Stefan Björk Ψ @drbjork@scholar.social

By way of #introduction, I could also mention that I am also a #GenderStudies scholar and #feminist.

I'm a #PhD of #Psychology and work #psychologist at the Swedish National Employment Service. I have a keen interest in #PhilosophyOfPsychology, #PhilosophyOfMind, #CriticalPsychology, #HistoryOfPsychology and #Phenomenology. I blog (in #Swedish) at https://fenomenologen.se. Is that enough as an #introduction?

As I'm becoming unemployed by the end of the year, I stand before the task I hate the most: selling myself, presenting myself as competent and excellent at this and that, write catchy things on LinkedIn and so on.

I don't know how to do that. I "sell" myself by doing a good job and gaining a reputation. But that's not how it works in academia, and I haven't worked long enough as a psychologist to gain reputation enough.

Any advice welcome!

It seems I'll be out of job in January, so I ask you for suggestions.

I'm a PhD in #psychology and licensed #psychologist. I do work psychology, psychological assessment and narrative #psychotherapy. I mainly teach critical social psychology, personality psychology, organisational psychology, research methods, statistics, psychometrics, discourse psychology, #phenomenology, and history of psychology. And I use .

I'm bound to Umeå, Sweden at least half time.

Good morning from my workplace in #Umeå.

It seems that my super power is that I am able to frame my client's core problem in a therapeutically useful narrative after only one or two sessions. I have met clients that have been psychiatric patients for decades, and after two sessions they tell me I'm the first person who have actually understood them.

This super power doesn't come for free, however. It costs a lot. And it actually scares the hell out of me.

The question about "phenomenological listening" sparked lots of thoughts on how I work as a psychologist.

Every time a see a client I try to challenge my assumptions about the client. Anything can prove to be anything else than what I first thought. And I will never, ever reach some kind of final "truth" about real, living people.

If I leave the therapy room without a revised understanding of my client and their world, I haven't done my job properly.

After the session, I may try to understand the client's narratives in light of this or that psychological theory or this or that psychiatric diagnose. But this is only a means to an end: to better understand the client and their lifeworld. I use theories and categories as lenses or looking glasses. Theories may be useful servants, but they are terrible masters.

When I see people as a psychologist, I ask them to tell me stories about their everyday life. I try not to judge on what kind of narrative the client tell me or if this or that diagnose might be fitting. Of course theories crosses my mind as well as bits and pieces of other client's narratives, but I make them go away -- I don't need them here and now, while meeting the client.

Phenomenological listening -- or "some healthy epoché", as I would say -- is an antidote to that.

The therapist's task is not to solve the client's problems, but to help the client solve their problems on their own. Without a clear understanding of the problem, this will ultimately fail.

With the fixed categories of the diagnostic manuals and the fixed manuals of contemporary cognitive behavioural therapy, there is a risk that we (psychologists, therapists) just keep filling in forms and tick boxes instead of truly understanding the life-world of our clients.

Why is this so important? It is important because when you classify the client's problem as this or that kind of problem, you fixate it, you peg it down as a problem of a certain kind. And when you understand a problem as a certain kind of problem, the solution is already given. Any description of a problem implies its solution.

(cont.)

Phenomenological listening, as I take it, thus means that you withhold or suspend your own judgement on what kind of narrative the client is telling. It involves resisting the urge to as quickly as possible classify the client's narrative as matching this or that psychiatric diagnose.

Phenomenological listening means listening and asking questions until I, as a therapist, can understand the client beyond my own categories, beyond my own prejudice.

(cont.)

Got a question from @Linuxtjej what "phenomenological listening" meant in psychotherapeutic context.

In short, I suppose it means "listening without prejudice".

Phenomenological listening involves what the ancient greek skeptics called epoché (ἐποχή), a suspension of all judgements. This is much more profound than just "not solving the client's problem". It is a complete suspension of any judgement on what the "problem" is.

(cont.)

Why are URL:s to #Microsoft #SharePoint resources like 500 characters long? It ruins the emails when you want to send a link to a resource in an email to colleagues.

+t

Darn keyboard.