I have been on a blogging binge for my website and have promised myself that I will continue until I have a library of pieces for when the urge to blog binge abates. It has made me think about the concept of blogging about therapy in general and in particular why I do it.
I started doing it when a number of my patients said “I want to write that down” after exploring something I had said to them in their therapy session that day. I keep paper for them to use, writing makes it real. Or a patient will say “you ought to write about that” once again when we have been talking about something in their therapy work.
I want to be clear that my posts come almost completely from my work as a therapist listening to people over time hearing consistent themes, their personal and intimate stories and seeking to provide psychotherapeutic treatment and care. My thoughts and feelings about therapy come from my experience of being a therapist, from what people bring to the consultation room as well as my training and continuous learning.
Certainly my blog content is informed by how I personally navigate the world and my experiences in it but I doubt that I would do any other kind of blog just because I believe I have thoughts and notions worth sharing. I love to garden and have ideas about what makes a good garden but a gardening blog is probably not in my future. The things I write about come from my work as a therapist and are filtered through that prism. Yes we are all unique beings but there are themes and threads which wind through the human condition and those are the things I find fascinating and choose to write about. There are also mental disorders such as anxiety and depression which require and deserve the attention paid to other acute and chronic health conditions like diabetes and hypertension. Some people are gravely emotionally injured by what life may throw at them and the disruptions to their life and well being they may create for themselves. They might not see themselves as “mentally ill” but can nonetheless be severely impacted by those injuries while seeming to be successful in terms of how our society understands success….wealth, power, prestige….but still suffering.
I don’t routinely offer advice and at least up to this point any kind of referrals in the blog although I may mention an author, a learned colleague or an interview I heard with someone I like such as Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley or Judy Woodruff. I am reserved in how I see my work as a psychotherapist and believe that the best advice a person can get is often that which she/he learns from the self. I do believe however that as Claudia Black, PhD, a pioneer in the understanding of alcoholic families, says that sometimes we need to “press the bruise” and some of my blog thoughts reflect this.
If you are inspired to think or feel differently about something which has been bothering you as a result of reading my psychotherapy blog I am pleased. I urge you to seek professional clinical help from a trained, experienced and licensed psychotherapist in a face to face contact with a breathing human sitting in front of you. I and many of my colleagues are appalled by the increase of services which promise psychotherapy by text or telephone with someone you have never met who could be at the gas station two pumps over from you while providing you “therapy”. Much of good therapy is about developing a relationship where there is safety and privacy, where the time and attention are devoted to you and for that two people collaborating in person is needed.
Mental pain is real and suffering is not noble. You wouldn’t say “I’m going to wait and see if my broken leg heals itself” because getting a cast put on it would be seen as weak. You need to treat all your body parts with equal respect and one of those parts is your emotional self.
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