Carl Rogers. Milton Erikson. Fritz Perls. Albert Ellis. Virginia Satir.
These are some of the experts who shaped the interventions we use with patients today.
And these experts stood on the shoulders of the giants who came before them. I’m thinking about people like Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, and Pierre Genet.
The contributions made by all these pioneers have given us treatment approaches and strategies that help a large percentage of the people we see.
But sadly, not all of them.
So I’ve been wondering, “Where is the next generation of innovators who will help us create treatment strategies that will reach more patients?
How do we spark that conversation?”
I believe we start by beginning to think differently about the work we do. But to do that, we need to start asking different questions.
What would happen if we got away from talking about particular methodologies (IFS, DBT, CBT, EFT, ACT, SE)?
These are all good theories, but we risk working in silos – never being influenced by people outside our specialty, never building on their ideas.
This silo approach to practice limits our opportunities to generate fresh ways of looking at the problems our clients face.
What would happen if we took some time to start fresh? To set aside our methodologies?
To set aside diagnosis?
What would happen if we all worked together on one question?
I believe we may be on the cusp of developing new ideas that transcend any one modality.
But to do that, we’ll need to reframe the conversation and go beyond our silos.
And that could lead us to the next level – the next generation of ideas that can help more of our patients experience the relief, healing, and vitality that others feel.
What about you? Where do you think the next generation of ideas will come from?
From clients themselves. Telling us what they really want and need. Then using guided imagery with music to help them see in their mind’s eye where they want to be. We no longer need to ask “how does it make you feel” and stop there. We ask “how do you want to feel” and how can I help you get to that place. Asking the client what they don’t want will help you to do so but they do want and seekin solutions together will expedite healing and hope.
I think the people who bring together human sciences and spirituality (consciousness expansion) are the next generation of innovators that will create more ideal treatment strategies to reach more patients.
Also, to break through silos, all subject matter experts, practitioners, and leaders must see beyond what they learn and the data they accumulate. To have/establish a relationship with information from the now with the knowledge of the unknown of tomorrow. This will allow openness and flexibility to new information at all times, which doesn’t create silos since no one is focused on a subject matter as if all answers are known or found.
This is so utterly exciting to see!!
I have been working in this vein, identifying the commonality of despair and hope that are the underlying causes of illness and overarching catalyst for healing in body, mind and emotion across culturally, economically and geographically diverse populations.
All of the approaches talk about the specific components of these phenomenon; however, all have their own language for doing so leading to silos of practice and confusion for participants especially within different aspects of social services who have their own jargon! Again, saying the same things but left unidentifiable by practioners and participants alike because they are not speaking the same language.
In order to truly have a continuum of care and healing we must have a common language that is representative of all of the important and vital aspects of what we all do (and how we all heal). We need a Pattern Language reflective of and across all approaches and sectors. That is what I am developing.
I might add that I am not of the next generation, but rather of this generation of workers (and survivors). Still, whenever I talk about my work I include that it is born of standing on the shoulders of giants. The practicioners mentioned have been so pivotal in my own healing and work that they inspired me to “gather together” the foundational knowledge that will augment existing approaches and programs, as well as inform those being developed, so that more people can be reached.
Indeed so that mental health can be included, regarded and understood as health itself. Body, Mind, Emotion are not stand alone skills or competencies. Their interdependency of how each influences the other is vital to health.
As we move toward a culture of health we must have a common language that reflects that from soup to nuts (beginning to end for those who don’t know the reference – see? the need for a common language!). Thank you Ruth Buczynski for bringing this important conversation to the forefront!
Joanne R Arroyo
Hi Ruth
I read your posts with deep interest. I like to propose that if we are or like to think differently, we need to go out of box thinking.
As long as we are thinking of love, peace, happiness as objects of the mind, we are still thinking within the box.
Can we start thinking out of box.
if love is not an object of mind.
then how to love?
What is love?
why love is essential to help change the brain.
then we can allow Eastern wisdom and its principles and applied philosophy of subjective reality to slowly enter the discipline of modern psychology.
Many a times, I when some one talks about mindfulness that aims at subjective reality or state of consciousness, It does not make sense except some objective findings that create sensations.
