After many years working with clients, it occurred to me that I was having similar conversations with so many of them. All, admittedly, with their own tailor made slant. Never two dialogues totally identical but so many similar themes.

Carl Rogers famously said “what’s most personal is most universal”. This is true. Just when we think we are at the heart of our uniqueness, we are in fact touching our most shared and relatable experiences. I came the think that it might be a help to write some of these themes down; save any potential clients a bit of time and a bit of soul searching.

You can’t have a really good, really intimate therapeutic experience, sitting on your own, reading a blog. Nothing beats actually being in a room with another human, connecting through all of your perceived strangeness. You can however get a little glimpse through the window of the therapist. What are they seeing?

So, what follows are my insights into some of our most universal experiences. The things that we mistakenly think make us so special.

Maybe this will be interesting for any current or prospective psychotherapy clients. Maybe even to fellow psychotherapists and counsellors. Nothing too controversial or novel. Just what I see as basic common sense.

My job as a psychotherapist (and before that as a psychiatrist) has been, at it’s more simple, to show up, listen and state the obvious. Well, here is a link to a blog which is focused on just that. I will show up and state what I consider to be the obvious. Hopefully it will inform, educate and entertain. But at the very least, it will entertain me. And help me to crystallise some of my thinking.

And I invite you to join me