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0:43

Welcome to the Therapist Connect

0:43

Podcast, a podcast for

0:48

therapists, by therapists.

0:53

Hello and

0:53

welcome to this episode of the

0:56

Therapists Connect Podcast. My

0:56

name is Dr. Peter Blundell. And

0:59

today I'm interviewing Lukas

0:59

Dressler. Lucas is an

1:03

integrative psychotherapist and

1:03

registered member of the BACP.

1:06

He has over 1000 hours of

1:06

experience in providing short

1:10

and long term therapy for

1:10

children, young people and their

1:13

families. He is also a

1:13

psychology graduate. And prior

1:16

to training as a

1:16

psychotherapist, he worked as a

1:19

healthcare assistant and

1:19

assistant psychologist within

1:22

the NHS in both adult, children

1:22

and adolescent mental health

1:25

services. Lucas is also one of

1:25

the Therapists Connect

1:29

volunteers and mans our Twitter

1:29

account every Wednesday. Lucas,

1:33

it's brilliant to have you on

1:33

this podcast today.

1:37

Well, hello, Lucas, thanks very

1:37

much for coming on the Therapist

1:41

Connect Podcast. We've got loads

1:41

of questions to kind of go

1:46

through today. But the one that

1:46

I ask everybody or the first

1:48

question I ask everyone who

1:48

comes on is "can you tell us a

1:52

little bit about how you came to

1:52

be a therapist in the first

1:55

place?" Kind of, "what drew you

1:55

to us as a profession?"

1:59

Yes, of course,

1:59

certainly. But first of all,

2:02

just thank you for having me.

2:02

I'm really excited to be here

2:05

and to record the podcast with

2:05

you. I'm sure you know, some of

2:09

the listeners know that I've

2:09

been volunteering for Therapists

2:13

Connect for a while. So it's,

2:13

it's great to volunteer in this

2:16

capacity now as well, not just

2:16

on the Twitter account, but also

2:20

by doing a podcast with you. So

2:20

thank you, again, for having me.

2:24

"You're very welcome. I'm quite interested to do this. Because obviously,

2:26

we've known each other for a

2:28

while, but maybe I don't know

2:28

the answers to some of these

2:31

questions. So it's kind of get

2:31

to know you a little bit better

2:33

at the same time as doing the

2:33

podcast. So I'm looking forward

2:36

to it."

2:37

Me too. Alright.

2:37

So yeah, I guess there are

2:40

multiple reasons for why I

2:40

became a therapist. I guess, you

2:47

know, I've been interested in

2:47

psychology and psychotherapy

2:50

from a really young age, because

2:50

when I was around about 12, or

2:54

so I think, I became really,

2:54

really interested in my own

2:58

dreams. And I started a dream

2:58

journal. And then I found out

3:01

about Sigmund Freud and his

3:01

book, The Dream Analysis. And

3:05

then Jung and the archetypes

3:05

came up. And I just really dove

3:09

into reading around this entire

3:09

topic. And even though I was so

3:14

young, you know, I guess, part

3:14

of this response was the fact

3:18

that a family member of my

3:18

extended family has a diagnosis

3:25

of schizophrenia. And, of

3:25

course, you know, back then I

3:28

didn't really quite understood

3:28

what that means. But I think it

3:33

might have been part of why I

3:33

was so interested in psychology,

3:37

at that age. And then fast

3:37

forward a couple of years to me

3:42

being a teenager, I felt a

3:42

little bit out of touch with my

3:46

environment, I didn't really

3:46

feel like I fit it in with

3:50

anyone. So I experienced some

3:50

mental health difficulties

3:55

myself when I was a teenager. So

3:55

I guess it's it's a little bit

3:59

in line with the concept of the

3:59

wounded healer, really.

4:03

So lots of different elements coming together there. So kind of like

4:05

an interest in that

4:08

self-discovery, I suppose. And

4:08

then also your own personal

4:12

experience, but other other

4:12

family members kind of seeing

4:14

the impact of challenges with

4:14

mental health really, and kind

4:19

of maybe wanting to know a bit

4:19

more about that and how to

4:22

support people with that.