Thanks and bearing with me
peace and love
Girish Jha
The problem lies in Managed Care for most of us who work at the “trenches”. Community Mental health centers funded by Medicaid, Medicare and even Private Insurance all places our clients in a “diagnostic box”, and state/federal guidelines on “criteria” tends to limit what gets “funded” or “accepted” in a program. Yearly audits also prevents us from going “outside of the box” because they only will accept as you say modalities that are “evidenced based” or existing methodologies. Like you, I have longed for a chance to liberate our clients from these ‘silo approaches’ that tends to be quite limiting because I have had done several approaches where i have seen much positive outcomes as well as using existing methodologies and yet seeing very limited if not promising outcomes. I have also been assisting in supervising graduate level interns in our program and I have same observations – they all come in with the same idealism that your message is trying to foster – they came from Academe World, all trying to change or make the world a better place by opening up more opportunities to play and discover and “just be” and it saddens me that they get disillusioned by the “real world” of “Mental Health trench work”.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my job. I love being in a community mental health and I love our client population. I love the ground work, the trench work, the nitty-gritty hard core aspect of it. However, with such systems in place that tends to rely on state/federal funding, that tends to limit or box our clients in, burying us in bureaucratic nightmares and endless bottomless paperwork, it slowly seems to put out the dying embers of great innovative ideas.
On one hand, in fairness to this system, I also know where these are coming from. Evidenced-based practices are here to ensure client safety and well being and protect them from harm done by “adventurous and highly idealistic” and “fresh graduate/new/inexperienced practitioners” who seems to feel they have the answer to the world’s problems, trying to balance their passionate need to discover and help, and at the same time. addressing and accommodating our unique client’s special and cultural needs. I have had to caution much of them, tame their “wildness” so to speak. I have been known to be the one who would rain on their parade, and be a Devil’s Advocate. I challenge them. And I hope to see the persevering spirit of the one who will not give up and endeavor the great delicate balance of “innovative ideas” versus “client needs and welfare” and “The System”.
I share Deb’s expansion on Elaine Wells’ pov: I agree that therapist intuition seems to me to repeatedly be reinforced as crucial to trust. When a question or often a metaphor for what I hear a client saying comes to me, I started learning from my first year of training that it was worth running it by the client because invariably I’d find that it resonated in ways that opened up the client’s sense of connections to other yet-unstated and sometimes unrealized dot-connectings that were guiding their life choices, for better and/or for worse, yielding increased self-awareness.
What I would modify in your comments, Ruth, would be that it doesn’t seem necessary or even helpful (much less feasible) to throw out the acronyms and names of all the accumulated theories and practices to date. (Perhaps you were being consciously hyperbolic or provocative.) Imho, they serve as useful and important reference points but they are more like the pieces of the proverbial elephant in the famous metaphor where blindness means only identifying one part of the elephant and thus being unable to conceive much less construct the whole, in this case the whole of the client and her/his life experience and sets of meaning.
For me personally, I recently identified myself in a workshop gathering as being “about as integrative as you can get,” although Gestalt and Narrative are probably the two most prevalent of the various pieces of the elephant I draw on – but there’s everything from trauma and somatic therapies to CBT that also have varying degrees of constant import for me at either the forest or the tree level of what I track and incorporate. But it’s still a big elephant out there, and there are inevitable ‘blind spots’ even when we allow ourselves to be maximally open, as I do, to all the burgeoning viewpoints on the horizon. Just yesterday, I added an intro to Hakomi to the mix, with great appreciation already.
I so agree with this statement – that as practitioners we tend to work in silos. I work in a federal penitentiary that is for those offenders with mental health issues – both Axis 1 diagnosis and behavioural problems – borderline personality disorder being the most comment. I work with women and our psychologist is married to DBT – which is an excellent intervention but is not the only one. I believe that if we listen to our clients and are in tune with how they respond then we need to be open to tailoring our interventions to what works for the client.
There’s a lot of research bought and paid for by the NSF and a ton of federal research centers that in reading with new QUESTIONS will reveal great deal. In my opinion, start there. Because to break new ground will take too long. Conditions are critical for too many. Find seminal work you’ve been drawn to in your chosen ares and do a full lit review. Start there. New questions arise from inspiration and together you are the InspirTion. CMNIH, poverty research centers – there are 3 or 4, WHO.
Look at your inspiration and follow it out in your mind like a time traveler. Look forward and backward until something new arises. Yes. It’s true. And when you figure this out you can pose new questions.
I can promise you that new question with unwavering objectivity will show answers you won’t believe existed. What ever you think you know – challenge it with rigorous research methods.
Do you mean Janet?????
