written has integrity and authenticity for both parties. In order to achieve this, Barbara and Andy used the very tools they were writing about, to succeed in creating a product that is greater than the sum of the parts either of them could have created individually.

Barbara qualified from the Royal Free in London in 1978, having also obtained a B.Sc. in psychology, and went on to work in the fields of psychiatry and public health. She has since been pursuing her life-long passion to find the most effective answers to some fundamental questions. “How do we create working environments that foster emotional, mental and physical wellbeing?” “What human qualities best allow people and businesses to flourish and grow?” “How can we enable people at the top to lead most effectively in terms of both the people and the business?”

Barbara’s powerful and pioneering programme, Mind Mood Mastery, is based on the neuroscience of human energy management, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. Having also trained and worked as an actor, she makes the most of her broad skills base, to support leaders in performing to best of their ability, in terms of a) optimising their most precious resource, their energy, b) authentically connecting with others and expressing themselves c) maximising integrity, influence and impact.

She wrote “The Mindfulness Playbook”, published by Hodder and Stoughton, and co-authored “The Kindness Habit: transforming our relationship to addictive behaviours,” with Christopher Dines. Barbara combines her love of the arts, music and literature with a passion for spreading a scientific understanding of how human work best, as the basis of humane, successful organisational cultures.