Josias Pincay

I realized years ago I had a tendency to ask people how they were doing and actually WANTING to listen to what they had to say, providing advice and solutions as best I could. Rather than continue to try and help people with off the cuff advice, I decided it would be much more beneficial to actually learn how to help people professionally by developing a firm foundation in psychology. After all, there's "listening", and then there's listening THERAPEUTICALLY, as well as speaking with someone in a therapeutic context as opposed to a spontaneous, "casual" one. I wanted to be present with people and help effect change in their lives, not just say a couple of nice words and hope that does something.

I work best with patients who wish to explore the WHERE and the WHY behind their problems, and who wish to achieve meaningful change and improvement in their lives beyond just "symptom reduction". Symptom reduction and management are important parts of therapy, of course, but it's also important to be curious about yourself and your history in order to better understand your present predicament.

Therapy is a process, and a complicated one at that. There may be times when you feel you've had an amazing session and have made significant progress, and then other times when you wonder if anything is even happening or if you've actually backslidden and stagnated. Such feelings and "setbacks" (if they can be called that) are natural and to be expected, and are actually part of the process itself, especially with more psychodynamic and psychoanalytic work that aims to delve deeper into the unconscious conflicts and dynamics underlying problem thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. After all, you are dealing with issues that have their roots in experiences and thoughts you've long forgotten about or internalized, and which have in some ways become a "natural" part of your being; exploring all of that won't happen immediately, and neither will resolving the conflicts that come with them. Therapy aims to facilitate the growth of your insight, development, and capacity for change, and growth is rarely a quick and easy process.

The first session will typically aim at capturing a general overview of what you've been struggling with, your personal and family history, and your current life situation. The early stages of therapy will then aim at exploring your issue and life as whole, though there aren't technically any hard and fast rules about how this must be done and what you "have" to talk about. Many times, a problem can be bundled up in other areas of our lives, and are even the culmination of various parts of our lives that we only assume are unrelated.

That there is always meaning behind a "symptom", and that every person, whether they're the "worried well" or acutely suffering, has legitimate concerns they should be able to speak about and address.

Ultimately? By listening. Perhaps that's a textbook thing to say in our line of work, but in listening, I aim to actively learn all I can about the patient's life, history, and personality, not just the symptoms that have brought them to therapy. Every patient has a unique experience and way of taking up his or her life, and in listening to them speak, I can better understand what they need in session.