Listen Up…
What is Therapy?
Let me tell you a story…
I want to share with you what psychotherapy is to me without giving you a text book definition, and what brought me to create Listen Up Therapy.
The idea that therapy could help me was alien to me many years ago, when I was in the midst of a very successful music career that was taking me to all corners of the globe, every weekend. My life was upside down half the time.
Hardly had my feet touched the ground, when I would be off again. I first commenced psychotherapy sessions in 2005, and have continued in regular therapy ever since. It has changed my life, or rather my life has changed. Therapy has given me a safe space, a container, to explore, reflect, contemplate, and come to realise that many of the issues I present can look very different if I think about them in a different way. I can change my perspective, and with the help of an experienced, highly trained other, to be there with me, come to understand aspects of myself I previously could not, and grow as a human being.
My own therapy has been invaluable…
Throughout these years I have gone through many changes. I have changed my lifestyle, my occupation, my location(several times), my relationships, and my attitude. I have overcome many personal battles and difficulties throughout my time in the music industry. My personal therapy was invaluable to this process.
I have presented with anxiety, depression, feelings of sadness, anger, hopelessness, frustration, dark places, seemingly bottomless pits that I felt I would never be able to climb out of. The relationship I have built up over time with my therapist and the work we do, the journey we are on together, enables me to really come to know myself, to hold a greater comprehension of my idiosyncrasies, my triggers, my core beliefs about myself and others, my life script.
The stories I tell myself about who I am, how I need to think, feel, act, behave, to get by, to be accepted, to be seen, to be felt, have become more clear to me over time in therapy. It is without a doubt one of the most important journeys I have ever undertaken, and has been invaluable in helping me become who I am today.
Offering therapy for those in creative industries
The idea behind Listen Up Therapy came to me midway through my studies taking an MSc in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy. I was still very active in the music industry, performing regularly, travelling lots, in the recording studio creating music and remixes, and running record labels. At the same time I was deepening my experience of meditation, being shown new techniques and methods regularly from my partner Belinda.
My struggles with balancing and sustaining my vocation in the music world, practising self care, and seeing more and more people around me suffering terribly with mental health issues highlighted the painful position so many people are in.
This brought me to the idea that I could use my vast experience from working in music, my own battles with mental health, and my new found knowledge around psychotherapy, to help others make that move and commit to therapeutic and meditative practices, and improve their lives.