10 Questions with Amber Rules

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

• I have family experience with addiction and mental illness, and as a young adult, I received support and care from some wonderful therapists who helped me make sense of it all. I was always so grateful for these counsellors, and admired them for choosing the profession.
  
  Before I became a therapist, I worked in the entertainment industry. I spent a lot of time with musicians, actors, and other creatives, and many of them struggled with addiction as well. All of my experiences with addiction ultimately led me to becoming a therapist, and I am deeply grateful to be doing this work.

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

• I have a fondness for existential, absurdist and nihilist thinkers, but I'm not particularly attached to any - I lean on all types of thinking and approaches, both personally and professionally. I think the most worthwhile undertaking we can make as humans is to learn to see both sides of everything, and practice tolerating the grey area!

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

• I am especially interested in the phenomenon of addiction, and how our culture might learn from what it has to teach us.

• What method/s do you use?

• My method (if you can call it that!) is to listen to my clients, and offer support that meets their needs. Everyone is different and requires different things from counselling, so I prefer to focus on listening and collaborating with people in a way that is personally meaningful to them.

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

• My hope is that a client will feel progress after the first session - that they have learned something about themselves, or walk away with a sense that change is possible. I also know that progress or healing isn't linear, and that sometimes things feel a bit all over the place before they get better.

• How has therapy made you a better person?

• This is a BIG question! I could write for pages about how therapy and being a therapist has helped me, but if I had to narrow it right down to a few key things, it would be;
  1. It helps me care for myself
  2. It helps me be responsible for myself
  3. It helps me be connected to others and the world
  4. It helps me lead a rich, meaningful life

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

• Another question I could write for pages about! There are many things I love about being a therapist, but the biggest thing is how grateful I am to witness people's healing and growth. I truly believe that counselling is a sacred experience that everyone deserves to have, and should have access to.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

• I have literal bad hair days at least once a week! And yes, I have professional bad hair days like anyone else - fortunately, these moments often offer opportunities for my client and myself to understand each other and the therapeutic process better when they happen. One of the most thrilling parts of my job is when a client feels safe enough to tell me that I missed something important or didn't quite get something right. Bad hair days often lead the way for deeper connection and greater understanding.

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

• Empathy, both for ourselves and others. In my mind, empathy is a vital ingredient to feeling that we have enough and that we are enough. If we were more practised at empathy, I think we would suffer less, have more connected relationships, and live in a world that was safer for all of us.

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

• Tough question!
  Book: "High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby
  Film: I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I never get sick of watching "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy". Maybe it's not inspiring, but it's absurd, and I love absurdity!
  Song: There's too many to pick, but I have always loved "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John because of that excellent scene in "Almost Famous" where they all sing it on the tour bus. (That's another movie I never get sick of - "Almost Famous"!)
  Art: Anything by Mark Rothko