Dr Shungu Hilda M’gadzah

Chartered Educational Psychologist | Founder of the Six Stages Framework | Executive Coach | Author | Speaker.

Dr Shungu Hilda M’gadzah is a Chartered Educational Psychologist, author, executive coach and founder of the Six Stages Framework (SSF), with more than 30 years’ experience across psychology, education, leadership and inclusion.

Her work explores how individuals, relationships, organisations and wider systems move towards greater awareness, empathy, accountability and inclusion - or in the opposite direction towards avoidance, hostility, exclusion and increasingly entrenched thinking.

Drawing on psychology, lived experience and professional practice, Dr Shungu creates spaces for thoughtful conversations about racism, bias, belonging, psychological safety and human behaviour. Her approach combines curiosity with challenge, helping people move beyond awareness towards deeper reflection and meaningful change.

She is the creator of the Six Stages Framework, a psychological framework for understanding direction of travel in attitudes, behaviours and systems. The SSF now informs training, leadership development, reflective practice and educational resources across a range of settings.

Dr Shungu is also Founder and Director of Inclusion Psychologists Ltd and holds a Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology, with doctoral research in Emotional Intelligence.

Her current work includes My Dear White Friend, a reflective series exploring race, friendship, belonging, defensiveness and accountability, alongside the live series My Dear White Friend: Conversations We Need to Stay In.

A former Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Educational and Child Psychology - and the first Black person to hold the role - Shungu is an experienced facilitator and speaker whose work invites people to remain curious, especially when the questions become uncomfortable.

Her central question is simple but demanding: not only what do we believe, but how do those beliefs show up in our behaviour, relationships and systems?