4:24

Yes, yes,

4:24

definitely. There was a thirst

4:27

for knowledge. Just figuring out

4:27

what's going on. It wasn't

4:31

necessarily about supporting

4:31

someone else at that point,

4:35

because I, myself wasn't in the

4:35

position to support anyone.

4:42

Yeah, so it was

4:42

an understanding. Yeah. Yeah,

4:47

Very much so

4:47

curiosity, wanting to

4:49

understand, and I guess the, the

4:49

understanding really stemmed

4:54

from the wish to connect as well

4:54

and really, truly understand And

5:00

what's going on for that person?

5:00

And why so many things were so

5:06

difficult for that person at the

5:06

time and why we weren't in

5:09

contact, for example. Yeah.

5:12

So that kind of,

5:12

your search for understanding,

5:15

and then how that can then

5:15

change, especially change the

5:17

relationships that you're in.

5:17

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's

5:23

really interesting. So that was

5:23

kind of what started you off

5:28

thinking along the line of

5:28

possibly therapy. As a training.

5:34

Can you tell us a little bit

5:34

then about, like your career so

5:38

far, like your training? And

5:38

when you did your original

5:40

training, what that was like,

5:43

Okay, yeah. So

5:43

I'll, I'll give you a little bit

5:46

more background as well. So I

5:46

came to the UK when I was 16, to

5:51

attend boarding school, and I

5:51

picked psychology for A-Levels.

5:55

And I realized at that point

5:55

that I'm actually really good at

5:59

academic stuff, which wasn't a

5:59

belief I held about myself

6:03

beforehand. Nevertheless, the

6:03

experience at A-Levels really

6:09

propelled me into the academic

6:09

career of doing psychology for

6:12

my Bachelor's at the University

6:12

of Sussex, I did a master's in

6:17

Mental Health Studies at King's

6:17

College. And while studying

6:24

psychology, I started working

6:24

for the NHS in adult mental

6:30

health services as a healthcare

6:30

systems on a psychiatric

6:33

intensive care unit. I worked

6:33

for CAMS, as well as an

6:39

assistant psychologist. So you

6:39

know, that's, that's part of the

6:45

beginning of my career in

6:45

psychology and psychotherapy.

6:49

And then, at one point, yes, I

6:49

wanted to progress and really

6:57

figure out how I could support

6:57

those kinds of peoples in a

7:03

therapeutic way. So I looked

7:03

into psychotherapy and realized

7:08

that it's, it's quite confusing

7:08

how to go about it in the UK,

7:13

it's quite expensive. clinical

7:13

psychology training is

7:16

incredibly competitive. So I

7:16

kind of went back to my roots

7:23

and checked out how it works in

7:23

Germany. And it was much more

7:27

straightforward, because it's

7:27

state regulated. So everybody

7:31

knows exactly how to get where

7:31

they want to get. I applied and

7:36

did my training in Germany. And

7:36

once I had finished with that, I

7:40

relocated back to Brighton.

7:43

I mean, that's

7:43

really interesting, that kind of

7:45

idea of kind of how much kind of

7:45

experience that you'd had here

7:48

in kind of different settings,

7:48

and then going to Germany to

7:51

train and then kind of coming

7:51

back, how have you found the

7:55

training then in Germany and

7:55

then coming back to the UK? How

7:59

have you found that in terms of,

7:59

I suppose, psychotherapy, and

8:02

maybe the differences or the

8:02

similarities that might exist?

