I Love Reading The Diferent Perspectives Brought To The Forum, So Much So I Wish More Practitioners Would Join In.
Question: I've been submitting answers to questions in the forum - along with other regulars - for the past few months. Many people benefit from the responses besides those who ask the questions. Some email me with further information privately. I love reading the different perspectives brought to the forum, so much so I wish more practitioners would join in. Since there are over 120 therapists with profiles here, any of whom can contribute, how is it that so many choose to hold back? Peter
Response (1) Peter, I would like to join you in encouraging other Good Therapy practitioners to consider contributing to the Public Forum. For some who post questions, this may be the first time they have put a concern out into the world. Getting a response validates or normalises their concern. If they go on to seek assistance, a correspondent may have, by providing their professional perspective, moved another human being who was feeling alone and troubled, that much closer to resolution and acceptance. I regard this as a sort of Cyberspace pro-bono or honorary work. I commend it to others.
Response (2) Therapists who answer forum questions attract more attention and are therefore more likely to obtain enquiries, perhaps eventually leading to work. Whether motivated by possible financial gain or an altruistic interest in our fellow man, or both, it makes good sense to contribute. I also believe that therapists have a moral and intellectual obligation to speak out on contentious social issues and though essentially not for this purpose, the forum questions do ocassionally provide an opportunity for this.
Response (3) In a live audience we can hear the hushed silence, shuffling in seats, a laugh of encouragement, the sporadic sigh, an occasional cry. Here in cyberspace no mouse clicks, no thoughts turning over, nor hopes or prayers can we hear until the reader commits to respond. This frontier is vast, silent like the ahhh greeting life when it arrives on a moist, welcoming planet. When a live audience feels the genuine energy of a speaker, she doesn't have to worry about technique because energy is so captivating and convincing. So into this vacuum I write energetically. In a live audience that is the message and one with which we interact, and influence in turn with our wrapped attention or empty gaze, with an approving ah hah or with critical glares.
Here in cyberspace how does the silent majority influence what or even if she writes? In myself, I travel with the question and may think of a lot of good reasons not to respond. Most of those are associated with risk. But I teach my clients we only get from life what we are prepared to risk giving, so I walk it with the questioner who has risked as well. All of the questioners risks are ultimately greater than mine and often I won't rest with a big question that a good therapy reader has set before us without offering my first response, 'I hear you'. The rest follows. Aristotle believed that one of the keys to human excellence is habituation: force yourself to do something the right way long enough and it becomes second nature. More about the seven habits of persuasive speakers.
Peter Fox, Clinical Psychologist
