Dr Francis Macnab has sat in his consulting room at the Cairnmillar Institute every day for more than 30 years. He hears people speak of their closely guarded secrets, their yearnings for love and satisfaction in their relationships, their search for success and contentment in their work, and their anxiety as they wonder what it all meant and what life will hold for them in the last years of the life span.

Dr Macnab opened the Cairnmillar Institute in 1961. It is the largest clinical psychological institute and the largest teaching body for training counsellors and psychotherapists in Australia. The Cairnmillar Institute has developed an international reputation in the world of psychotherapy.

Dr Macnab did his post-graduate training in psychotherapy and group therapy in Aberdeen. He has taught in several countries including Britain, USA, Germany, Turkey, Hungary and Romania.

Francis Macnab’s work reaches across a number of specialities. He conducts a very popular education series for people over 60 to encourage them to embrace the next 30 vital years. He is founder and director of the Australian Foundation for Aftermath Reactions (AFAR) trauma treatment and training program.

He is also chief minister of St Michaels Church in Collins Street, Melbourne - widely recognized as a leading radical church in its considered support of the practical interweave between psychotherapy and a health-enhancing religion.

Work - what it does for us, what we do for it is his 20th book. People will find it easy to read. It provokes the reader to reflect on how important work is for their health, happiness and well-being. The book brings together a host of accounts of people wanting to make their work-lives interesting, rewarding and memorable.

Read an extract of Work - what it does for us, what we do for it