8:07

There's so many

8:07

differences, I think we could do

8:10

an entire podcast just on that,

8:10

really. But I guess what's

8:15

really important to know about

8:15

the training in Germany is that,

8:20

firstly, you can choose between

8:20

whether you want to study

8:24

psychoanalysis, or what they

8:24

call depth psychology. And the

8:29

second option would be

8:29

behavioral therapy. But at the

8:32

end of the day, it's really

8:32

cognitive behavioral therapy,

8:36

but because it's based on a very

8:36

old system, they still call it

8:39

behavioral therapy. Secondly,

8:39

you choose if you want to work

8:44

with adults, or if you want to

8:44

start working with children,

8:49

adolescents and young people

8:49

right from the get go. Then, of

8:53

course, the training that you've

8:53

chosen follows. And both

8:58

trainings are very much

8:58

underpinned by a really strong

9:02

person centered foundation, you

9:02

know, considering core

9:06

conditions, conceptualizing the

9:06

therapeutic relationship in this

9:09

way, as well as within the

9:09

chosen framework of either

9:14

analysis or CBT. What I found

9:14

when I came back to the UK and

9:24

connecting with therapists via

9:24

Twitter and in person, there's a

9:30

much larger emphasis on the

9:30

person centered foundation in

9:36

the UK, whereas in Germany, it's

9:36

kind of an unmentioned

9:42

"Okay."

9:42

Lukas: "You do get taught about

9:47

it, but there's not a lot of emphasis on it."

9:49

Okay. There's a

9:49

lot of kind of assumptions that

9:51

once you've learned about it,

9:51

it's there. But not necessarily

9:55

a kind of a focus and an

9:55

encouragement to constantly kind

9:59

of bring it in. Both alternating: "Yeah, yeah, explicitly. Yeah."

10:02

Yeah, exactly.

10:03

That's

10:03

interesting. Thank you. So then

10:07

you came back to the UK? And did

10:07

you... I know you're in private

10:11

practice now, did you go

10:11

straight into private practice?

10:13

Or have you worked in other

10:13

settings?

10:15

Yes, I did go straight into private practice. Because again, the way the

10:15

training in Germany is conceptualized, it basically

10:17

sets you up to open up your private practice straight after

10:18

you're done with training. Part

10:31

of that reasoning is, how the

10:31

mental health system works in

10:36

Germany. But also, I think, the

10:36

training in Germany is

10:41

incredibly intensive and

10:41

extensive as well. So there's,

10:49

let me get this right. There are

10:49

1800 hours of clinical

10:53

placements in different

10:53

settings, you have to do 600

10:58

hours of therapy, those 600

10:58

hours have to be supervised with

11:03

150 hours. There's self

11:03

reflection, so you're own

11:09

therapy, there's additional

11:09

learning, there's 600 hours of

11:14

core theory that you have to

11:14

learn as well as written and

11:17

oral exams throughout. So it's,

11:17

it's just a few things to do.

11:24

Exactly. It's, it's, it's an

11:24

insane amount of work. And I did

11:28

the training full time. And that

11:28

literally meant full time,

11:32

Monday to Friday, and on a

11:32

monthly basis, weekend seminars.

11:37

So there were times where I

11:37

would work for 10, 14 days

11:43

straight. Because that was just

11:43

the way the training was set up.

11:48

A lot of hard

11:48

work then. I've gotten into

11:51

that. And so now you're in

11:51

private practice. And now I

11:55

mean, you've explained kind of

11:55

the different routes, I suppose

11:58

in Germany, and how like the

11:58

influence has maybe different

12:01

little, little bit over here in

12:01

the UK, how would you now define

12:05

your therapeutic approach? Given

12:05

those different kinds of

12:09

experiences, I suppose you've had.

