10 Questions with Lisa Paul

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

• I saw there was a gap in the health system in supporting mothers and fathers especially with the transition to parenthood. Everybody focuses on the birth of this baby and the baby itself when it comes but how many times do YOU feel heard? How many times do people check in and ask how your going?
  In my experience, while having a baby is a wonderful experience, it also comes with an enormous trailer load of different feelings - which can be different for everyone. Commonly, issues around not being a good enough mother, loss of your identity, relationship difficulties and all the psychosocial aspects around finances, employment, previous mental health complaints and traumas - its a list that is as individual as the birth experience itself.
  I wanted to support mothers, to help them find in them their own sense of worth as a mother, to show them that its not a perfect set up and nor should it be, that its ok to make mistakes. I also have a passion to work with those wounded mothers, those who have had difficult childhood experiences, traumas from childhood or from the birth. Mothers who have had anxiety that it feels like its crippling and depression so deep that you struggle just to "be there" for your child.

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

• My main approach which has also made a huge difference in my own life has been the work of Dr Richard Schwartz. He developed the evidence based Internal Family System model of therapy and I have embraced this whole heartedly both professionally and personally.
  I love the gentleness, simplicity and the non pathologizing aspect of this model.
  I don't believe that people come into mental health problems as a baby, I believe that it comes through our experiences and influences from our families, culture and society as we are growing up.
  His model has resonated so deeply with me and when I describe it to my clients, its like something clicks in them.

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

• The Perinatal area from pregnancy to postnatal period of first couple of year and women who have a trauma background who feel ready to work with that.
  

• What method/s do you use?

• Internal Family Systems
  Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
  Person Centred
  Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
  Compassion focused Therapy
  EMDR
  CBT
  

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

• That varies on how open the client feels to start to heal an how motivated they are for therapy.

• How has therapy made you a better person?

• Oh I love it.
  I cannot see me doing anything else now.
  

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

• Seeing my clients start to get that self awareness and insight. That's when healing begins.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

• Hell YES Lol.

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

• Wow where to I start............
  Social Media - while I have it, I hate it too......
  I think communication is a huge problem, we are losing the ability to know how to interact with each other personally.
  Less tolerance towards each other and so much judgement and criticism.
  

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

• Becoming Us by Elle Taylor for parents who have just had a baby. Great book on how relationships change and why.
  
  Hold me Tight by Dr Sue Johnson - great one for helping relationships in general.