I remember the actual moment, in a small town in Africa, when I decided that I wanted to work in mental health. I was 9 years old at the time, and was listening, enraptured, to the man who would become my mentor. He was a psychiatrist who always addressed me respectfully as an adult. I would sit for hours, listening, as he related interesting, and sometimes bizarre, stories about his work. What struck me was how totally fulfilled he seemed, and his immense compassion shone through his every word. I knew, then and there, that I wanted to do what he did, with the same compassion.
He was one of a rare breed in our town, and very highly respected. In-depth psychotherapy was an integral part of his treatment. I thought that was what all psychiatrists did, but I later discovered that there are several different professions within the mental health arena, each one having a different role. He noticed my interest in psychotherapy and wisely guided me to the most appropriate training.
I attended a university, far to the south of where we lived, which offered training in what was then a new practice in psychotherapy: behaviour therapy. There was also training in psychodynamics and client-centred therapy, both of which I found far more to my liking. Interestingly I have gone full-circle and ended up with behaviour therapy as part of my main modality of working today. The modern version takes a more compassionate stance towards behaviour change.
Between the ‘bookends’ of behaviour therapy I have been privileged to have had the opportunity to study several other approaches. In addition to psychodynamic and client-centred therapy I have also studied systems therapy. This was to enable me to practice in a family and marriage centre, where family systems were the focus of our work. I gained much valuable experience in the ten years that I worked there.
After this I left Africa to study cognitive-behaviour therapy and other ‘process-based’ therapies. England became my home and I love so many aspects of it. My (English) husband and I now live in a beautiful, countryside village with our two dogs.
I have been in private practice for over twenty years and can honestly say that I love my work! Since Covid I have worked exclusively online and found this to be very effective.
Over the years I have been adding to my therapeutic ‘toolkit’ and have enjoyed several ‘successes’. I define success as either helping a client to increase desired behaviours or to decrease undesired ones. Firstly, I listen very carefully while someone tells me what they would like help with. I have been told that I am really good at this part, and I have worked hard at ensuring that every opportunity is given to a client to feel ‘heard’ at every session. Secondly, sometimes people don’t know what they want help with, and it is a learned skill to guide the conversation in such a way as to enable that person to discover and decide what emotions, thoughts and behaviours they want to work on. The third point is that at every session the work is driven by the needs of the person on that day. It is my job to pull it all together into a coherent whole.
My focus is on psychological processes that have been found to promote mental health. Talking about ‘processes’ may seem strange when, surely, we are looking for ‘outcomes’: as in anxiety or depression lessening, or relationships improving? These outcomes have been found to be more enduring when the person has been trained to notice and practise certain ‘processes’. Briefly, the six main processes that have been found to be important are:
- present-moment awareness (i.e. being in the ‘here-and-now’ and not ruminating about the past, or fearing the future)
- the perspective the person takes of themselves (i.e. is it very narrow, or judgemental etc)
- willing acceptance of difficulties as opposed to avoiding or denying reality
- having a clear view of the world as it really is and of others for how they really are;
- naming and describing the best person that they would like to be
- doing what is needed to make those important things happen without procrastination or impulsivity
There has recently been an even more exciting development in the world of somatic psychology! More and more work is being done on the effects of trauma on the body, and how what is happening in the body affects our interpretation of reality. In the words of Bessel van der Kolk ‘The Body Keeps the Score’. A large amount of excellent work is becoming known, and this is my current area of study and practice. More tools for the ‘therapy-toolbox’. It just keeps getting better and better!