12:12

I very much

12:12

define my therapeutic approach

12:16

as integrative. The Training

12:16

Institute in Germany define

12:19

their ethos as integrative even

12:19

though the certification was in

12:24

behavioral therapy for children

12:24

and adolescents. But the

12:29

reasoning for working

12:29

integratively with children and

12:33

adolescents and their families,

12:33

it's, you know, it's just so

12:35

important to think about the

12:35

wider systems that are involved

12:40

in a young person's mental

12:40

health. So considering peers,

12:44

school parenting, the histories,

12:44

the possibly intergenerational

12:52

trauma that stems from

12:52

grandparents as well. Sometimes,

12:57

you know, especially when the

12:57

children are younger, by age

13:01

seven or eight or so you can't

13:01

really do a lot of cognitive,

13:05

traditional cognitive work with

13:05

them. So you have to know how to

13:09

engage on a play therapy level,

13:09

on an art therapy level. Some

13:12

adolescents hate talking because

13:12

therapy is awful anyway, and

13:16

they don't want to engage. So

13:16

you have to think creatively and

13:19

draw from multiple different

13:19

schools of thoughts, really, in

13:23

order to, I guess, provide the

13:23

most appropriate support for the

13:30

young person.

13:32

I mean, it

13:32

sounds very kind of creative, in

13:35

terms of your approach in terms

13:35

of how I suppose focused around

13:39

the young person, you know, and

13:39

what they need in that in that

13:43

particular moment. So how long

13:43

have you been working in private

13:47

practice now then?

13:50

So I've been in

13:50

private practice for roughly one

13:53

and a half years now.

13:54

And how and how

13:54

has it been going for you?

13:57

It's been going

13:57

really well. I think, well, not

14:04

I think--the feedback I've

14:04

received is that my website is

14:09

incredibly approachable. The way

14:09

I describe how I work apparently

14:14

seems very non threatening, very

14:14

attractive to young people. And

14:22

additionally, I have the benefit

14:22

of looking quite young and being

14:27

male. Because lots of parents

14:27

and young people have told me

14:32

that if they had therapy before

14:32

or when they were looking for

14:37

therapy, the vast majority of

14:37

therapists were women. And that

14:44

just reminded them too much of

14:44

their mothers and they wanted

14:47

someone else, someone someone

14:47

different. So that really,

14:51

really plays to my advantage, I

14:51

guess, as well.

14:55

Absolutely. I think it's important kind of being able to have that choice,

14:57

isn't it? You know, and so we

14:59

need more male therapists I

14:59

think within the profession not

15:02

just for young people, I think

15:02

but for in all different types

15:05

of therapy. My next question is

15:05

kind of shifting the

15:10

conversation a little bit really

15:10

away from kind of your practice

15:13

and thinking maybe a bit about

15:13

like the wider therapy

15:17

community. Possibly here in the

15:17

UK, maybe in Germany, as I don't

15:22

know how connected you feel to

15:22

that community. I've just wanted

15:26

to how connected you feel to

15:26

other therapists, and that might

15:28

link in to the fact that you do

15:28

volunteer on Therapists Connect

15:32

as well.

15:34

Yeah, very much.

15:34

So in, in Germany, it's a big,

15:39

big, big, big nono to have any

15:39

presence on social media. So

15:45

when I initially joined Twitter,

15:45

while still studying at the

15:48

University of Sussex, and then

15:48

throughout my psychotherapy

15:52

training, I kept myself very

15:52

much in the background, just

15:54

following your hashtag and

15:54

reading about what's going on.

16:01

But because I moved back during

16:01

the pandemic, it was incredibly

16:06

helpful to have Therapists

16:06

Connect as a platform to connect

16:11

with other therapists, as it

16:11

says on the tin. So I guess I do

16:15

feel very much connected to the

16:15

wider therapists community,

16:20

however, that's limited to the

16:20

UK and US based therapists who

16:24

engage with with the hashtag on

16:24

Twitter, really. I still have

16:29

some connections to some of my

16:29

colleagues from training back in

16:33

Germany. But you know, it's very

16:33

different. It's a very different

16:38

type of connection.

16:40

Yeah. And

16:40

that's, that's kind of like on a

16:42

social media level. I was

16:42

wondering, do you have any kind

16:45

of in person connections with

16:45

other therapists?

