Are You A Therapist Who Feels Creatively And Emotionally Stuck?

Do you feel like you’re at an impasse in your therapeutic career? Maybe you feel bored or overwhelmed by your patients, and your relationships with them have grown stale. You may start to feel like you’re inadequate, as if you have nothing to offer them. Perhaps you’re struggling in silence, and just wish you had someone in your field to have honest discussions with.

As a psychotherapist, the clinical process often seems straightforward——for a while. Over time, however, a sense of boredom or even dread can settle in. It’s easy to feel like you’re just saying the same things over and over again, like you’re stuck in a creative rut with your patients. Certain patients may even alarm you, raising difficulties you never anticipated and aren’t sure how to deal with.

If this is the case, I encourage you to connect with me. Having had years of experience training other psychotherapists, I would love to help you get back on track and reclaim a sense of confidence and accomplishment in your practice. Beyond that, I want to help you tap into new wellsprings of creativity and insight.

Therapy Is An Art, And All Great Therapists Experience Creative Lows

All great artists go through periods when their inspiration runs dry, and it’s the truly dedicated artists who get bothered by it the most. In many ways, therapy is no different. Being frustrated at your own lack of inspiration is a sign of dedication to your craft. It shows that you want to grow and expand your knowledge of the process. The therapists who don’t feel stuck are most likely the ones content to remain where they are. It’s only out of creative frustration and a desire to discover new modes of thought that a therapist grows.

Therapy is an art, not a science. It’s lived, not prescribed. Built into the very fabric of therapy is the idea of growing in pairs. This is true of a therapist-to-patient relationship, but it’s also true of relationships between therapists themselves. That’s the beauty of clinical consultations. This is a chance for you to share your frustrations with an experienced clinician who knows what a wild, confusing, ever-changing journey therapy is.

Clinical Supervision Is About Opening Up Your Mind To New Modes Of Thought

Private practice is often a lonely business, a fact which isn’t talked about enough during training. Seeing so many patients can be emotionally draining. As a result, it’s easy to feel isolated, exhausted and withdrawn. Clinical supervision is a time for you to feel free to express yourself, without having to edit yourself or sound “smart” or “compassionate.” It’s a time for you to bring alive your own vitality and remind yourself of why you wanted to become a therapist in the first place.

First and foremost, my approach to supervision and consultation is not about opening up your mind to my way of thinking. It’s about finding a language between us that opens up a third possibility. In that way, consultations operate much the same way as psychotherapy. The point is to allow for freedom and spontaneity of thought. This way, novel thinking comes into play and old habits that kept therapeutic relationships from moving forward are set aside.

There is no set protocol for our sessions. For some therapists, a single-hour consultation is enough to get them going in a more productive direction. For others, they find coming in twice a month or on a weekly basis better suits their needs (especially if they manage very large practices). Generally speaking, a therapist who comes to see me will start by focusing on one patient in particular. This naturally leads to new revelations and possibilities with other patients. The result is an enriching process that opens up avenues of growth neither of us could’ve imagined without collaboration.

As a therapist, I have a psychoanalytically-informed approach to consultations. By exploring the unconscious dynamics at play in your patients, we can understand how they stir up unconscious dynamics in yourself. If you feel unable to help a client, for instance, we’ll examine why the patient elicits feelings of, say, inadequacy or helplessness in you. The important point to remember, however, is that these feelings are not a sign of weakness——they’re a sign of a profound desire for growth.

I’ve been working in supervision since 2001. For a number of years, I have trained and supervised doctoral students at Airport Marina Counseling Service. I am currently on faculty in the New Center for Psychoanalysis psychoanalytic psychotherapy program, where I have taught courses on infancy, gender and psychosis. Through the NCP Extension I have taught courses on psychosis, gender and film. In 2019 I taught courses on countertransference, as well as psychosis, in the Altered States certificate program at LAISPS, which focused on working with addiction and eating disorders from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Between my time as a licensed therapist and my experience training newcomers, I believe I have the tools to help you revitalize your practice. Most importantly, however, I believe we can both help each other learn and grow as individuals. Therapy is a two-way street, and so is clinical supervision. We’re here to enrich each other. Along the way, my hope is that you will feel re-inspired and breathe new life into your practice.

You may have some questions about clinical supervision…

Will I feel embarrassed or stupid for not knowing all the answers?

No therapist has all the answers, including me. Doubt and uncertainty are the springboard of all growth. Any feelings of embarrassment you have are a sign that you want to expand your knowledge and grow as a person. As human beings, we can flourish indefinitely given the right support, so why not use this opportunity for self-improvement? Yes, we’re doing this partly for the patients, but we’re also doing it for ourselves.

Shouldn’t I be able to do this on my own?

Although you might be able to make some changes on your own through readings or workshops, what you gain from talking one-on-one to a more experienced clinical therapist is the beauty of perspective. No matter how intelligent you are, everyone needs someone to inspire them from time to time. No great artist succeeds in a vacuum, and no great therapist does, either.

Additionally, I myself have been in supervision or consultation almost weekly for my entire career. There is no end to the need for growth as a psychotherapist. And, to me, that’s the good part. We can do this for the rest of our professional lives and still enjoy the experience of learning something new.

Therapy Doesn’t Have To Be An Emotional Burnout

If difficult relationships with patients have made you question how to be a therapist all over again, I encourage you to connect with me. Together, we can enrich your practice and reignite the spark that made you want to pursue this journey in the beginning. To get started, call me at 310-403-4700 for a free 20-minute phone consultation. To schedule an appointment, you can go to my online scheduling software.