S2E1 - "How did you decide to become a psychotherapist?" - Reflections on my journey so far.

Welcome to Series 2

It's January 2022 and I thought I'd begin this new series attempting to answer the question about my journey to working as a psychotherapist.

In this episode I reflect on a some personal experiences and events in my life that to a greater or lesser extent focused me or directed me to working as a psychotherapist.  I've chosen to illustrate my journey with a recording of a presentation I gave at an AIDS conference in 1985.  Towards the end of this presentation I rolled together experiences of several different clients and presented them as brief individual case studies.  I think it gives you an indication here of me wanting to respond directly and practically to people’s personal situations that opened the way for me to think and prepare working as a psychotherapist.

After the presentation I give some reflections on how those times affect my psychotherapeutic practice today and a suggestion for therapists' in training.

Happy New Year....

You can view the video of this conference presentation in my AIDS Archive on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/7-VkI8qok_s

You can read more about my experiences during the AIDS crisis and how they shaped my work in this short Blog at the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy web site: https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/news/40-years-of-hiv-aids-in-the-uk/