David Anthony

A conversation with David Anthony

• What led you to choose psychotherapy or counselling as a profession?

  Life offered me a chance to teach music in a maximum security gaol. This opened my eyes to the power of music to heal and connect. So, I studied for my post-grad qualifications and started working initially in disability work. After a few years, I transitioned to working with children who have experienced intergenerational trauma. This reinforced my understanding of music’s extraordinary capacities, but, thanks to working alongside art, dance, drama, and play therapists (as well as a social worker), it also introduced me to the power of play and connection. So, I feel comfortable including elements of these modalities into our sessions, if that is what suits you.
  
  After 12 years, I left the childhood trauma role and took up part-time work in an acute adolescent mental health unit, and another part-time role in a hospice for adolescents and young adults, as well as my private practice mental health and NDIS work. From what I can tell, all of us seek the same thing, positive relationships with our self and others.
  
  Along this path, I have lost 8 mates to suicide; all of whom were under clinical care for their mental health. I feel that men’s mental health is critically important to our society, and can be done better than it generally is. So, for the past 6 or so years, in addition to my work with women and children, I have been putting extra energy into supporting men’s mental health needs.
  
  Meanwhile, I continue to live my life… travelling, training martial arts, building loving relationships, spending time in nature… all of which informs and enriches my therapy work.
  

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  Working with children impacted by intergenerational trauma introduced me to “trauma-informed care”. This has become the most important tenet of my work, regardless of whether the client has a trauma history or not. This approach centres around understanding how our experiences can impact our capacity for positive relationships, and how our therapeutic engagement with clients needs to offer opportunities for safety, self-regulation, agency, and empowerment.
  
  My first clinical supervisor was(and still is) a Narrative Therapist, and so this has heavily influenced my therapeutic approach. This helps me to recognise that we create stories about our experiences, and these stories shape our present and future responses, and as a consequence, our relationships. By using principles of trauma-informed care, and by offering opportunities for play and or joy, we can explore different stories about ourselves, and often challenge the existing stories we have embedded. Instead of seeing ourselves as anxious or depressed, we can acknowledge that we have those periods and also periods of joy and hope and play. Allowing a crack in our existing narrative is the first step to creating a new one; one that nourishes us and the people around us.
  
  The approach that I have developed over the years has many similarities with an approach called NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model). So, I have recently been studying that, and adding another dimension to my practice. NARM is built on the foundation of several key principles:
  
  - Relational and Developmental Approach: NARM emphasizes the significance of early attachment and relational patterns in shaping an individual’s identity and their capacity for emotional regulation (see Dyadic Regulation).
  - Somatic Awareness: The model acknowledges the impact of trauma on the mind-body connection, and integrates somatic awareness and regulation into the therapeutic process.
  - Working with Shame and Self-Regulation: NARM recognizes the pervasive influence of shame in individuals who have experienced developmental trauma, and focuses on promoting self-regulation and healthy interpersonal connections (see emotional regulation).
  - Attachment Patterns and Identity: Understanding one’s attachment patterns and their influence on identity formation is a central aspect of NARM, as it aims to empower individuals to re-establish a sense of agency and authenticity.
  
  Finally, I can’t reflect on my approach without acknowledging the significance of nature in our well-being. Whether it is a pot plant in the lounge room or some herbs on the windowsill, whether it is walking in the park or camping deep in the bush, connecting with nature has the potential to help us physically and emotionally.
  
  And all of these approaches speak to the connection between our mind and body. My belief is that we need to be connected to and taking care of our body as well as connected to and taking care of our emotions. This connection can be done through playing, singing and moving to music, breathwork, art, walking, etc. Let me know what suits you.
  

• Which particular aspects of health or the human journey are you interested in?

  Building positive relationships with self and with others.
  
  Trauma recovery.
  
  Men’s mental health and masculinity.
  
  Adolescent identity formation.
  

• What methods do you use?

  Qualified and Registered in Music Therapy
  
  Influenced by and draw upon elements of:
  - NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model)
  - Narrative
  - Art
  - Movement
  - Play
  - Nature
  

• When do you think the client will start to feel that progress is being made?

  There is a therapy model called Single-Session Therapy, which suggests that there should be opportunities for change in each session. I aim to give the client a fresh and positive understanding of themselves from our first meeting. Each session will build on this, and our deepening therapeutic alliance (rapport) will hopefully allow the client to feel safe enough to explore their experiences and responses with growing openness and vulnerability.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  My personal therapy helps me to identify response and relationship patterns that are hindering me from giving and receiving love. Like everyone, I am a work in progress.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  I like those moments when a client leaves liking themself more than when they arrived, and when they make decisions that benefit themselves and the people around them.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  I haven’t had cool hair since I was 10. But who cares?

• What do you think is the most significant problem we face, in the world today?

  Hmmm. Difficult to find the “most”. Giving it some thought, a lot of the big issues (social media, political division, distribution of wealth, etc) could find their way back to “power” - the allocation of power to people ill-equipped to use it, and most of whom don’t seem to understand that our species relies on positive connections to survive.

• Can you share the name of a book, film, song, event or work of art that inspires you?

  Too many to name… I mostly get moved by music, art, and books - not so much by movies. Music serves a thousand roles - from Phoenix or Chaka Khan making me dance, to choral music that brings me to tears. A favourite book is Johann Hari’s Lost Connections (I have bought 9 or 10 copies and shared them around), but I also loved Light and Shadow by Mark Colvin. When it comes to art, I am often moved by individual pieces. I have an incredible piece by a friend of mine, Cindy Scharka, of a homeless man sleeping on the cardboard that the artwork is done on. And my missus has a collection of beautiful art from contemporary Indigenous artists like Jason Wing, Maddie Gibbs, and Blak Douglas that I find very beautiful.
  
  I think what all of these creative expressions share is a search for truth and connection. This is how they inspire me and my work.