Founder & President, Revelios
Catherine Harrison
Musician. Writer. Mental Health Change-Maker.
Changing how we think about leadership, mental health, and sustainable success. Author ofLeading in Stereo, the upstream argument for human-centred leadership in music.
“I am deeply curious, fascinated by the human condition, and like making stuff. That pretty much sums up everything I do.”
Thanks for investing your valuable time here. I'm Catherine Harrison, and connecting, creating and communicating is at the core of my daily experience. For more than thirty years, I've enjoyed working in the corporate space, creating and performing in the music space, and shouting from the rooftops in the save-the-world space. The one constant observation is that the leaders who change the world for the better are those who develop and leverage a curious and reflective mindset and put humans at the centre of their strategic focus.
I believe that whole human beings show up in the workplace and communities. It's important to uncover, discover, and celebrate the different aspects of oneself to bring your best self to whatever effort, including work, you invest energy in. Taking the time to get to know yourself and all your messiness helps you openly and honestly get to know others and all their messiness. This leads to better relationships, in families, communities, organizations, and nations. An open, curious mind is a vital ingredient to a fulfilling life.
How do we get clear and present with ourselves? How do we pause and reflect amid constant distraction? How can we use our stories, our own and each other's, to learn, inspire, expand, adapt, perform and thrive? How do we stop doing so much and start being more?
Our environments are rapidly changing, but as humans, we are pretty much the same. We need fresh air, clean water, movement, rest, good nutrition, and positive social interaction. As businesses become more automated and decentralized, well-led strategic organizations will invest in meeting human needs and cultivating human “soft” skills as a key to their business viability. You can automate most business processes but not the heads, hearts, and guts of humans.
Catalyst
Catherine Harrison, M. Psych., is a human-centred leadership expert and mental health strategist with more than 35 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience. As Founder and President of Revelios, she helps organizations build, measure, and sustain leadership practices that balance high performance with genuine care. She gets it.
Her work draws on deep expertise in organizational development, behaviour change, mental health literacy, and academic research, alongside her lifelong career as an award-winning Canadian musician.
Catherine focuses on the link between human behaviour and business outcomes, showing how cultures grounded in psychological safety, empathy, and accountability drive stronger results.
Since 2018, she has investigated international mental health in the music industry and in 2025 led the Canadian study Soundcheck, a mixed methods project that gathered feedback from more than 1,250 Canadian music workers across roles.
Outside her professional roles, Catherine is a musician, author, painter, and devoted animal lover, bringing creativity and humanity into every space she works in. Her second book, Leading in Stereo: Reimagining Leadership in the Music Industry, explores human-centred leadership, mental health, and psychological safety in this sector. Her first, Three Colors, Twelve Notes, is a collection of personal stories about curiosity, creativity and reinvention.
About Revelios
Musician
Catherine has written, recorded, and performed original songs for 30 years. It is a deep part of who she is.
She strives to improve our collective mental health literacy and social fitness through education, reducing stigma, and facilitating open, courageous conversations. Over the past several years, Catherine has been active in illuminating the unique mental health challenges experienced by Canadian music industry professionals and is a trusted advisor to several national and international non-profit music organizations. If you're in the Canadian music industry, see her research study, Soundcheck.
Author
Author of Leading in Stereo, the upstream argument for human-centred leadership in music.
In her first book, Three Colors, Twelve Notes, Catherine shares personal stories as an artist, business leader, and regular human to show us why trying new things and staying curious should be a lifelong pursuit.
Catherine also shares regular writing about how to optimize the human experience through articles, posts and research-based papers. Read them under Writing, and find interviews and press coverage under Media.
The books
Working with Catherine
Catherine has played an instrumental role in guiding my career and supporting my growth and development for over a decade. Her strategic thinking paired with her flexible mindset allows her to consider all aspects of the situation and provide sound guidance and thoughtful advice on all areas of career, business and growth. Whether it be planning for the next steps in my career, navigating team dynamics or positioning myself as a leader within the organization, Catherine's wealth of experience and ability to see the 10,000 foot perspective have been invaluable.
At short notice, Catherine joined us to design and deliver multiple sessions on leadership for a select group of university student leaders. Her talks were not only dynamic and engaging but insightful and impactful, anchored in her lifetime of diverse personal experiences, sound scholarship and deep personal reflection. She inspired students to reflect on who they are, and who they aspire to be, not only as leaders but as human beings.
Working with Catherine has been a truly transformative experience. She helped me shift my mindset around what leadership can look like and gave me tangible tools to lead in a way that feels authentic, intentional, and aligned with my values.
I met Catherine Harrison as one of those 'people who ask her to fix things.' My organization had embarked on a new strategic plan and many of the staff were reluctant to change; morale was down and staff departures were up. Catherine worked with me and my leadership team to engage with staff in a more reflective, collaborative way so that they could embrace the change rather than be fearful of it. Leveraging both the art and the science is what makes Catherine's work so powerful and, ultimately, so successful.
Catherine has been instrumental with coaching me and my team. Her insights and questions are purposeful and thorough and have motivated us to positive change and new ideas. Truly appreciate the kind heart and knowledge Catherine possesses.