One of the largest ways in which the job of a therapist stands out from other professions is in its need for personal growth and self-awareness to be effective. By the nature of the profession, practitioners must have a strong understanding of themselves and others in order to do their best work. Because of this, a therapist’s life experiences outside of clinical and academic can often have an outsized impact on their work. A prime example of how such experiences can strengthen one’s clinical work is the Training Institute’s former Director of Development and therapist, Peace Sullivan. Ms. Sullivan did not begin her career in the field of mental health but drew from her life and professional experiences in other realms to make both herself and those she helped train at TI stronger therapists.
Ms. Sullivan’s first career was as a journalist for the Associated Press in New York City. She later worked as a free lance writer in Argentina, Brazil and Ireland. In Ireland she lived on a farm in Co. Kerry. This time spent immersed in other cultures and covering their often-tumultuous politics was formative for Ms. Sullivan and caused a shift in how she viewed those around her. When people come to new places, encounter new situations, and meet new people “[they] try to impose our own belief systems and ways of behaving onto others,” says Ms. Sullivan, “it doesn’t work.” As she examined the biases she brought to these novel encounters, Ms. Sullivan was able to see the world through lenses different than her own and understand the widely varying viewpoints and histories every person brings with them to new situations. These lessons would prove invaluable to her subsequent career as a therapist.
When Ms. Sullivan returned to the United States after her years abroad, she found it difficult to adjust to American life. The perspective she had gained during this time made it challenging to settle back into America’s often insular culture and led her to enter therapy as a client at the Training Institute. It was during this time that Ms. Sullivan began to consider becoming a therapist herself, a notion that was strengthened when her therapist at TI, Anna Keefe, said she believed she would be good at it. This led Ms. Sullivan to return to school to attain a graduate degree in social work, after which she would return to TI to complete her training and eventually join its staff.
As Ms. Sullivan began down this new path, her experiences from her previous career proved informative. Not only did her time as journalist traveling the globe help lead her to become TI’s first Director of Development, but the perspective she gained during that time proved to be important in enhancing her work as a therapist. In particular, it taught her the importance of listening to others to truly understand their unique perspectives. Ms. Sullivan notes that it can be particularly challenging for new therapists to be able to “really listen without thinking of the next things you’re going to say.” It is natural for therapists to want to help their clients by having all the answers for them, but this can lead them to pass over what a client may actually be expressing. The journey of therapy should be one of discovery for therapist and client alike says Ms. Sullivan, “It’s okay not to know… You always want to be discovering. You always want to be learning.” One part of TI’s training that Ms. Sullivan found particularly helpful in this regard was the requirement that aspiring therapists spend time in analysis themselves. This experience forces therapists to understand their own biases and approaches to new situations, which is crucial for their ability understand their clients on their own terms without projecting one’s own subconscious onto their client’s situation.
Throughout her time as both a journalist and a therapist, perhaps the greatest lesson Ms. Sullivan learned was the importance of one’s curiosity. It is curiosity that allows someone to understand and empathize with the vastly different life experiences and viewpoints of those in different cultures. It is curiosity that leads a therapist to be an eager listener who truly wishes to learn about their clients during therapy. It is curiosity that drives one to assess their own ways of thinking and assumptions about others. While these attributes can help a person become a better therapist, they can be applied to all aspects of one’s life. Not every person will be able to spend years immersed in other cultures or become a therapist, but we all can truly listen to others and seek to understand the vastly differing ways in which individuals view the world. We can all be curious. Ms. Sullivan is proud to have been involved for so long with an organization like TI that emphasizes such ways of interacting with others and brings help to so many who would not otherwise have access to it. “The successes have been all the people who have literally been given new lives by TI’s therapists,” she says. As she looks ahead to the Training Institute’s future, Ms. Sullivan characteristically stresses the importance of continued learning and expanding the ways in which it can help its clients. “Our understanding has changed so much… We need to welcome new ways of thinking and acting.”