I'm Dr Neil Drew, a clinical psychologist who happens to spend a lot of time running.
Clinical expertise
Decades of clinical practice working with identity, pressure, burnout, mental health and performance. HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologist (DClinPsych, CPsychol, MSc, BSc Hons).
Lived endurance
Thousands of miles spent on roads and trails, from 5Ks to ultras and backyard events. Years spent building businesses, navigating pressure, exhaustion and the complicated relationship between endurance and identity.
Thoughtful conversations
Long-form dialogue that values honesty, reflection and depth over noise.
Sustainable change
Psychologically informed sessions rooted in real life, lived experience and evidence-based practice.
Why Third Wind?
For years, my work as a Clinical Psychologist has centred around helping people navigate pressure, exhaustion, identity, anxiety, burnout and the weight of trying to keep everything together.
Much of that work has been deeply meaningful. But over time, I found myself increasingly drawn toward a different kind of conversation, one that sat somewhere between psychology, endurance, performance and the quieter realities people often carry beneath competence.
Alongside clinical work, running and endurance became an important part of my own life. Not simply as sport, but as a way of managing my own wellbeing and energy system, and also understanding persistence, discomfort, and striving.
The longer I worked with people, and the longer I pushed myself, the more I noticed a pattern.
Some of the people struggling the most were often the people functioning the best on the surface.
People who are highly capable, highly driven and deeply responsible often become very skilled at enduring, but much less skilled at recognising when the cost of that endurance is becoming too high – with the enduring turning to suffering.
At the same time, I found myself increasingly disconnected from parts of the traditional clinical model. The structure of therapy, the volume of assessments, the reports, the constant pressure to stay within neat professional boxes, it all began to feel further away from the kinds of conversations I actually wanted to have.
The conversations that interested me most were often the ones sitting underneath performance.
Questions around identity.
Meaning.
Pressure.
Self-worth.
Burnout.
Persistence.
Why some people keep going when everything in them wants to stop. And what happens when achievements or goals no longer feels enough.
Third Wind grew slowly from that intersection.
Part endurance.
Part psychology.
Part conversation.
Part reflection.
A space to explore the psychology underneath endurance and the realities of being human in a world that often rewards people for ignoring their limits.
Today, Third Wind exists through coaching, conversations, reflections and psychologically informed support for people navigating endurance, performance, transition, burnout and life beyond constant striving.
The name comes from the idea that sometimes there is another layer beyond the point we thought we were done - not just physically, but psychologically too.
And perhaps more importantly, that there is value in understanding what kept us going in the first place.
Dr Neil Drew could not have been more helpful, reassuring and professional in the assessment process. He is able to put you at such ease in order for you to relax and allow you to open up about and explore your past.