“Patients come to us because they have lost their freedom to engage in self-creation. … They know they want something different in their lives but are unable to see what inhibits their freedom. Our task as therapists is to help them recover their freedom to love, to live, and to create a life that matters. Their past, their diagnoses, and their genetics are easy to mistake as factors that completely determine their lives. But then we relate to dead concepts rather than living persons.” 

I’m excited to start my 3 year core training in ISTDP (Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy). The quote above is from Jon Frederickson’s book “Co-creating Change – Effective Dynamic Therapy Techniques” (2013, p. 1-2), a prominent teacher, therapist, and author in the field of ISTDP, and his book is one on the list of course literature. This quote is something I strive to live and work by – to see the living persons that I meet (and myself too!) rather than stories and labels attached to them. We can’t help what we were born into and what was done to us – what matters is what we do with it. My zen training helps a lot as well in this striving; to practice being fully aware of each moment as it is, without adding thoughts or fantasies to it. And when I undoubtedly do, I practice letting go of those thoughts and fantasies without judgment. I can’t help being a human – I am, just like you, a living person. Let’s make the best of this life together. Let me know if I can be of help to you! 

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