10 Questions with Pam Danson

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

• It was the first time I felt fully connected to something deeper in myself that might show the way to knowing how to navigate life and always have a ‘place to come home to’. By that I mean that no matter how tortuous my situation, I would always be able to access my awareness and track my experience and be able to report on it to anyone who was interested. I also had the good fortune to witness masters demonstrating a model which was incredibly transparent to me and made me feel – that’s doable, that’s learnable, there are steps to follow and I could do that. I was invited to a group by a friend and I felt I'd come home.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional/personal development?

• Process oriented Psychology which draws on and elaborates on the work of Jung, Freud, Perls, Lao Tse/Taoism, Physics, and a host of others. Process oriented psychology encourages me to follow very carefully and precisely the content but also the bigger dreaming process that is guiding the person's life. I see it as my task to track that process and help make it transparent to the client so that they can find the gold at the end of the rainbow!

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

• I’m interested in all aspects of health and the human journey. That’s the mystery and the excitement – that no matter who presents with what – there is always a path to follow – the unconscious leaves calling cards clearly for us to follow with our attention and awareness – if we are able to track it. Then it becomes a matter of personal growth in myself – that I continually explore myself so that when I meet a client and they present a situation, inwardly I can feel – ‘ah yes, I know this’. But then it is interesting what issues seem to recurringly present – lately it has been death and dying.

• What method/s do you use?

• Basically – whatever works for the client! I endeavour to support the client’s goal, understand that goal in context and why it came about. I will also seek to understand what the impediments are to that goal and how they fit into the scheme of things. I will frame things in terms of language and concepts familiar to the client. I will use dreams if the client brings dreams; I will use pictures if the client wants to draw, I will use dialogue if that’s where the client is most comfortable, I will use movement if the client is open to that... I will use sound, role play, humour, guess work, compassion and intuition to find solutions and directions. I will feel into the deepest part of myself to see what else might be there... and see if what emerges may have anything to do with the client...

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

• Sometimes its within the first session, sometimes it takes a number of sessions. Most issues have taken years to come to this point - to do the issues justice often requires a number of sessions to firstly understand, to discover patterns, to find relief, to find new directions, to practise different ways of being, to heal old wounds and new, to develop more inner awareness of what we feel and even discover what we think after we’ve gone past the first layer. Sometimes it needs months and for the super committed, some clients choose to do therapy as a way of life to keep learning and growing.

• How has therapy made you a better person?

• My awareness of what’s going on is always something I can come back to. I have the ability to reflect on my own behaviour and that of others. I am able to admit mistakes, apologise deeply, am more compassionate of others, am more capable of tackling bigger issues and just generally more interested in the world.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

• Constantly being challenged by new situations, constantly enjoying the beauty and diversity of the human condition, enjoying deeper and deeper issues and complexity and marvelling at what makes us tick. My own personal growth aids my work with clients and being able to get out of chairs every so often with clients who are up for that allows for more creativity through movement and roleplay and feeling into new possibilities.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

• Sure, though it is sometimes hard to know where the mood comes from. Last week I was concerned because I seemed to be in a slightly flippant mood during a session. At the end of the session the client said “I thought I would be in a mess today but I wasn’t and I thought... mmm... did I pick up the lighter side because really that client is managing that situation better than ever and just realised it.... was my mood my own or partially belonging to them?

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

• That we ourselves can change and that the change we hope and expect from others is also our responsibility. We're rarely aware of our own privilege and capacity to be aware of how hurtful we can be towards others. Its human to identify as the victim of life and very normal, however we are also capable of being at all points along a broad continuum. Being interested in all of our wholeness is generally relieving and more exciting to embrace more of ourselves.

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

• Riding the Horse Backwards by Arnold Mindell; Cry Freedom (film) and Before Night Falls (film)