Hi Ruth,
Your question seems to me so timely. Raised and trained in the old continent I was able to use in my practice different therapeutic technics including psychoanalytical approach, Gestalt, behaviorism, etc.. However lately, I have been doubting the very foundations of our traditions and thinking that have given rise to our understanding of who we are as human beings. I have even come to question the role of the “Language” in our psychological make up, thinking and functioning.
I feel a deep need for a new “language” and a new perspective to redefine the fundamental concepts of our existence upon which an entirely re-modified psychological sciences would be built.
For now, there I am deeply confused about the very foundation of our theories and applications and turning rather inward to find answers. I t
hank you for your question.
Escape from Babel…toward a unifying language for psychotherapy practice. Check out this book.
Will definitely be checking out this book. Thank you!
Here is one of my favorite quotes from Carl Jung as it applies to treatment: “Learn your theories as well as you can, and then put them aside and experience the miracle of the living soul.” Treatment is about compassion and presence, and less about technique.
Coherence Therapy – memory reconsolidation
I remain a fan of common factors: the 2 significant elements of therapy are the quality of the therapeutic relationship and that the therapist believes in whatever modality they utilize and can sell it to the client. Given this, however, I am also a big fan of eclecticism and integration of mind, body, and spirit. The more tools one has in one’s toolbox the better chance that you will identify an effective match for working with whomever is present.
I believe in an integrated approach – inviting a variety of perspectives to the table – as far as speaking about specific methodologies and treatment approaches.
However, I believe even more strongly in learning from the individuals who are seeking treatment, support, help, whatever it may be. We are all experts of our own experience. So, to that end, I also believe in supporting all “helping professionals” to become “researchers of their own practice.”
I think that it’s important to remember that whatever the technique, it is only as effective as the professional who is implementing it. I believe that what we need now more than anything as professionals is to deepen our capacity to bring ourselves fully to our work without fear, to practice “compassionate curiosity” and to embody lovingkindness in our helping relationships, our interactions with colleagues and within our personal lives.
One dimension of psychotherapy/counselling that I have not seen here is the social one, in which the client works with other persons in their personal or social sphere, by enacting their role and responding to it – back and forth. Other perspectives can be used with this. I have done years of training in psychodrama, and time and time again I was surprised by the extent to which we dwell in one another, and have intuitive insight into one another. There are tremendous possibilities for opening communication that is blocked, by enacting problematic situations and working towards resolution in a free, trial-and-error way, allowing free expression of feelings and trial-and-error in interaction with others.. It is possible to set up one relationship or a family or a work group – best done with a group but can also be done just with the client and therapist. For me personally, this was my way of learning to ‘see’ myself, by “standing in the shoes” of others.
Interesting film “Wild Strawberries,” as in Erik Erikson’s approach life being integrated in the later life stage of wisdom vs despair.
I believe in being eclectic, but not scatty. It’s not necessarily a good idea to follow any particular school or teaching wherever it goes – we must be discerning, and we can choose an alternative approach when that suits the client best, or even approach one situation from different angles and encourage the client to look into different possibilities..
It is important to take account of the client’s spiritual or religious orientation,and refer to helpful concepts or approaches that it offers. We don’t have to be ‘scientists’ all the time, in practice, sometimes we can go beyond that, to a larger view. We can take the client to possibilities not considered before, such as insights from anthropological studies, or yoga and meditation.
It’s clearly because of my most recent education in pre and perinatal psychology, (which I think should be inched out to age 2 in scope, rather than 28 days post birth)…that this narrow window–between before conception thru age 2, that the greatest changes in human function and happiness could morph our lives and attitudes for the better. We must look at optimizing the NEUROPHYSIOLOGY of loving RELATIONSHIPS.
However, there are literally too many of us to save, on a stressed planet, when essentially, a greedy few hold most of the wealth.
It is NOT SO TRIED AND TRUE–that we stand on the shoulders of giants. I think we must get smart and REASSESS the status of these so-called giants, because calling people heroes does not erase what they have done wrong. We begin to see this in cases like Bill Cosby…great comedian, right? But a massive misogynist too. Religions are a huge disappointment looking just below the surface at their interests in controlling and manipulating–child marriages, infanticides, pedophilia, stoning women who disagree?
Perhaps the next step in progress will happen via an en mass paradigm shift to SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE, to be less myopic in our relating with one another.
Learning from patients, viewing them as whole and integral human beings, sharing what we learn, integrating mind, body and spirit.
