MA. Counselling Psychology
Specializing in Systems Theory, Trauma, Anxiety, Depression, Relationships, and Global/Ecological Distress
Systems Theory
You and I, seasons, trees, cells, animals, weather, money, economics, employment... all are complex systems. There is no thing, discipline, culture, or even period in history that hasn't been subject to systemic relationship. All find themselves in a flow of transaction, influencing each other based on the frequency, intensity and duration of information exchange, altering both feedback loops along with the structure and resulting behavior.
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It seems to me that interconnectedness, though often spoken about is also an awareness that has always been woven through growth and development. As a result, it is not uncommon to find system approaches aligned with traditional ways of knowing and being (Medows, 2008). Important to systems thinking in therapy is that it's not an answer, nor a pathway to control. The ubiquity of systems does not make it a complete way of thinking or observing, and its lens through which one sees subjectively does not lack bias. The systems approach in therapy is about inevitable contact with multiple influences, observing the structural and behavioral patterns contributing to problematic states, and participating in ways that bring about safer and more comfortable sustainability.
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It's not uncommon to leave therapy with more new questions than answers. But even this is the start of seeing yourself, others, and the world around you as you haven't seen them before. Sometimes this is enough...
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The lens of the eye is not that we see, but that which we see through.
-Donella Meadows​
Trauma
There are many forms of trauma: complex childhood trauma, child abuse/neglect, transportation incidents, fires, natural disasters, wars, sexualized violence, intimate partner violence, random assaults, medical conditions... and even the structural violence embedded in culture, class and economic systems.
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Though not all trauma is the same, it's been said by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk that in many cases, the traumatizing event is often characterized by an immobility in which people are unable to do something to change their situation. People are left with the feeling that one's participation doesn't matter. This can be observed in expressions of emotional reactivity or passivity in which people do not feel like an active agent in their body to shape outcomes. Some trauma is expressed in what may seem like anxiety, depression, panic, and phobias. Other times, trauma can also be hidden in nuanced personality changes such as shifts in spirituality or religion, changes in hopefulness, or diminished ability to trust oneself or others.
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Tre​atment can in include development of grounding and coping strategies for returning to a state of safety and connection to oneself in the present moment. Subsequent steps involve an exploratory and remembering process, followed by story authoring so that one can hold their memories in a safer and less disruptive way.
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Trauma is not what happened to you. It's what happens inside of you as a result of what happened to you.
-Dr. Gabor Mate.
Anxiety
A strong characteristic of anxiety is not the worry, fear, panic, difficult memories or challenging images, but rather our reactions to them (Barlow, 2021). This is to suggest that in some cases, reaction to our internal experience is more troublesome than the experience itself. Attempts to not have certain thoughts becomes stressful on there own, which may exacerbate ones reaction to internal states. This is not to say that one's thoughts are necessarily irrational, but instead it suggests that our reactivity requires attention.
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What may be described in session ranges from avoiding plans, social settings and opportunities, to the more subtle experience of simply not being in the present moment due to preoccupation about past or future.
Treatment can include observation of thought, feeling, somatic symptoms, behaviors, and the context in which they're occurring. As critical and judgmental attitudes are identified amidst ones reactions to internal states; together interventions are formed. We'll work together to increase states in which emotional content is managed, and decrease emotional avoidance. Additionally, we'll explore value identification and goal development to ensure involvement with meaningful activities in the present moment, along with feelings of success rather than lacking control.
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We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.
- Anais Nin
Depression
In depression, there is often a strong negative view of oneself, the world, and the future. Change efforts seem ineffective leading to feelings of failure and loss, and the individual will tend to see themselves as insufficient and unworthy of opportunities or relationships (Barlow, 2021).
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Depression can be chronic or episodic. A common feature is pervasive negative thoughts (automatic thoughts), which often go unnoticed and are habituated in patterns grounded by core beliefs, also known as schema. Often times, thoughts will be distorted and lack a review of evidence which would otherwise generate a more synthesized and balanced perspective. The tendency is for poor outcomes to be more easily recalled, prepared for and utilized as a value marker.
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Treatment can include identification and reduction of symptoms. This is often achieved by decreasing stressors and use of behavioral activation which sets the stage for feelings of pleasure and success. Discrepancies are identified with both core schema and automatic thoughts. This permits logic to be challenged and allows reality testing to take place. The work is done through a process of guided discovery and Socratic questioning.
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The real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
-Marcel Proust ("In Search of Lost Time")
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Relationships
We hold relationships with our planet, community, work, family, friends, and ourselves. A key feature of relationships is the flow of information and energy in which dynamic equilibrium is achieved. Generally speaking, this will appear as the integration of differentiated parts working towards a functional whole creating sustainability. Non-sustainable relationships undergo some form of stressful conditions which extend beyond the threshold of maintenance or adaptation. We see this tendency in our planetary relationship, and it extends down to the self.
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A common feature of sustainable interpersonal relationships is what's often referred to as mutual reciprocity. This flowing transaction between people depends on life experiences which in turn shape capacity to both invite, and receive invitation to exchange cues of safety, and/or react to cues of danger. We all have within us different capacities to be present for those who need us, and be aided by those whom we need. Therapy for relationships will often involve attention to how we receive and react with information moving both within ourselves and in the space held with or without others.
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Treatment can include the observation of thoughts, feelings and behaviors under changing conditions and contexts. Maladaptive patterns are identified and challenged. Guided discovery will help raise curiosity about relational patterns. Modelling, paired with what is immediately happening in the room (immediacy), will help with analyzing the efficacy of dynamic exchange between people. In cases where reciprocity is not possible, the technique of 'empty chair' can be used to bring about the exchanges that need to happen.
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We are nourished in experiences of reciprocity, feeling the ebb and flow, giving and receiving, attunement, and resonance. We feel in our bodies and in our stories the ways caring, and being cared for bring well-being.
-Deb Dana
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Global/Ecological Distress
Global and ecological concern is a combination of all categories above. How we view our ecological place on the planet and the resulting treatment towards each other has long been questioned. Indiscriminate use of resources along with cyclical production and consumption influence both planetary and social relationships. The global economic attitude is a competitive race towards growth, acquisition, self-interested advantage and profiteering. This attitude harbors disregard of integrated connection resulting in unsustainable ways of knowing and being. For some people, problems arising from this approach are not regarded as problems at all, but as necessary conditions which in turn are serviced by false solutions. It is well understood by those in the highest levels of power that discussion about solutions to the ways things are would simultaneously threaten the way things are. There's no profit in solutions that risk the existence of problems from which power and control are leveraged.
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Problems are often hidden in the changing goals of systems. The goal of a health system is not always the health of people, but the sales of pharmaceutical product. In this way, the health of people is not always the goal. The purpose of a housing system is not always to provide residence for people, but opportunities for investors. Similarily, the driving force behind selling homes is not to give people a chance to own, but instead to generate bank loans. And quite possibly, weapons are not manufactured to fight wars... but rather war-like tensions are built with the hopes of selling weapons.
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Though this way of thinking is not shared by all, we need not look far to see how such ideology impacts us at the individual level.
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Treatment can include story exploration and the development of language to identify perspectives. Observations are made on the meaning derived from beliefs about oneself, others and the world around them. Cognitive and behavioral discrepancies are identified and challenged. Behavioral activation can be supported with an emphasis on exposure to systems that have reduced competition, emphasis on outcome, personal gain, and that at the same time build a sense of sustainability.
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We cannot solve our problems with same thinking we used when we created them.
-Albert Einstein
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