I love doing this work. Before starting my private practice, I worked as a therapist in a non-profit agency for 10 years, where I met so many interesting people from all walks of life.Each person had their story to tell and their unique difficulties which interfered with the way they wanted to be living their life. Helping each person is a bit like being Sherlock Holmes: what is making this person tick? What could be making them choose behaviors that are clearly not working to their advantage? What is their underlying belief about themselves? And about others? People are fascinating, the way minds work is fascinating,the way people deceive themselves unknowingly is fascinating.
Have you ever watched a dog who has just gotten into an altercation with another dog? The first thing he does is shake his body from head to tail. He literally shakes it off, and trots on to find the next good smell. We can't do that. Our psyches are more complicated. We need someone to help us do the detective work, to help us figure out what obstacles we have unwittingly put in our path to success, and to help us devise a plan to remove them. In the process, we build a relationship of respect and trust, perhaps the first of it's kind. Knowing that someone cares about us, even knowing our darkest thoughts and feelings, can change the way we feel about ourselves.