Nagy Bishay was born in 1936 in Cairo, Egypt, the eldest son of a lawyer. He decided to pursue a medical career and after his medical training in Cairo, he joined the army as a general practitioner and soon pursued his interest in psychological medicine and gained its diploma. He practised psychiatry in 1965 in different military hospitals, was particularly interested in military psychiatry during the 1967 war, and wrote his MD thesis on the study of hysterical fits among young adult males under the stress of military service.

He came to England in 1975, seeking to further his experience and training and in pursuit of improving his therapeutic skills. He trained as a senior registrar in psychiatry in the West Midlands Regional Health Authority and took up his post as consultant psychiatrist at the North Manchester General Hospital in 1980. He had an initial interest in psychoanalysis and group analytic psychotherapy, then was introduced to cognitive therapy in 1982, a tool he continued to develop and use with passion for the remainder of his years.