David Abramovitch, JD, MA

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 were 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 in changing one and their families lives.