As a young school student I had the fantasy of becoming a “psychologist” but never really thought that I had the brains for it. My struggle with, then unnamed, learning difficulties managed to convince me that academic life was not my place. I went on to pursue studies in advertising art but soon realised that, although I enjoyed the creative work, it was not necessarily my place either. After toying with many possibilities and out of desperation with not having any direction, I ended up registering at university. My subject choices were a spur of the moment thing. Psychology and English happened to be two of the subjects that I chose. Both proved to be very enriching and I eventually chose them as my majors. I remember joking with my English Prof that English graduates would make better therapists than psychology graduates. It is only in retrospect that I have begun to understand that statement. As a Psychologist, I have come to find it useful to view people as constantly in the process of storytelling. Most people come to therapy with problematic themes that seem to dominate their lives. These themes, thread together, leave them with a very limiting story about themselves. Therapy, therefore, is about a collaborative effort (between client and therapist) to notice, honour and generate less problem saturated stories about our lives. In this process, psychology is not the expert. Rather, people are experts [and authors] in their own lives. Therapy is merely the editing suite for these stories and the therapist asks questions that are interested in the possibility of multiple stories about the person’s life. This sight is dedicated to my preferred way of “doing” therapy.
These thoughts are not entirely my own but inspired by a small but growing community of therapists that have an interests in a refreshingly non-pathologising way of working with clients. See for example http://www.dulwichcentre.com.au/homepage.html .
Since officially entering the profession of psychology I have found that very few psychologists have the time [or inclination, perhaps] to reflect on what they are doing and why they are doing it. I would rather bake muffins for a living than allow “psychology” to become a recipe that I apply every day just so that I can make a living. So, in the spirit of how I believe therapy should be done, I have decided to publish a site that is dedicated to my own “doing” of therapy in the form of an ongoing conversation with whomever is interested in listening and contributing.
Note: Any specific information about clients is done so with their explicit prior consent!