Executive & Team Coach | Leadership consultant | Researcher
Espen's passion is to be a change agent for organizations and individuals in terms of being a coach, researcher, and psychotherapist. Guiding adaptive processes, he focuses on increasing clients' ability to create culture, and cultivate curative/transformative relationships. He works as a team & executive coach/consultant and also supervises other executive coaches.
He has taught at university level since 2011, supervised several Master students, and is a regular presenter at global conferences. If you are a student interested in collaborating on your master thesis (hovedoppgave ved UiO), then click here to examine a list of possible projects.
Espen has worked as a consultant at Human Content (working with personality and ability assessment) and AS3, and has regularily coached executives since 2018.
From 2014 to 2022 he was Head of Quality Lab for Psychotherapy at The Norwegian National Advisory Unit. This lab primarily measured adherence and quality of Mentalization-based treatment (MBT), an evidence-based treatment for borderline personality disorder. In 2020 he co-authored a book on MBT at Gyldendal with Professor Sigmund Karterud and Mickey Kongerslev. Espen worked as a clinical psychologist (both group and individual therapy) at Oslo University Hospital from 2013 to 2021.
From 2005 to 2018 he was part of a group in The Diamond Approach (DA) led by Sandra Maitri. Sandra is one of the world's leading experts on the enneagram. He was also part of the teacher training in DA for a couple of years and has been interested in the psychological tools provided by Buddhism (Mahamudra), Sufism, and other wisdom traditions for a couple of decades. He did his first Darkness Retreat in 2008, on his own. From 2007 to 2009 he was an apprentice of the Shipibo shaman Guillermo Arévalo Valera Kestenbetsa, and posesses extensive knowledge about plant medicine. He has also studied the Diamond Logos, the Arica System, and also meditation and hypnosis with Harvard professor Daniel Brown. He was a student of Inge Gjeilo for almost a decade.
He is educated coach from INSEAD (Executive Master in Change & INSEAD Coaching Certificate), psychologist from The University of Oslo, and journalist from The Oslo Metropolitan University. He worked as a journalist at Ny Tid in 2007. Espen holds the MIT Sloan Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership, focused on Blockchain Technology, AI, and Internet of Things. He has learned algorithmic trading at Oxford. As a medical student (2000–2002), he received a research fellowship from the Norwegian Cancer Society, and also worked as a health educator (MSO).
Espen's PhD aimed to bridge the current gap between the so-called specific and general factors in psychotherapy. His master thesis at INSEAD focused on the transmission of tacit knowledge in organizations. He has published several articles—both bridging and challenging present paradigms. He worked closely with Harvard professor Leigh McCullough at the PROCMAP research project (2009–2011).
Being cross-disciplinary by nature, his interests span from business psychology to Baroque music—blockchain to Buddhism. As a guitarist, Espen was a student of associate professor Geir-Otto Nilsson from the age of 9, and was a soloist in Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” aged 21 and has studied music (classical guitar) at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He was also a finalist in the Norwegian youth championship on 400 metres and enjoys chess at an amateur level.
The complete music in the above video can be found below (Leo Brouwer – Balada de la Doncella Enamorada from El Decameron Negro):