Innovation often meets with resistance from those who fear change for whatever reason.
Some practitioners have invested a lot of time and energy into a way of thinking and defend that position in spite of the fact that advances have been made.
It takes a lot of courage to step outside that space and declare new beliefs, but that is the way knowledge is increased for the benefit of those who need it most – clients.
I believe that the next generation of ides will come from scientific validation of what has been described in the past by metaphor.
Traditional approaches to mind-body healing are no longer anecdotal due to the advances in neuroscience.
Science will catch up with what has previously been labled metaphysical.
Very well stated, Danny. I’m so glad Ruth has opened this discussion up. I really hope it’s a sincere request to explore other ways, and not just a marketing strategy to get people engaged. I am optimistic it is the former.
I’ve been involved with a subconscious process called Alchemy or Alchemical Hypnotherapy since 1983. Thirty-three years ago we were talking about working in the limbic system so we could go to the source of emotional complexes and “Run and Change” them while “Rescuing the Inner Child” and finding “New Inner Parents” (if necessary), in order to create “new neurological pathways in the brain.”
We were so far ahead of our time but there is no money to go toward scientific research for this field so thousands of people who have seen their lives completely changed are all called hearsay. How do we deal with this Catch 22 for strategies that obviously work? In fact the reason they do is now being corroborated by hard science!
Seeing different areas of the brain light up is obviously exciting. It does not heal anyone. These methods do.
Integrating the body and more movement, including yoga can really open to new possibilities, I have found when working with clients. Once they get into their body and the sensations in different body parts, pause and get out of their heads, amazing things happen. I also believe it is important to “get out of my own way” so that I am truly with my clients…..from my heart. Doors keep opening….the possibilities are endless, creative and empowering for my clients.
Start by not referring to people as patients and start thinking of them as people who know and understand what has worked for them, take the experience of practing psychologists that are open-minded to change and a multi-dimensional approach, with “patients” that have had success and open to discussing what worked for them, and students and researchers that are at the forefront of current research and start the spark of conversation for change.
Look at indigenous healing practices. How to heal oneself and using a community approach is centuries old. Lets get back to this. We all have innate way of healing. Our field of psychotherapy relies too much on one theory or an eclectic approach to helping. We position ourselves the expert. Our theories of choice point in the direction of authority. We charge our clients a fee for helping. When in reality it is our profession and the society at large that creates dependencies on others to help us, for a price. People don’t feel confident in their own way of healing. So, they feel they need to pay for help. If we can let people know they can heal without paying someone we empower individuals and society to recognize their own innate ability heal. There are a multiple ways to heal oneself and all the current and past theories claim they know that way. At last count I believe there are over a thousand published theories on how one change a person. Many of these theories are charging a lot of money for professionals to get a certification and license to practice a particular method. Are we really getting the best way to help or is it the person(s) who came up with the theory being helped, financially? If knowledge is given freely, then let people decide how they can use this knowledge to help oneself. People can create their own healing by talking with others (friends, family, healing circles and multiple of other ways…no money required) or being present in their own right.
I’m used to an eclectic view and mode of operation…using what works at the time with the resources that are available. I’ve seen the struggle that clients, who seem to be difficult to pigeonhole into a certain diagnosis, experience. It’s my experience that many people who really need help can’t afford it, or find that because they are struggling to work full time, there are not clinics open at the times when they could attend, like in the evening or on the weekend. I think that on line programs provide an excellent opportunity to make some headway with general personal issues. I’m thinking of Rick Hanson’s “The Foundation of Well-Being” Participants can work at their own pace, at a time that suits them, can interact with others, if they chose and get an idea which issues they want to work on or need support dealing with.
Brain science, neurofeedback, QEEGS to guide treatment an d psychotherapy. Looking at genetics, brain function and how they help form personality styles and problems. There’s so much we’re learning about brain function!
My thoughts at the moment. “The methodological lenses through which we view our clients may make little difference except when the lenses limit what we see. If learning new ways to cope emotionally and physically with past and present issues is seen to be at the heart of psychotherapy, then we must provide the best climate to facilitate that new learning. in that particular client.”
Here’s where I am at this moment. “I am excited about the new information coming from neurological and genetic studies as they inform us about learning. Learning new ways of coping (emotionally and physically) with life’s past and present issues seems to me to be at the heart of psychotherapy. Through which methodological lenses we view our clients may matter only when the lenses limit what we see.”
