Hilary A. Davies - The 3-Point Therapist

In the beginning there was a trainee therapist who had set out to be the best therapist that anyone could be.

She attended some of the top training courses, took additional lectures and seminars, and had gained clinical practice in a number of challenging placements in order to try to become the best therapist that anyone could be.

She had read all of the literature that she could find, she thought that she knew all the theories of the top writers. She had begun to do research and write and publish essays and papers of her own.

And yet she felt that something was missing in her search to be the best of all therapists.

She had not found her own philosophy and style of practice with which she felt wholly comfortable. She admired the practice of some of those with whom she had trained and with whom she was now working. She valued the advice and instructions she received in her personal supervisions. However, she felt that the more she read and became fluent in the theories, the more she practised, the less she was able to feel confident and competent with the families who came to her for therapy.

She had not yet managed to find a way comfortably to integrate into her work the theories and techniquesthat she read and that she was being taught. She felt unable to incorporate aspects of practice that she observed in the way that she would have liked.

The trainee therapist did not understand why this should be and was bothered by it.

So, she decided to look for something new, and wanted to find someone who could help her with her worries and support her in finding a better way to put into practice what she was learning. She wanted to find someone who could really set her on her decided course to become the best therapist that anyone could be.

Everywhere she went, she asked teachers and tutors, friends and colleagues, and fellow trainees. At conferences, she asked if anyone knew of a special supervisor whom they would recommend to her. She was prepared to travel and to move away from her home if necessary. But no one could help. No one seemed to understand what it was that she sought. She was not sure she understood that, either.

She knew of a therapist who lived and worked quite nearby and of whom everyone spoke very highly. She sounded a bit different, certainly not one of the mainstream, from what she had heard. She sounded interesting and somewhat intriguing. The trainee knew that this therapist sometimes met for consultations with some of the students on her course; these were usually one-off meetings, she understood, to help with specific pieces of work. She wondered if she might request such a meeting, perhaps to put her on track to fulfil her ambition to be the best therapist anyone could be.

Coincidentally, one day the following week, she overheard a couple of trainees who had recently joinedher clinic on placement talking about an amazing new therapist. They had heard this therapist speak to a group of students at a Centre nearby. They called her the 3-Point Therapist and spoke of her as being different and truly inspirational.

When the trainee asked more about this inspirational therapist with 3 Points, she was told that she lived and worked not too far away and had come to talk at the Centre about her 3-Point Therapy. The trainee realized that this was the same therapist who sometimes provided consultations for students. She was now very curious, but more than a little doubtful that she would not already have learnt these 3 Points during her previous many years of study.

How can anyone have only 3 Points to teach you?. she wondered to herself. I must have learnt them all already, I'm sure.

The trainee could not make sense of it she remained sceptical but was also interested and curious about this person. The other trainees at the Centre continued to enthuse and told her that she must get to hear the therapist talk if she could. They felt sure that the trainee would be impressed and inspired by what the therapist had to say.

What the trainee had had in mind to help with her practice had been something quite different, but she decided to pursue this possible avenue to fulfilling her ambition. She was somewhat doubtful about someone working nearby and teaching at a small neighbourhood Centre. However, she was intrigued, and rang the Centre to discover how she could contact this person. She was given a telephone number and she resolved tophone and talk to the therapist, if she was able to find her.

She telephoned and was surprised that the therapist herself answered the phone.

The therapist listened briefly to the trainee and then asked if she would like to meet to discuss her thoughts and worries further.

To the even greater surprise of the trainee, they arranged an appointment for early the following week. She hoped this would be all right the 3-Point Therapist did not seem to be very busy. All the senior people she knew were running round in circles, never a spare moment, and late for every appointment. So she wondered if this therapist really was as good as she had been told.

How come she is not busier? How come she can see me so soon ? the trainee asked herself more than once during the days leading to her appointment with the therapist. I wonder if she really is all that good

But the trainee was also pleased and more than a little excited. After searching all around, she was now going to see a therapist not too far away from where she lived. Was this really the beginning of her quest to be the best therapist that anyone could be?