{"id":307,"date":"2011-03-03T22:02:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T22:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/?p=307"},"modified":"2011-03-03T22:02:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T22:02:57","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-a-privilege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/?p=307","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a privilege"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s astonishing how often people that I\u2019ve just met will say something like \u201cI can\u2019t imagine how hard that would be<\/em>\u201d or \u201chow can you sit with people\u2019s pain day in and day out<\/em>\u201d when they hear what I do for a living. It\u2019s funny, really, because just as frequently I feel sorry for people that don\u2019t get to do what I do.<\/p>\n

So what is it that I love about therapy?<\/p>\n

First and foremost, the people who make the above comments seem to either forget or not be aware that the vast majority of people I work with get better. Being part of someone reclaiming (or claiming) a meaningful life free of disabling anxiety or depression is a very rewarding experience.<\/p>\n

Second, there is what I think of as the \u201crippling effect\u201d, which refers to the fact that it is often not just the person who is in therapy who benefits but also \u2013 by association – family and close friends of that person. This is especially satisfying when it involves children.<\/p>\n

Finally, I am, as many of you already know, very interested in existential matters and I have yet to meet someone who hasn\u2019t shown me some new aspect to the human condition. I don\u2019t think therapists can ever say that we know everything there is to know about the human mind and human behaviour so we are constantly learning. That is, to me, very exciting.<\/p>\n

So, therapy for me is a privilege.<\/p>\n

The American psychotherapist and author Irvin Yalom writes in his novel \u201cLying on the couch\u201d<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\u201c Ernest loved being a psychotherapist. Day after day his patients invited him into the most intimate chambers of their lives. Day after day he comforted them, cared for them, eased their despair. And in return, he was admired and cherished. And paid as well, though, Ernest, often thought, if he didn\u2019t need the money, he would do psychotherapy for nothing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lucky is he who loves his work. Ernest felt lucky, all right. More than lucky. Blessed. He was a man who had found his calling \u2013 a man who could say, I am precisely where I belong, at the vortex of my talents, my interests, my passions<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That about sums it up\u2026<\/p>\n

Incidentally, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in therapy (they tell me that there are people who aren\u2019t but can that really be true? ;-)) and who is looking for a well-written, entertaining and insightful novel to read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s astonishing how often people that I\u2019ve just met will say something like \u201cI can\u2019t imagine how hard that would be\u201d or \u201chow can you sit with people\u2019s pain day in and day out\u201d when they hear what I do … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-therapy-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}