I agree Ruth. I too, like Elaine Wells, have been an eclectic therapist. Staying in a silo has never felt right to me.
You see what you are looking for most often. If we stay in the ‘silos’ we miss the larger picture. I think folks who are interested in being present with clients and getting to understand their perspectives before recommending their own thoughts can make more progress. Using the brain research and helping folks to better understand how that works can lead us all to better understanding of our thoughts, behaviors and emotions.
Yes the idea of starting with a clear, , compassionate,empathic and most of all receptive mind,appeals to me. Here is where mindfulness has helped me; along with a few other practices that focus on awareness. We are the instrument and a tune up, everyday seems more and more important. Opening up to my intuition,seems fruitful.
Your words really hit home for me, Francine! We are the human in human resources…I couldn’t agree more!
I also find that not only do these practices improve the quality of service, but my experience and sense of fulfillment is enhanced as well…
Intuition is such a powerful yet undervalued quality of humanity!
We first need a cohesive theory/understanding of what it really means to be human. All that we know now about development, neurology, basic needs etc. must come together in a comprehensive understanding what happens when we “lose the script”. This understanding must take into account the body/mind connection as well as our sprirtual needs. We must first see the whole, before we can attempt to heal people to become whole.
The world is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. I believe the next generation of ideas will come from a cross-fertilization from many realms: spirituality (as so many have already mentioned), neuroscience and the explosion of new information available this way, philosophy, attachment theory, and my personal favorite: the body. Too long psychotherapy has focused on the realm of thoughts and ideas — I practice a focusing-oriented approach to psychotherapy that emphasizes deep respect for the information that comes to us through our bodies.
I see the paradigm shift as already happening, a sea change away from cognitive, positivistic approaches towards attributes medicated primarily by the right hemisphere: empathy, intuition, creativity, emotion, connection, and non goal-directed ways of being in the therapy relationship. It calls into question, as you suggest Ruth, the entire way the field of psychotherapy has been conceptualized and practiced, and in a good way.
I am hoping you are getting ready to introuce training on how recent research on memory reconsolidation–the sequence of experiences that”unlocks”/deconsolidates old learning at the synaptic level and allows it to be modified or “erased” so that it cannot be reactivated by cues or triggers and the symptoms caused by that learning that were troubling a person disappear permanently. Ecker, Ticic and Hulley describe this as they use it in Coherence Therapy and their book Unlocking the Emotional Brain quotes masses of research on lab experiments on animals demonstrating and supporting memory reconsolidation and how it occurs in various types of successful therapies, such as emdr (without practitioners’ awareness of the underlying process of memory reconsolidation. So memory reconsolidation is something that happens in the brain when certain steps happen and it is not limited to just one type of therapy. Knowledge of this process means that informed practitioners from various therapeutic modalities can make sure they are using this process–or they already may be but are not aware of what is happening at the synaptic level tat is relieving their patients’ symptoms. I hope this will be the focus of one of your upcoming trainings.
Who is Pierre Genet?
Maybe she meant Pierre JANET?
Faith and trust in Divine Love—love that transcends personalities, bargaining and hidden agendas—is the healing balm for our mental and emotional nightmares. Many techniques are helpful—often crucial—for leading us to the place where we can begin to engage in a conscious relationship with Spirit. I believe that understanding that a spirituality of consciousness is the bedrock of mental, emotional and inter-relational health will underpin the next great advances in the field. We will own that we can’t tippy-toe around spirituality or pretend that it’s an option of personal preference like a fashion accessory. It’s a necessary component of human health. How individuals choose to practice—which beliefs, which traditions—is discretionary of course (and not all are inherently healthy), but for true, resilient and lasting mental and emotional health, opting out of spirituality is not an option. Conscious spirituality is the difference between a life of coping and one of mastery and thriving.
Not all that long ago addiction was considered a hopeless disease, or worse, a hopeless moral failing. A couple of temporarily sober drunks employed faith as they understood it to rebuild lives of sobriety and purpose. And they shared their ideas with others, many of whom found that it worked. Thus was Alcoholics Anonymous born, and the foundation of the program is belief in a higher power. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob were on to something, and it’s not just for “addicts.”
The development of a healthy dependence on Spirit is modeled in “A Course in Miracles,” which, interestingly, came through the work of two psychotherapists. I believe this is the wave of the future.
Thanks for a great question!
I am always bringing together the psychology of the west with the eastern psychology that embraces the spiritual as well as the body and the mind. Both work well depending on the needs of the person I work with.
