As some of you (now more of you) know, I recently began a practice as a psychotherapist. I have a website, which gets a fair bit of traffic (allowing that summer is a traditionally slow time of the year), but recently I added an adjunctive blog.
The purpose was to get more of me out there, rather than have people rely on their preconceptions of what a psychotherapist is/does just by staring at my business card. I figured it would help both me and potential clients (including curious onlookers) deal up-front with questions that often go unasked yet which people would like answered.
For example: Do I need to know what’s wrong with me in order to see a therapist? Will I lose my creativity if I see one?
These are some of the things people ask, sometimes in passing, sometimes directly to me. I was inspired to address them, if only so that I could clarify the process of therapy.
That said, it’s a challenge. Unlike this space where I can tear away at preconceptions without concern for who I may be offending, I have to alter the timbre of my voice when blogging for the benefit of those who may be potential clients – it’s not always cut and dry. I ran into this recently with a post I wrote about men and how men tend to have preconceptions about psychotherapy (and how some of this may have to do with the language/imagery predominant in the latest barrage of public service announcements). My partner brought to my attention that what I’d wrote (and published) was in fact meant for this blog, not the one I originally thought it was intended for. So…I went back and changed the voice, as if I were revising a short story.
The lesson? Know your audience. People curious about psychotherapy don’t need to read hard-hitting op/ed-style commentary – the challenge was to go back and revise what I’d done so that, rather than focusing on a political critique of the way society isolates men from seeking help and agitating for personal growth, I retreated/reverted/went back to the more digestible core point of therapy is good for men, too.
Perhaps I will post both versions here to demonstrate how I revised it. In any case, feel free to visit the other blog (and tell your friends).
Oh, you are so courageous! You are stepping into a land mine field. It might help to read some of the blogs listed on, say, Psych Central for guidance. Having worked for Orwellian Industries, I know how hard it is to find the right voice for public offerings to patients. I look forward to reading your blog.
Yes. I have to keep reminding myself: who’s your audience? And that usually means pulling back and looking at what I’m writing the standpoint of who I was originally meaning for: someone innocently researching therapy for their own needs.
Sounds easy enough, but sometimes my opinions get in the way. Or, in an attempt to address an issue I unintentionally step on a soapbox. Not easy.