Kathleen Saxton was repossessed out of her family home at 11. By 40 she was running C-suite headhunting at The Lighthouse Company. She trained as a psychotherapist along the way and now argues boards have governance for cash, finance and risk, and none at all for behaviour.

In an hour with James Kirkham she walks through the memoir she wrote on domestic abuse and the lawyer she hired to defend it; the flute teacher Norman Blow who took her on after she got a clean note out of the mouthpiece on her second try; the safe-cracking interview method she used to read C-suite candidates at Lighthouse; the candidate's story that pushed her to enrol at Regent's University; what private equity buyers and founders are actually doing to each other after the deal closes; "human remains" wellbeing post-COVID, and the executive whose chair refused him half an hour off a board to dial into a friend's funeral; AI as triage versus AI as treatment; what covert narcissism actually looks like, the dark tetrad, and the moment her ex-fiancé asked if she was wearing that to the wedding; lobbying the BACP and UKCP to add narcissism as a search specialism; the difference between what UK and US guests will say on tape; and the Felix Dennis answer she keeps thinking about.

Chapters :

(00:00) Cold open and intro

(01:30) The memoir her lawyer warned her not to publish

(03:30) Repossessed at 11: shame, sofas and two gerbils

(07:30) Sweet tooth and 'don't be a Coca-Cola bottle'

(10:30) Cracking the safe: how she read C-suite candidates

(14:00) The interview that sent her to train as a therapist

(21:00) Founders, private equity and the wellbeing mask

(25:30) AI in therapy and in the boardroom

(30:30) No governance for behaviour

(33:00) Narcissism: grandiose, covert and the dark tetrad

(39:30) Writing the book and training other therapists

(47:30) What's next: live radio, a documentary, accessibility

"I can't bear the thought that someone can't be helped." — Kathleen Saxton

Mentioned in this episode

• My Parent the Peacock — Kathleen Saxton (book, on narcissistic parents)

• Endless — Kathleen Saxton (forthcoming memoir)

• DSM-5 — American Psychiatric Association (the diagnostic manual Kathleen references on cluster B and the nine narcissism traits)

• Billions — Showtime (the Wendy character as house psychologist)

• Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over — BBC (cited as the format Kathleen would borrow for a narcissism documentary)

• This Morning — ITV (Kathleen's regular phone-in slot)

• The Lighthouse Company — C-suite executive search firm Kathleen founded

• Psyched Ventures — Kathleen's clinical-psychology-into-business venture

• Sky, Global, Omnicom — Kathleen's prior media and advertising posts

• Regent's University, London — where she trained as a psychotherapist

• The Priory — psychiatric placement during training

• BACP and UKCP — UK psychotherapy accrediting bodies; Kathleen successfully lobbied for narcissism as a search specialism

• Felix Dennis — publisher; the "I forgot to get married" anecdote

• Bruce Daisley — interviewer in the Dennis story

• Matt Shetna — co-founder with Kathleen of Advertising Week Europe

• Ronnie Scott's, London — venue of the Dennis interview

• Cambridge Analytica — referenced via the whistleblower lawyer Kathleen hired

About Kathleen Saxton

Kathleen Saxton spent three decades at Sky, Global and Omnicom and founded the C-suite headhunters The Lighthouse Company. She is a qualified psychotherapist with rooms in London and New York and a co-founder of Psyched Ventures. My Parent the Peacock hit Amazon category number one. Endless is forthcoming.

Listen elsewhere

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/storyco/id1886770413 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast

Website: https://www.storyco.site

Follow: @StoryCoPodcast

Credits

Host: James Kirkham

Guest: Kathleen Saxton

Producer: Jago Lee

Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt

Editor: Ryan O'Meera

Music: Doubt Point

Recorded at TYX Studios, Kings Cross, London