Dear Ruth, I am so excited to see what you just wrote, because I’ve been practicing this way forever. Even though we were taught to select one theoretical approach and follow it, I just never could force myself into one narrow silo, because every theory and every school of thought has something valuable to offer. After learning as much as we can about new research, and establishing a strong therapeutic relationship, I think most of what actually helps clients is the therapist’s intuition. At every moment in our time with clients, there are innumerable options for how to connect, empathize, discover, challenge, redirect, reframe, inform, support, etc. Therefore, I believe that we need all the concepts and techniques we can collect, so that at the crucial moment we can find the perfect tool for helping our clients to change their lives.
The most healing aspect of therapy is the compassionate, attuned presence of the therapist which provides a respectful, safe space for healing to take place.
Yep, the silos are overemphasized these days. We must trust our own intelligence and follow our own inspirations. Perhaps if we could see the silos extended, vertically, we would find many meeting-places!
So: it’s good to get the gist of a method or approach, but not to be a slavish follower. This way, and by really listening to the client, their own insights and aspirations, new approaches will be forming all the time. One way not mentioned here is by listening to people’s actual dreams, and working with them, as they often contain pointers on where to go.
Working in schools, as I did, and answerable to so many people, I was constantly challenged. I needed to be able to point to theory and defend my approaches on so many levels. Being eclectic is okay. A few new ideas can be added to the pot as the soup thickens…so to speak. The main problem, as I see it, is continuing to promote the profession of helpers. Helpers cannot be snobby, but we need to be supported as professionals who know what they are doing. Therapy continues to be an “add on” and stigmatized.
Mindfulness has been a boon to the eclectic approach. Living in the here and now is important in spiritual approaches to helping, too. Do not introduce too many new ideas. Keep working what we have into mindfulness approaches until it is exhausted. The more we bring our learning and practices together, the more accepted and understood it may become in the general public sector.
All mental discomfort is a wound of the spirit. Our spirit is joined with our body. I expand my skills and tools by looking to traditional methods as well as brain science, mindfullness,heart work and recovery. My mentors are shamans, Porges, Ron Kurtz, breathwork, loving presence and 12 Step methods.
Psychosynthesis, pioneered by the Italian psychiatrist, Roberto Assagioli, is a very unifying and comprehensive approach to our field which was conceived before our field was ready for it. It has been slowly evolving and has been practiced for many years by a relatively modest number of therapists who have not focused on being in the public eye. I recommend looking up the Association for the Advancement of Psychosynthesis or AAP. I received training in Psychosynthesisin the early 80’s and have found it to be the mainstay of my practice and that all the current therapies are extensions of it it’s broad perspective of body, mind, spirit, interpersonal, and transpersonal overview. I think it’s time has come to be presented to the larger psychotherapeutic community.
To my mind, the next generation of ideas will come out of observed efficacy, combined with multi-modal training. I began my journey as a psychotherapist almost thirty years ago. During that time I have trained, and often supervised and taught in a number of different models — CBT, CAT, ACT, IPNB, psychodynamic, jungian, mindfulness-based, and others. Like most of my colleagues, most of the training was either overtly or subtly diagnosis-driven. As well, I was never taught that having access to a variety of approaches might be helpful to patients.
But I’ve discovered, through my own personal focus on efficacy — my goal in therapy is always to create a situation in which the patient feels they are living with agency and healthy self regard in their own life — that both diagnosis and exclusive model-based therapy is far less than helpful.
As therapists, I feel we need to be consumers of both models and attitudes. For too long, models have behaved like religions. “Am I doing it right?” needs to be replaced resoundingly with “Is my patient getting better?”. If the answer to the latter question is “No, not really”, don’t go back to question one. Try different tools. It’s clear that if you don’t have mastery with a range of tools, this isn’t an option.
It’s the old adage that if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail. Our toolboxes need to be packed with skills; and our CPD needs to not just hone the familiar ones, but continually provide us with new ones, which in turn, we need to have the courage to try, to become masterful with, and if it’s proven over and over that an attitude, model or skill is largely unhelpful, to DISCARD.
We are spiritual beings in a human body. As well as taking care of our physical needs,we must also take care of our psy/spiritual needs with equal dedication. Our total well-being begins with the practice of presence, awareness, consciousness….first in regard to self knowledge, self-awareness with acceptance and compassion….that’s just the start, the foundation !