Mr Tim Fraser

A conversation with Tim Fraser

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

  Previously I worked in mental health recovery support in both inpatient and outpatient settings, provided psychological care to hundreds of people in drug-affected states as a Dancewize volunteer, and have been active in drug law reform and environmental activism. Before entering mental health I had a career in communications, helping to foster the social enterprise, solar energy, and education sectors.
  
  I’ve worked and studied in many different areas, but over time common threads have emerged. I’ve realised that my path has always been shaped by a desire to understand how and why people change, what produces effective communication, and what is possible for humans both individually and collectively.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  I have a degree in political science and have spent many years volunteering for social causes, so I'm an activist almost as much as I'm a therapist. I care deeply about justice, and while environmental and drug policy causes have been my main focus in activism, I feel solidarity with anyone fighting for a more just world. To me healing is central to the pursuit of justice; what purpose does justice serve if it does not restore something lost or alleviate unnecessary suffering?
  
  The compassion and curiosity of Charles Eisenstein reminds me to balance my fervour for passion with patience and empathy for those with different views from me.
  
  I also am informed by a breadth of philosophical positions, from the embodied wisdom of Deep Ecology, to the liberalism of John Stuart Mill, to Audre Lorde's insistence on the importance of the intersectional lens.

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

  I'm interested in reconnecting mind, body, and nature at individual and collective levels. Deep Ecology, somatic awareness, psychedelics, grief work, and spirituality are all important avenues of personal and professional exploration for me.

• What methods do you use?

  Mentalisation
  Meta-cognitive based therapies
  Three Pillar attachment repair/Ideal Parent Figure protocol
  Internal Family Systems
  The Conversational Model (Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy)
  Somatic Experiencing
  Focusing
  Deep Ecology
  
  

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

  From the beginning. I think that when the therapeutic relationship is likely to be valuable both client and therapist feel it early on. I prefer to take things slow at the start, to clearly establish what the client needs, what context this need has emerged from, and what I believe we can do together to address. However, I believe that even in this process of laying the ground work the client should feel that they are beginning to make progress, even if it just by clarifying their own intention and commitment to the process of change.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  Therapy has given me a place to bring the hard questions and the overwhelming experiences to.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  The profound intimacy of working side-by-side with a person through their unique challenges and holding them with kindness through that process.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  Every day at the moment; I keep not getting around to the hair cut I increasingly need.
  
  Of course I have bad hair days though. The ones where I notice that I'm quicker to judge the people around me, or perhaps myself. The ones where all the work I've put in and all the progress I usually feel I've made instead feels like it's actually gotten me nowhere.
  
  I start just by noticing that I'm having a bad day though, and then decide whether I need to go a bit easier on myself.

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

  Ignorance. Sometimes wilful, often not. Political, social, cultural interpersonal, and intrapersonal. I think that as a species we still don't understand ourselves and our place in the scheme of things well enough. This comes from a lack of education, a lack of exposure to potential solutions, and a lack of reflectivity.

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

  Any number of Jon Hopkins songs. His music is so varied, from intense and powerful techno to soft and tender classical piano. Within it I find ecstasy, curiosity, innocence, wonder, and so much more.