Approach and background

I think of psychotherapy as a very ordinary kind of conversation between two people. What makes this conversation different to other conversations, however, is that it is in the service of one person in particular. It is a space and time in which we can think together about whatever troubles, motivates or perplexes you. How to make use of this space and time is not predetermined but discovered in the process. I suggest we don’t come to therapy in order to find out what we already know, but in order to discover what we don’t, becoming more familiar with what lies beyond the grasp of rational thinking. It has been my experience that this finding out of what we don’t already know can help us make better sense of ourselves and our lives, facilitating a natural process of change. 

I chose to train at The Philadelphia Association for its unique and long-standing culture of questioning contemporary treatment of and thinking around psychological distress. The PA places an emphasis on the specificity of each person’s experience in the world, with an acute sensitivity towards how our close relationships and the wider society we live in intimately influence that experience. We read both psychoanalytic texts and works of continental philosophy in order to best think through the complexities of human suffering.