keith bibby

WHAT DO I MOST LOVE ABOUT MY JOB ?
...... Working with clients is a great privilege. We are trusted with insights, private thoughts and feelings which they have often been unable to reveal to any other person.
...... We are guardians of a special space where we cut through the nonsense and talk with freedom and honesty - and where we deal properly with very real issues in people's personal lives.
...... Sympathy is all very well - but my branch of therapy requires me to be useful to people in difficulty and to cooperate in FINDING SOLUTIONS. We aim to encourage support and enable clients to cope with life better - improving attitudes to their circumstances, feelings about themselves or others, or their mental or physical capacity to handle situations more competently and effectively.
......One of the most helpful initial stages is assist people to better understand their difficulties and to realise that their reactions are generally normal .... people usually to find that their problem is by no means so uncommon or as difficult they had thought.
......I never know what's coming. It's endlessly fascinating. Problems vary greatly in difficulty and complexity. Often a bit of imaginative 'sideways thinking' - very characteristic of the Ericksonian approach - can find a way forward with an apparently overwhelming challenge.
...... Sometimes it's a process of systematically building awareness and skills - often with the aid of hypnotic work and a good deal of ingenuity - until the client has an adequate repertoire to manage and continue for themselves.
.......On other occasions people need help to identify, face and cope with realities which they find disturbing or might rather avoid - but whose avoidance is restricting and damaging their lives or the lives of those around them.
...... Because of the complexity of the processes involved - and probably because of my capacity to hold a stable framework through stressful exchanges - HELPING COUPLES TO RESOLVE3 THEIR DIFFICULTIES is something I find particularly engaging and rewarding.
The work can be deeply affecting and demanding. Sympathetic support, energy and resourcefulness are required to cope with dark moods and stretched emotions, to navigate through disillusion or despair and get things shipshape and back on course - or - if necessary - ended on an amicable basis.
...... ERICKSONIAN WORK is very special in this respect. Though totally relaxed in style, every moment has potential to influence the process. Ericksonians are very aware of the subtlety of language and gesture which can either support and develop transformative change or carelessly extinguish some little flame of possible insight or inspiration. Clients can learn how to do this too and bring about great benefits to themselves and others through learning to use just that little bit of extra skill and effort m which makes all the difference.
.......So profound is this perspective that even HM Government have become aware of some of the simpler asperts of this work. For over a decade HMG have deployed a special unit to develop the use of 'nudge politics ' to apply some of these strategies in the public domain.
( You might like to read J Haley ' My voice will go with you ' for anecdotal insights into the foundations of Milton Erickson's discoveries and approach. Also David Halpern ' Inside the nudge unit ; how small changes can make a big difference '.)
...... Although we operate in a much more modest framework - it is no less profound. Every time I go into my practice room and sit in that special space - with that alive 'switched on feeling ' - waiting for the doorbell to ring - I know that - no matter how great or small - something special is going to happen.