Prince Harry shared that therapy helped him see that he has the power to choose how to live his life after quitting the royal family.
via: Vanity Fair
The Duke of Sussex was a special guest at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, the inaugural event meant to “immerse the most forward-thinking, fast-scaling business leaders in an environment designed to cultivate innovation, acceleration and co-elevation,” per the organization’s website. During the summit, Harry shared how getting a therapist after growing up in the royal family changed his life for the better. “I have a coach. I wish I had two,” the royal revealed, according to a tweet by Financial Times correspondent Dave Lee.
Speaking of formidable grandmothers, Prince Harry is the surprise final day guest at #mastersofscalesummit. Here to talk mental health and coaching. "I have a coach. I wish I had two," he says.
— Dave Lee (@DaveLeeBBG) October 20, 2022
The CEO of Shortcut, Kurt Schrader, also shared a photo of the duke on stage with BetterUp’s Alexi Robichaux and entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, writing, “Great to hear someone who you think grew up with everything talk about the need for therapy and coaching for everyone.”
Doron Weber, the vice president and program director of Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, also shared some of Harry’s thoughts on social media, quoting him on Twitter as having said that as someone who grew up in the royal family and then spent 10 years in the military, “he never heard the words ‘therapy’ or ‘coaching.’ Then the blinkers came off and his life changed.”
Prince Harry says growing up in the royal family & then spending 10 years in the military, he never heard the words “therapy” or “coaching. Then the blinkers came off and his life changed. w ?@Arobichaux? of @BetterUp? & ?@reidhoffman? ??@mastersofscale? pic.twitter.com/OD4veku8yE
— Doron Weber (@DoronWeber) October 20, 2022
Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna also tweeted that the royal said, “From a boss standpoint, if you see your people as numbers, you will fail. You can’t treat them as numbers, but folks who need a human connection to fire on all cylinders.”
“From a boss standpoint, if you see your people as numbers, you will fail. You can’t treat them as numbers, but folks who need a human connection to fire on all cylinders.” Wise words from Prince Harry! #MastersOfScaleSummit https://t.co/mVkSrr6cal
— Tjada D'Oyen McKenna (@Tjada) October 20, 2022
And emergency doctor Bon Ku shared that Harry advocated for the idea of looking at cultivating your mental health as a way to “[unlock] human potential,” not just treat “a mental illness.”
https://twitter.com/BonKu/status/1582910002351595521?s=20&t=ijeiGmRTBlc4ZaBMgivkLQ
BetterUp also touted the appearance of their chief impact officer, sharing a photo of the prince and Robichaux together on social media and explaining that the duo would be tackling the topic of “why leaders need to focus on their mental fitness to scale their impact.”
This is hardly the first time Harry has spoken candidly about his own mental health. In May, he shared in his docuseries with Oprah Winfrey, The Me You Can’t See, that it was actually his wife Meghan Markle who first encouraged him to seek professional help. “It was only when a couple of people close to me started to say, ‘This isn’t normal behavior, perhaps you should look into this or perhaps you should go and seek help.’ Now immediately, I was like, ‘I don’t need help,’” he recalled. But, “It was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn’t do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.” He added, “That was the start of a learning journey for me. I became aware that I’d been living in a bubble, within this family, within this institution, I was sort of almost trapped in a thought process or a mindset.”
