After decades of working in the legal world I found myself going back to school
with dreams of being a therapist. I had become empty and decided to
follow my original dream of helping people heal and overcome trauma
through talk therapy. I found the legal arena to be confrontational and void
of emotions and justice. In turning to marriage and family therapy I had
thought I would help facilitate real and sustainable change to people and
their families. Almost immediately I sensed that this was not what I was
learning. I learned instead that the healing I was being taught was cold and
heartless but also damaging to others as well as myself. What I learned
was theories and ideology that instead of providing hope reinforced
despair. What I learned was similar to the legal process where change was
a lengthy outcome often providing no relief. In coming to Now I See A
Person Institute first to learn and eventually teach, provide therapy and
research, what I found at NISAPI was clients and their families were the experts and they had the strength and answers within themselves, it was
merely my role to listen intently and honor their stories. Through this
collaboration real hope and sustainable change emerged. Every client was
seen with their family members or mandated social workers and lawyers.
As they began to see themselves as people and not a diagnosis so did
others. As in Open Dialogue, the clients are seen with members of their
community rather than individually and rich conversations emerge among
all parties involved, leading to self-tailored change something I never
learned or witnessed at the university or in prior training. The client’s family
and community involvement are integral in the type of sustainable and
generational change that occurs each and every day at NISAPI. Knowing
this type of change is possible has not only invigorated me as a therapist
but has made me an advocate for the type of work done in this field. It is
not hard for clients to heal from severe suffering and symptoms if given the
chance to do so. It has also made me see this type of work affects
generations and that this type of subsequent change is forever changing
one and their families lives.