why this website
One person's viewpoint is so limited. I always wanted to to see the world through the eyes of others. Now after years as a therapist sharing the worlds of thousands of colleagues, clients, family and friends I have been rewarded beyond my expectations and want to return something to this community.
I am indebted to those colleagues who at the very beginning encouraged me to question theories and practices, work out for myself what to do and test the effectiveness of what I was doing. This saved wandering down many of the dead ends that conventional practice offered at the time.
Writing johnbrasted.com has enabled me to examine my experience and the principles underlying my practice - mostly by finding words for what I have known all along. Some of the ideas are mine but most have been around for ages.
This knowledge has been sidelined over the past couple of decades by the predominance of commercial medications and therapeutic formulas that emphasise technique and method over the therapist and relationship which have been shown again and again to be more important.
Rituals, protocols, gurus and experts provide authority, reassurance and directions but in the end the work and the satisfaction comes from oneself.
It would be nice if there were magic wands but problems usually have to be resolved for success to last. Problems that are ignored or suppressed sometimes more or less go away but they often reorganise themselves and given time go on to become unmanageable or catastrophic.
It would be nice if there were simple cure-alls but in my experience individuals and situations are unique so solutions take effort to find.
After a life time working within a Person Centered framework and experimenting with traditional awareness practices I am sharing ideas and exercises that clients have found transformational and have helped them enjoy being themselves. Just reading them may be a waste of time. They work when put into practice.
copyright (C) John Brasted 2008
updated 22. Jan. 2012
