After attaining my doctorate in clinical psychology, I continued my training by completing a non-required four year program in psychoanalysis.  Despite possessing all those years of education, there is still something I do not understand (although I have my theories).  Why do so many (not all) psychologists and psychoanalysts work in such a reserved and distant manner with their patients? Similarly, why is so much of the psychology/psychoanalytic literature so dense, hard-to-read, and full of jargon?  There are many reasons for this state of affairs, such as Freud's original belief that the therapist should be a neutral "blank screen," and not a genuine person in the office with a patient.  In regard to the psychological literature, perhaps some writers believe that the material is sufficiently complicated that it warrants the heavy use of technical jargon. While I do not dismiss these beliefs categorically, I have found that these practices have too often decreased the efficacy of psychotherapy.  This reduction in effectiveness is most unfortunate, given that the reason people seek out therapy is to improve their lives.

So how do I work with my patients?  I work in the same manner in which I am writing now: directly, and without need for undue obfuscation and mystery.  I believe my patients have a right to know what I think and why.  This approach is based on a collaborative model of treatment.  Through my training and experience, I possess significant skills and utilize resourceful approaches to conduct and guide the psychotherapeutic process. These skills include, for example, the use of constructive questions to further your self-awareness; the knowledge of many self-destructive or counterproductive patterns (often unconscious) that people fall into; and when and how to push the patient and when to be more gentle. Sometimes I am wrong, but I always strive to operate from an informed position. My clients, however, know about themselves- their past and present experiences, and their thoughts and feelings. There are times of course (and this is part of the treatment process) when there are things they do not know; we then combine our respective abilities and perspectives to figure it out together.  Moreover, my clients possess their own capacities for insight.  It's my job to cultivate and collaborate with those abilities, not to overlook them.  After all, the goal is for you to leave therapy able to gain self-awareness and continue to make changes on your own so you do not have to continually depend on a therapist.  This corresponds to that saying, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day… If you teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”