16:49

Yeah, I have a

16:49

couple of friends who are

16:53

clinical psychologists, couples

16:53

therapists, there's an addiction

16:57

counselor in my friendship

16:57

circle as well. So there's,

17:02

there's some people around that

17:02

I can connect with.

17:05

That's good. That's good to hear. Because I think sometimes, and

17:06

particularly kind of being early

17:10

on in private practice, actually

17:10

having other therapists to

17:13

connect with can be really

17:13

difficult, and particularly in

17:15

the last few years, given that

17:15

we've been in a pandemic,

17:19

actually, actually having those

17:19

connections is really important,

17:22

I think.

17:23

Definitely,

17:23

definitely. I remember, in the

17:26

beginning, when some of those

17:26

connections hadn't been formed,

17:31

I was even more grateful for my

17:31

supervision, connection that I

17:37

had, because genuinely, you

17:37

know, supervision, I believe is

17:41

incredibly important, just to

17:41

assure quality of your practice

17:45

for the clients and for

17:45

yourself, really. But at the

17:48

same time, I feel that I have a

17:48

very, very good relationship

17:55

with my supervisor. And that

17:55

transcended I think, some of the

18:01

very practical and work oriented

18:01

focus that supervision can

18:07

sometimes have. This is

18:09

Just a short

18:09

break to have a message from one

18:11

of our sponsors, so please don't

18:11

go anywhere. If you'd like to

18:13

sponsor an episode of the

18:13

Therapist Connect Podcast, send

18:16

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18:23

This episode of

18:23

Therapists Connect Podcast is

18:25

sponsored by WebHealer. The

18:25

number one website provider for

18:28

private practice therapists,

18:28

serving the community for 20

18:32

years, WebHealer offers a non

18:32

technical and fully supported

18:35

online platform, helping

18:35

therapists use the internet to

18:38

grow their practice. Whether you

18:38

need a website, a booking

18:42

system, or even a secure email

18:42

address for your practice,

18:45

WebHealer can help. Contact

18:45

WebHealer today via

18:48

www.webhealer.net and use the

18:48

coupon Therapist Connect for 100

18:55

pounds off their do-it-for-me

18:55

service.

18:57

We hope you

18:57

enjoy the rest of this episode.

19:07

Is there a difference between

19:07

Germany and the UK in terms of

19:10

like expectations around

19:10

supervision? Because obviously

19:13

in the UK, it's it's, you know,

19:13

once a month, but it's got to be

19:16

kind of an hour and a half. I wondered whether there was.

19:18

Yes. So just

19:18

throughout training. The

19:24

supervision ratio needs to be

19:24

four to one. So every fourth

19:30

session needs to be supervised

19:30

for an hour, right? But once you

19:36

are done with your training and

19:36

you're fully accredited, there's

19:40

actually no obligation to

19:40

continue with supervision.

19:44

I find that fascinating and the same in America, isn't it? You know,

19:46

it's really intense supervision

19:49

whilst training and then that's

19:49

it. You don't ever have to go

19:52

and I find that qiute scary (laughs).

19:55

It is, it is

19:55

scary. And luckily I know that

19:59

most of the colleagues who I

19:59

trained with are still utilizing

20:03

supervision when they feel it's

20:03

needed. But at the same time,

20:09

I'm sure you know, there's so

20:09

many things that we don't know.

20:14

And unless we engage with

20:14

supervision or in a space where

20:18

things like this can be explored

20:18

and discussed, we'll never find

20:21

out about the things that we don't know.

20:24

Exactly, you

20:24

know, we're going to supervision

20:26

only because we have this

20:26

particular problem. You know, as

20:29

you said, there's other stuff that can come up with just by going to supervision when you

20:31

think there's nothing to talk

20:33

about, you know, it brings stuff

20:33

out definitely.

20:37

100%. I think

20:37

also, when I go to a supervision

20:41

session, and in quotation marks,

20:41

"I don't have anything to talk

20:45

about." We talk about what's

20:45

going well, in some of the cases

20:50

as well. And that's just really

20:50

reassuring for myself as well,

20:56

battles impostor syndrome

20:56

greatly. And I think, just

21:02

highlighting what goes well, is

21:02

something that can get lost a

21:07

little bit in a profession,

21:07

where we focus on the negatives

21:12

so much.

