Alice Suttie

A conversation with Alice Suttie

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

  My passion for counselling began when, as a student nurse in the ’80s, I realised how little time was given attending to the emotional needs of long-term or terminally ill patients in a busy public hospital in South Africa.
  
  Over the years I developed my counselling skills as complementary to my nursing, completing a Certificate in Basic Counselling and studies in Logotherapy (meaning-centred counselling) through the University of South Africa, while maintaining an Affiliate membership of the Psychological Society of South Africa.
  
  Moving to Australia meant putting aside further studies for a number of years. However, I found the passion for counselling remained, leading to the completion of my Master's and gaining registration.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  My person-centred training sits comfortably with my respect for each person's innate ability to move towards well-being, when given appropriate support. That respect for the individual means recognising that what looks like "being in a better place" for one person may be rather different from what it looks like for another.

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

  I am particularly interested in how we experience connection and disconnection, not just with other people, but with animals, nature, place, and our own selves. My own experience has been that feeling connected is essential for my well-being, and that I can find that connectedness beyond the human domain. I am interested in grief, and how it relates to the change in connections, and the ways in which the shadows and light of our lives give us shape.

• What methods do you use?

  The foundation of my training as a counsellor has been in a Rogerian Person-Centred approach. I have also trained in Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy which highlights the importance of meaning in our lives. Depending on what a client requires, I draw on aspects of Narrative therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Emotion Focused Therapy.

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

  Clients may have vastly different experiences around when they feel progress is being made. For one, taking the step of booking an appointment may feel like progress - a step towards change. For another, it may feel like no progress is made with one therapist, but perhaps later, they might find aspects of the first journey suddenly making sense in combination with their work with a new therapist. So much depends on what each client brings, whether it's deep old trauma or recent struggles with a work colleague.
  I am here for the part of your journey you choose to share with me, and will do my best for you to feel supported until our paths diverge.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  I am deeply grateful to the number of therapists who have been part of my journey. Each has provided me with a space to grow and explore in safety for a time. Not every experience is perfect, nor is every therapist perfect, but each one gave me space to work out the story and meaning of my life at that time so I could carry on.