Seven essential lessons from The Odyssey; a timeless story of strength against adversity, resilience and never losing sight of your goals.
Who are you? How can you be who you want to be? How do you treat those around you? What really matters? The Odyssey Mindset translates the ancient wisdom of Homer’s classic epic into a reassuring and helpful toolkit for modern life. Each of the seven lessons are explained in parallel to our modern context, with practical takeaways and applications.
Dr Sam Akbar, an Oxford Classicist and Clinical Psychologist, guides you through Odysseus’s physical journey from Troy to Ithaca, but also the mental lessons of this ancient journey of self-knowledge.
Wherever you are on your journey, The Odyssey Mindset will help you navigate the obstacles that life presents.
Author Information
Dr Sam Akbar is a clinical psychologist with a particular interest in stress, trauma and resilience. She studied Classics at Wadham College, Oxford, before becoming a clinical psychologist. Her career has taken her from the NHS—where she treats refugees who have experienced war, torture and sexual violence—to international training and teaching, helping clinicians across the globe, from Ireland to Iraq, develop the skills to work with severe trauma.
Sam’s work focuses on what it means to live well under pressure. She specialises in helping people navigate stress, burnout and overwhelm with practical tools grounded in psychological science. Her approach blends evidence-based techniques with warmth, humour and an eye for what’s usable in the real world.
She retains a deep love of the classical world, often drawing on ancient philosophy and myth to explore timeless questions about suffering, resilience and the human condition. This perspective adds richness and depth to her work, offering a broader lens through which to understand modern psychological struggles.
Her book Stressilient: How To Beat Stress and Build Resilience draws on years of clinical experience to offer readers clear, actionable strategies for managing stress—at work, at home and everywhere in between. It has been translated into nine languages.
Sam also regularly speaks and runs masterclasses for a wide range of audiences—from leaders in business to professionals in public service—on managing stress, building resilience and learning how our past experiences shape our present.
