Executive counsel & strategic advisory for leaders, boards and complex organisations
Catherine Resnick provides confidential counsel and strategic advisory for founders, CEOs, senior executives, boards and organisations where decision-making, performance and human complexity intersect.
Cath brings together clinical depth as a psychotherapist, commercial experience as a former CEO and entrepreneur, and governance judgment as a board Chair and non-executive director.
Her work is particularly valuable when decisions are consequential, relationships matter, organisational systems are under strain, and conventional business advice or surface-level coaching is not enough.
Cath works with capable people carrying significant responsibility. Her approach is psychologically informed, commercially grounded and practical. Her work is not therapy delivered in an organisational setting. It is depth-informed advisory work for leadership and organisational realities that require judgment, discretion and an understanding of the human factors shaping outcomes.
There are three primary ways Cath works with clients:
Founder, CEO & Executive Counsel
Confidential counsel for leaders carrying significant responsibility.
Founders, CEOs and senior executives often face decisions they cannot readily discuss within their organisation. Growth, leadership transition, board relationships, conflict, succession, pressure and personal responsibility can become entangled in ways that require more than conventional executive coaching.
Cath provides a confidential advisory relationship for leaders seeking an experienced, independent thinking partner.
Her work may assist with:
- consequential decisions involving risk, trust, identity or competing loyalties
- founder-to-CEO transitions and changing leadership responsibilities
- difficult board, executive or stakeholder relationships
- conflict, delegation, authority and recurring leadership patterns
- isolation, pressure and sustaining judgment over time
- preparing for difficult conversations and important decisions
This work may be described as executive coaching where that language is useful to an organisation. In practice, it is deeper and more individually tailored: a rigorous private counsel relationship for people whose leadership challenges cannot be resolved through generic models or short-term performance techniques.
Board & Governance Teams: Strategic Advisory
Strategic partner for boards, Chairs and executive teams navigating complexity.
Boards and governance teams are frequently required to make decisions where strategy, people, risk, stakeholder trust and organisational capability cannot be separated.
Cath works with boards, Chairs and executive teams seeking thoughtful, independent strategic advice during periods of change, pressure or opportunity.
Her advisory work may support:
- board and executive strategic alignment
- governance during organisational transition, growth or uncertainty
- board and executive relationships, role clarity and accountability
- stakeholder complexity and organisational stewardship
- strategy in health, medical research, life sciences and purpose-led contexts
- culture, leadership dynamics and psychosocial considerations at governance level
Cath’s perspective is informed by direct experience as a Chair, non-executive director, former CEO and psychotherapist. She understands both the formal responsibilities of governance and the relational dynamics that can strengthen or undermine board effectiveness.
Leadership & Organisational Capability
Practical systems that improve leadership, feedback and performance.
Organisations often know when leadership capability or performance systems are not working well: expectations are unclear, feedback is avoided or mishandled, technically excellent people are promoted into unsuitable leadership roles, or difficult conversations become unnecessarily personal.
Cath provides advisory, training and implementation support to help organisations develop clearer, more psychologically intelligent approaches to leadership and performance.
This work may include:
- clearer performance expectations and feedback practices
- leadership capability and development frameworks
- support for senior leadership or partner groups
- technical specialist career progression pathways
- role clarity, accountability and productive performance conversations
- psychologically informed approaches to leadership in professional and technical environments
This service is particularly relevant to professional services firms, technical organisations, health and life sciences organisations, and businesses where specialist expertise is central to performance.
The aim is practical: clearer systems, better conversations and stronger organisational capability, without reducing human complexity to a generic HR model.
Where Cath’s work is most useful
Cath is particularly well placed to work with:
- founders, CEOs and senior executives under sustained responsibility or pressure
- Chairs, boards and executive teams navigating complexity, risk or change
- professional, technical, health, medical research and life sciences organisations
- organisations seeking better feedback, accountability and leadership progression systems
- senior leaders who value confidential counsel, clear thinking and depth over formulaic coaching
Engagements may involve confidential individual counsel, strategic advisory assignments, board or executive consultation, leadership-group development, or practical organisational capability work.
About Catherine Resnick
Psychotherapist | Strategic Adviser | Chair and Non-Executive Director
Catherine Resnick is a Perth-based psychotherapist, strategic adviser, board Chair and non-executive director.
She brings experience across organisational leadership, digital health, governance, commercialisation, leadership development and psychologically informed advisory work. She is Chair of The Raine Study, a Non-Executive Director of Diabetes WA, and previously served as CEO of KinChip Systems and The Churchill Clinic Inc.
Cath’s clinical training has shaped her capacity to think systemically, recognise patterns, understand difficult relational dynamics and remain thoughtful under pressure. Combined with her governance and commercial experience, this enables a distinctive form of advisory work for leaders and organisations facing consequential decisions.
Begin a confidential conversation
For founders, CEOs, executives, boards and organisations considering advisory support, the first step is a confidential conversation about the context, the decisions involved and whether Cath’s experience is well suited to the work.
Catherine Resnick
Amygdala Consulting
Claremont Medical Centre
206 Stirling Highway
Claremont, WA 6010
08 9383 3132
info@amygdala.com.au