Ex-ITV boss 'training as psychotherapist'

Former ITV chairman Michael Green is reportedly undergoing training as a psychotherapist at Regent's College in London.

Green was famously ousted from his post as ITV's chairman-elect in 2003 after Carlton and Granada merged to form a new powerhouse in commercial broadcasting.

The Carlton Communications founder, who once employed a young David Cameron as his PR, was forced out of ITV following a shareholder revolt, but received a generous pay-off from the firm. He now has an estimated personal fortune of £83 million.

Green has already completed a psychotherapy course at the world-renowned Tavistock Institute, including clinical training on various NHS wards in 2007, reports The Independent.

The multi-millionaire was not available to confirm his enrolment on the Regent's College course, and the institution has not yet commented on the matter either.

However, fellow students on the course said that Green occasionally turns up for seminars in his Rolls Royce, and sometimes gives lifts to other trainees.

Green follows various other successful people who have moved into psychotherapy as a new career, including former England cricket team captain Mike Brearley and former Not the Nine O'Clock News comedian Pamela Stephenson, wife of Billy Connolly.

Psychoanalytic psychotherapist Elizabeth Meakins told the newspaper that clinical psychotherapy was often a natural path for people to follow in later life.

"Jung said that for the first half of life the ego needs to thrust itself forward often in a very self-centred way. When you reach early middle age it starts to change," she said.

"Young people need to be egotistical, but come the second half of your life you need to get rid of that ego and tend to a certain compassion and sensitivity to others."

She added: "You should be at least 35 before you train and preferably older. It is like going into the monastery at 15 - people have not had any life experience."