21:12

Yeah, just by

21:12

focusing on the problems. I'm

21:15

also thinking about, like

21:15

sustaining a supervisory

21:18

relationship as well. Like, if

21:18

you only saw someone once every

21:21

12 months or two years, it's

21:21

quite hard to actually build up

21:25

a relationship with somebody

21:25

that way. Yeah.

21:28

Trust is so

21:28

important in a supervisory

21:31

relationship. I've had a

21:31

supervisor in the past who was

21:36

insanely good at what they did

21:36

in practice with the clients.

21:43

But transferring that to

21:43

supervisory relationship just

21:47

doesn't work with myself. It

21:47

might have worked for other

21:50

people working together with

21:50

that supervisor, but we just

21:53

clashed so much on a personal

21:53

level. That supervisory

22:00

relationship wasn't beneficial

22:00

at all.

22:04

And that's any

22:04

more challenging if you're not

22:07

seeing each other on a regular a

22:07

regular basis? Yeah, it's

22:11

interesting. It's quite a big

22:11

question this one, but what do

22:16

you think is the biggest

22:16

challenge that the profession

22:18

faces right now from your

22:18

perspective?

22:23

So since since

22:23

I'm on Twitter, and since I

22:26

volunteer with Therapists

22:26

Connect, I'm very much aware of

22:29

a number of very divisive

22:29

topics.

22:35

The never ending

22:35

divisive topics, I think just

22:38

the ghost on Twitter. Yeah.

22:41

Yeah, that

22:41

exactly. But there's, there's

22:44

two in particular that I'm

22:44

thinking of right now. Very,

22:46

very pressing on Twitter, and

22:46

they're incredibly divisive. And

22:52

I think the biggest challenge

22:52

for the therapists community is

22:56

to stay connected and to stay

22:56

respectful. To really think

23:03

about how much of an impact our

23:03

voices have, whether intended or

23:09

unintended, it's, we have to be

23:09

really mindful how we have those

23:15

debates, because these debates

23:15

are incredibly important to

23:19

have. But it's so important to

23:19

consider how we do that. And I

23:26

think that's a big challenge.

23:28

I mean, I think that's really important point. Sometimes I wonder if if we

23:30

think, I'll speak broadly, that

23:36

we're just having conversations

23:36

between us. And actually, you

23:39

know, on Twitter specifically,

23:39

you know, there's a whole world

23:43

out there kind of observing and

23:43

watching some of those

23:46

discussions. And there can be

23:46

serious kind of consequences and

23:51

impact on people through some of

23:51

those discussions. So I think I

23:54

think that's a really important

23:54

point. Definitely.

23:57

Exactly. Thank you.

23:59

Yeah. Talking

23:59

then about volunteering on

24:03

Therapists Connect accounts, how

24:03

have you, you've done that for

24:06

quite a while now. So how do you

24:06

find that? How have you been

24:10

managing it?

24:11

Yes, I think I

24:11

joined in March, April last

24:15

year. And since then, it's, it's

24:15

been real fun. I think, you

24:23

know, the Therapists Connect

24:23

community is a very diverse

24:26

bunch. There's so many different

24:26

people using the hashtag there

24:30

from many different walks of

24:30

life with lots of different

24:35

experiences and opinions. And,

24:35

you know, I really believe that

24:41

this breadth and wealth of

24:41

expertise can provide an

24:44

incredible value to anyone who

24:44

joins in, or kind of arching

24:48

back to what we just said. It's

24:48

really important that we are

24:52

mindful of how we have those

24:52

those conversations. Yeah,

24:59

volunteering on the account is

24:59

fun, it's engaging. There's not

25:05

too much work. And there's also

25:05

not too little work.

