Sharon Mackenzie

I'm a counsellor and writer, and most of my work sits in one stubborn question: what happens to people when the systems meant to protect, serve or hold them become harmful, controlling, unsafe or just deeply confusing?

I call that institutional hurt. It happens in workplaces, churches, charities, schools, clubs, sporting bodies, community groups and families. Sometimes it's cruelty. More often it's a system that stopped noticing people, defended itself instead, and called that leadership.

So I build things. Safeguarding frameworks. Books. Some of it is for individuals sorting out their own story. Some of it is for the people who have to make an organisation safer on Monday morning with a budget of nothing.

The through-line is dignity, belonging, honest relationships and restoration — and a firm belief that people are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves once someone stops fogging up the glass.

The Arcanum is simply where I keep all of it, in one place, without making you buy it eleven times.