Dr. Chris Phillips
Clinical & Performance Psychologist | Life Transition Architect
Dr. Chris Phillips is a clinical and performance psychologist with over 20 years of experience optimizing resilience and human potential in high-stakes environments. He founded the Valor Institute to serve those who have carried the heaviest loads: Special Operations Forces, special mission unit operators, senior national security leaders, intelligence professionals, and the home front partners who stood beside them through the weight of that service.
What Drives Chris
The mindset, tools, and teamwork that kept operators and their marriages strong downrange do not automatically carry over when the uniform comes off.
Dr. Phillips has seen too many exceptional Tier-1 performers, senior leaders, and the marriages that carried them quietly struggle in transition. He founded the Valor Institute to change that.
He helps these extraordinary people redirect the same proven resilience and partnership into a post-uniform life of clarity, renewed purpose, and unbreakable alignment.
Key Background
- Clinical Psychologist for Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR) in Stuttgart, Germany: Supported psychological health, resilience, and operational performance of U.S. Special Operations personnel while serving as SERE Psychologist. Built multinational resilience programs and Personnel Recovery coordination and training with Ukrainian and UK military psychologists, while providing direct SOF support training with select NATO partner nations. Provided clinical care to operators, civilians, and families.
- SERE Psychologist, actively credentialed with the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA): Qualified to support SERE education/training, personnel recovery reintegration, and psychological oversight in high-risk environments.
- Psychological Consultant to U.S. Space Command (selected earlier in his career than any other officer in USAF history).
- Director of neuropsychological services at Peterson AFB; primary psychological advisor to NORAD, U.S. Northern Command, and 21st Space Wing commanders.
- Founder of DoD’s first Rocky Mountain regional Integrated Behavioral Health training program.
- Chief Psychologist in civilian practice (one of Colorado Springs’ leading family medicine practices); director of inpatient combat-trauma treatment program.
Beyond The Summit
Dr. Phillips and his wife Lisa live in Colorado Springs. Beyond his professional work, they have mentored families transitioning from homelessness, continuing a lifetime of service that began in challenging global contexts including apartheid-era South Africa, rural Nigeria, post-Soviet Russia, and America’s inner cities.
If you are navigating a pivotal life transition and value depth, rigor, and discretion, reach out to begin a confidential conversation.