25:12

Yeah, you have to say that didn't you?

25:14

Yes, exactly.

25:14

It's just a nice way of engaging

25:20

with with the community, I

25:20

think. And sometimes Twitter can

25:24

become quite overwhelming. But

25:24

within the structure that we

25:32

have as the volunteering team, I

25:32

feel very held, I feel very seen

25:37

and supported by you guys. So

25:37

I'm, I'm happy to still log on

25:44

to Twitter, even when it can get

25:44

overwhelming because I still see

25:48

the benefit of it. And I want to

25:48

be part of this benefit. Just

25:51

like you guys basically

25:51

supported me when I first came

25:56

back to the UK to open up my

25:56

private practice.

26:00

I mean, that's,

26:00

that's lovely to hear. I mean, I

26:02

think it's, it's such a

26:02

challenging space, Twitter. And

26:07

I think you're right, I love the

26:07

diversity myself, and just

26:10

actually hearing so many

26:10

different viewpoints and

26:12

learning something new about

26:12

therapy or someone's

26:15

perspective, which you think,

26:15

oh, gosh, I hadn't thought about

26:18

it that way or, or understood it

26:18

from that point of view before.

26:22

But at the same time, those

26:22

challenges where, you know, it

26:25

can be really difficult and

26:25

challenging, and tense, and all

26:28

of that kind of thing. So I think as volunteers, you all do an amazing job to kind of

26:30

navigate that actually, I think

26:35

over time, we've kind of built

26:35

up a good sense of how to deal

26:40

with it and things and what we

26:40

share and what we won't share on

26:43

the account now. So get a thank

26:43

you for all your hard work on

26:46

there. Because it wouldn't it,

26:46

wouldn't be able to continue if

26:49

if you and the other volunteers

26:49

weren't there doing that work

26:51

for us. So thanks very much.

26:53

It's a pleasure,

26:53

honestly, it's always fun to

26:56

sign on. Again, you know, if at

26:56

some point I need a holiday or

27:00

so because there's lots of other

27:00

stuff going on in private

27:03

practice or in personal life,

27:03

everyone's always so supportive

27:07

to accommodate for that. Yeah.

27:07

So I think it's, it's, it's a

27:11

great platform to volunteer for.

27:11

Great.

27:17

Thank you. Now,

27:17

I want to talk a little bit now

27:21

about the--I've called it like a

27:21

therapeutic tool. But I don't

27:24

know if that's the right phrase

27:24

to use, that you've designed and

27:28

are using, which is called

27:28

self-care pairs. And just wanted

27:32

to want to tell the listeners a

27:32

little bit about that, like

27:35

where the idea came from and

27:35

what what it is.

27:38

Yes. So

27:38

self-care pairs is--I call it a

27:42

resource for mental health

27:42

professionals, but also for

27:47

parents. And it's basically

27:47

based on the common children's

27:52

game called memory or pairs. So

27:52

the cards have pictures of

27:57

potential self-care activities

27:57

on the one side, and each

28:02

picture appears on on two cards.

28:02

So the game, of course, starts

28:06

with all of the cards laid out,

28:06

facedown, and you have to find a

28:12

match a pair. And once you find

28:12

the pair, you can keep it and

28:16

you can have a conversation

28:16

about the images that are on the

28:18

cards. So for example, the

28:18

therapist or the parent could

28:22

ask the young person "so what

28:22

activity do you think this

28:25

shows?" because there's some

28:25

ambiguous pictures there as well

28:28

just to facilitate conversation.

28:28

And then you could ask, "so do

28:33

you like this activity? Would

28:33

this be a self care activity for

28:37

you? When was the last time you

28:37

did this activity? Would you

28:40

like to do more of it?" So

28:40

there's there's endless

28:42

possibilities of how you can

28:42

engage. Using those cards,

28:47

really, it's not limited to just

28:47

talking about self-care. Could

28:52

also be used as an icebreaker in

28:52

the first couple of sessions to

28:56

find out about likes and

28:56

dislikes of your client.

