So how does Clinical Psychology fit into this?

I don’t know where I read this many years ago, but it went something like this:

“When I strike a problem, then the first thing I ask myself is: ‘How would the Lone Ranger handle this?’”

Believe it or not: we don’t have to sort it out all by ourselves… There really is a point in connecting with someone, bouncing backwards and forwards a few ideas, checking out a fresh approach, and getting some clarity from an outside view. This is what friends are for, or certain members of our family, in case you are well connected and closely supported by your social network. It can also help to get in someone neutral, someone who is not caught up in loyalties to anybody, and who will stay forever 100% confidential.

Clinical Psychology (as I understand and practice it) is a solution-oriented approach. In this method, we are not particularly worried about feelings; we are not afraid of them but they are clearly not our focus point. We believe that feelings often have a reason or a “context”, which creates a particular emotion. For example if you have a bully as a boss who gives you a hard time each time you go to work, and if you have already tried all sorts of things unsuccessfully, then the feeling you are likely to have is one of frustration, or helplessness. If you had an illness that took you out of work for while; your job is now no longer open for you, and you don’t know how to build yourself a new career, then your feelings may of anxiety, concern or sometimes even quite depressed. It is not that you have the wrong feelings; on the contrary, your feelings are perfectly in tune with what your situation is. What needs to happen is that your situation changes and that you can again make a few positive experiences, such as being in control again, handling things well, and connecting with your assertiveness again. As a result of this, you will also have better feelings.

The question I will ask you is not: “how are you feeling?”, but “how have you been managing this situation?”, “how would you rather manage this situation?”, and “what are the strategies we need to acquire and practice, so that you can manage this situation differently?”

Whilst this may sound a little technical, it is not at all cold or distant. On the contrary, because I want you to have better feelings and a sense of control and joy in your life, I want you to make different experiences. Experiences of being able to set boundaries clearly, of communicating effectively and confidently, of claiming time and space for yourself, of putting things into perspective, of working out step by step a way forward out of helplessness, and of being nobody’s doormat ever again.

Clinical Psychology, in contrast to the traditional “counselling-approach”, is assessment-based. That means you are not going anywhere without first establishing where exactly you are placed currently (e.g. What are the symptoms and how severe are these; what are your triggers; what are your current strategies? What exactly do you want to achieve? What situation do you want to handle in which way? How will you demonstrate your new confidence to whom and when? What are the tools we need to acquire and how do we practice these? And: how many sessions do we need for this?)

The journey with a Clinical Psychologist is meant to be short and empowering. They are there to make change happen. Rarely more than six sessions are required. Then the Psychologist steps out of your life. They are not taking over or telling you what goals you should have in life. They are just helping you to get wherever you want to go more successfully, without losing so much energy with friction, confusion, or ineffective tools.