4 May 2016
Scheduling
I’ve had more than one client ask over the last while whether I’ve contemplated switching from my current mode of scheduling — which is either person-to-person, over the phone, or via email — to an online model which would effectively cut out the interaction in favour of convenience. Now, beginning an argument with I’m no technophobe, but… might indicate that indeed I am such a thing. Rather, I have a couple of ways to answer this.
First, standing outside my practice, I can certainly see how online scheduling might provide advantages; aside from convenience it’s also fast. If I were booking time with an accountant or personal trainer, this would probably be a handy feature. That said, psychotherapy — particularly psychodynamic psychotherapy — is about the importance of interpersonal interaction: how its use or misuse affects us, in the present or accumulatively from the past. This isn’t to say that talking about whether next Thursday at 1pm is, technically, therapy. But how we negotiate that otherwise small detail with someone else — the interaction — potentially is. Life is, after all, a series of small interactions; how we process our amassed experiences, in how we see ourselves and our place in the world, is no small matter.
Psychotherapy is the last place where you want to experience the impersonal.
If you are interested in learning more about my services, about me, or perhaps booking an appointment, please call me at 416-873-7828 or email me at info@downtowntherapy.ca for more information.
filed under: general info• policy• psychotherapy• socialization
28 March 2016
Here Comes Success…
It’s possible that, on paper at least, we can appear to have achieved success – even wild success – and yet feel little in the way of connection with it. You might be surprised to hear that this situation isn’t particularly rare, although there can be many causes for feeling this way.
One contributing factor might be growing up in an environment where nothing we did was good enough for one or both of our parents. Got an A? Why wasn’t it A+? Got a scholarship? Well, there’s plenty of unemployed people with scholarships out there.
Another factor might be the way we feel about ourselves; like a variation of the above example except turned inward for some reason, where a verdict of “not enough” is heard no matter how many hurdles we might jump, no matter how many digits our income may increase by.
It is not rare to be “successful” (that is to say, financially well-off, with a good job in an interesting career…or perhaps it’s just doing the thing we always thought we’d do, no matter how much we get paid) and yet feel alone, and directionless. In other words, feeling like there’s a disparity between how we feel and how we think we should be feeling.
If this describes you, then perhaps you might benefit from examining our ideas about yourself, as well as your emotional connection to the world, with a therapist. Just a thought.
If you are interested in learning more about my services, about me, or perhaps booking an appointment, please call me at 416-873-7828 or email me at info@downtowntherapy.ca for more information.
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