29:00

I think it's

29:00

brilliant. And they're really

29:02

kind of fun and colorful kind of

29:02

pictures on all of the different

29:06

cards. If anyone's interested in

29:06

getting some of those, where can

29:10

they get them from. Thanks for

29:10

that Lukas. That sounds really

29:14

interesting here and about the

29:14

self care pairs, can you tell

29:17

our listeners where they might

29:17

be able to get ahold of those

29:20

guests of

29:20

course. So there is an Instagram

29:23

page @selfcarepairs. And there's

29:23

also a space on my website,

29:31

#selfcarepairs where you can

29:31

find out more about the game

29:35

read about its development, how

29:35

the idea came about, find out

29:40

about different uses of the game

29:40

as well. And just really dive

29:44

into what self care pairs is all

29:44

about. Also, I'd just like to

29:49

mention, when this episode is

29:49

released, I'll have a discount

29:54

code available for self-care

29:54

pairs. It's going to be TC 20.

29:59

So the listeners can get 20% off

29:59

their own version of self-care

30:03

pairs.

30:04

That's brilliant, that's very generous of you. What we can do is we can

30:06

put the link in our description,

30:11

and maybe post the discount code

30:11

up on our Instagram and Twitter

30:16

accounts as well. Yeah, we'll

30:16

know about that. That's great.

30:20

So if you're listening, go get

30:20

yourself a set of self care

30:23

pairs. That's brilliant is

30:23

there, the first specific age

30:27

range I wanted to cover cover

30:27

quite a broad age range?

30:31

So there are two

30:31

suggested age ranges There's a

30:34

yellow set, which is suggested

30:34

for 6 to 12 years old. And

30:38

there's a green set suggested

30:38

for 13 and above. But it's been

30:43

suggested to me that you can

30:43

really mix both sets together,

30:48

you can completely disregard the

30:48

age recommendations, because you

30:54

could, for example, do some

30:54

inner child work if you use it

30:57

with an adult, or some younger

30:57

children might seem very mature

31:03

for their age, and they like to

31:03

engage with the green cards. So

31:06

at the end of the day, there's

31:06

room for exploration there.

31:10

I think they

31:10

were all my kind of main

31:13

questions. I suppose my last one

31:13

was kind of about, have you,

31:18

what else have you kind of got

31:18

planned? Because I feel like we,

31:21

it took us a while to kind of

31:21

arrange this podcast recording.

31:24

So I feel like you're really

31:24

busy all the time. So I was

31:27

wondering whether you had other

31:27

things kind of planned coming up

31:30

in the future.

31:32

There's a lot of stuff going on in the background. That's very true.

31:34

I'm currently aiming to

31:40

specialize further in working

31:40

with the LGBTQ+ community. I've

31:46

got a second professional

31:46

engagement that's related to

31:51

that as well. Working with

31:51

members of the trans community

31:57

as well. And yeah, I think, you

31:57

know, the developing the self

32:02

care pairs has just taken up a

32:02

lot of time in the past. That's

32:07

now calmed down a little bit.

32:07

But I'm already on the next

32:13

thing, which is the specialization.

32:15

That's brilliant. Well, I wish you all the luck with all of that,

32:17

because it seems to be really

32:19

very exciting. So I'll just

32:19

mention your website again, in

32:22

case anyone's interested find

32:22

out more about any of that

32:25

stuff, which is psychotherapy

32:25

dot plus is that, correct. Yeah,

32:29

correct. Brilliant. Oh, that's

32:29

fantastic. Lucas, thanks so much

32:32

for coming on the podcast today.

32:32

It's been an absolute pleasure.

32:35

Thank you for

32:35

having me. I love that. Take

32:38

care. You too. Bye.

32:41

Thank you for listening

32:41

to the therapist Connect

32:44

Podcast. Go to

32:44

www.therapists-connect.com for

32:53

more discussions, and debates.

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