10 Questions with Ernst Meyer

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

• After a crisis in my private life I was looking for different ways to live my life. In my search for a more meaningful life I first participated in a couple of self help courses and eventually I enrolled in a training program for psychotherapy.
  
  Being in my own personal therapy was part of my training, and I first hand experienced the gradual changes that emerge in psychotherapy.
  
  After three years of "hands on" training I continued my education with another three years of academic studies in the field. As part of my academic studies I did volunteer work. I had the humbling experience of sitting with very troubled members of the community and listening to their stories. It was then that I decided to open a private practice, and be of service of those in need.

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

• I consider the work I do as "applied philosophy".
  
  It is my view that mind and soul of a human being cannot be grasped and made sense of by focussing on perceived mental illnesses or functioning, behaviour and thinking.
  
  Instead, I believe that lives need to be seen in the context they are lived in. All of us are born into cultures, grow up and adapt to certain circumstances, have life experiences, make choices - add out biological heritage to this and we get a more complete picture of the whole person.

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

• I see psychotherapy primarily as a human science, and am interested in how non-medical approaches are promoting long lasting growth and change.
  
  

• What method/s do you use?

• The concept of "method" suggests that a practitioner is "doing" something to or with the patient. I reject that notion - humans are not things that need to be fixed.
  
  Instead, my aim is to provide meaningful support for all of person, not just "get rid of" symptoms.
  
  

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

• This depends on which issue the client brings into the room. Someone who experienced a single traumatic event in adult life will need different support than someone who grew up in, and had to adjust to, a traumatic environment.
  
  In general though, I see it as progress if a client feels better on the way out of the therapy session than they did an hour earlier. If the client manages to carry this "feeling better" into their life outside of the therapy room then that's progress.

• How has therapy made you a better person?

• I am grateful that both the organisation I trained with as well as my professional association insist on psychotherapists undergoing their own personal therapy. The value has been immense both on a personal and a professional level.
  
  To be more precise, therapy has developed my critical thinking as well as self-reflective and relational capacities. Because of the body-inclusive approach to psychotherapy I am practising, I have moved from an understanding of "I have a body" to that of "I am a body". I am aware of my bodily senses as well as my emotions, and have an awareness and understanding of what these feelings and emotions are trying to tell me.
  
  What is of utmost importance for both my private as well as my professional life is my capacity to sit comfortably with discomfort. I don't get easily triggered, but remain in the present moment, and continue to stay in relationship with those around me.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

• It is both an honour and an obligation when a person decides to work with me in a therapeutic setting. For me it is impossible to not be touched by the lives of other people.
  
  To answer the question: to see people change in ways which are meaningful for them, and which ultimately allows them to live life without the additional support of psychotherapy.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

• Of course I do, but I hope it doesn't show.

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

• Coronavirus. At the same time, this crisis also offers us an opportunity to reflect. What is it that we have lost? Are we really missing it? What is now taking it's place, and what is our relationship with this "new normal"?

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

• In general: stories of survival, against the odds.