Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to my website. To those who have arrived here by chance, let me introduce myself. I am a psychologist by profession and have for over four decades been working as a trainer and educator. To those who already know of my work through reading one of my books or attending a workshop or lecture, a warm welcome too.

 

 

A fully updated 40th anniversary edition of the pioneering handbook for female assertiveness – an indispensable guide to stating what you feel and want.

Do you sometimes struggle to state what you want (or don’t want)? Do tricky conversations go wrong? Does it at times seem easier to suffer in silence? This book has the solutions you need.

Despite recent advances in gender equality in education, the workplace and the home, in practice many women and girls still find it a challenge to speak up and be heard. Assertiveness – defined by psychologist and assertiveness trainer Anne Dickson as clear, honest and direct communication – is an art, which can be learned. Instead of being governed by the desire to please – the Compassion Trap – assertiveness teaches us to take charge of our own feelings and behaviour, without blaming others.

 

In her pioneering handbook, now fully updated to mark its 40th anniversary, Dickson draws on her long experience of in-person training to give all women the practical skills and tools we need to assert what we feel and want, manage difficult conversations, avoid being sidetracked by culturally learned behaviours, say ‘No’, and find self-acceptance.


Available early 2026…

The aim of this book is to help make sense of our emotions. A clear and simple guide to an often confusing topic, it clarifies common misunderstandings and anxieties about feelings: do they have to be negative or positive? Is anger dangerous? Is it better not to express what we are feeling so nobody gets hurt? How do I recognise what I am feeling at the time instead of a long time afterwards?