Hello everybody! My name is Caroline, I’m 26, and I am a psychologist based in Amsterdam.
I was invited here by @thisisbenbrick who recently told me about Steemit and how it might be a good place to post my stories from working with people of all ages with differerent physchological problems.
I was born in Amsterdam, and grew up in a small town nearby. My parents moved to France five years ago, to trade normal suburban life for a wooded hill along the Dordogne river. I’ve travelled and lived in Sydney and London, but now I’m back in Amsterdam.
There’s lots I want to talk about - the issue of experience for example: I don’t mean the problem of gaining enough experience to get a good job in the field of psychology - don’t even get me started on that - I am talking about mental health professionals having experience with mental illness of their own. You might say this is a good thing:
‘You have to have experienced mental illness in order to help others with their mental illness.’
It means you know what it’s like to have certain problems, and can therefore better understand others who are currently struggling. But is it necessary to completely understand someone to help them? Can I help people that I don’t understand? What does it even mean to ‘understand someone’?
I’d love to hear from others - I hope there might be some interest in my thoughts and experiences for future posts and we can share ideas. My next post I’m planning to publish here is about how mental preparation is a trap so please follow me so you’ll find it.
Thanks for reading!
Inquiring the mind has been a definite focus most of my life and still is, knowing one's mind surely help in understanding where sick ones come from. Relating to their struggle, having empathy and finding the parallels in our own experience makes a major difference in creating a creative dialogue that moves one toward health. Thank you for your post, great shots, and welcome aboard. Namaste :)
Thanks so much!
=))))))
BLISS = because life is so sweet
I'm the enemy @craig-grant :)
welcome @carolinemarie!
Thank you!
Welcome @carolinemarie. Any friend of @thisisbenbrick is a friend of mine. And a fellow Dutch woman! I'll be watching your posts - mental health is often ignored and taken for granted.
Thanks @fairytalelife! Great to hear you're interested in the subject.
Welcome @carolinemarie its a pleasure to have you on Steemit, enjoy!
Thanks! check out my new post :)
Hi Caroline!
I love France and eager to come to Australia, please tell something about these countries!
Thanks and all the best!
Thanks!
Hey I have been referred by " popular steemit user" I am writing a few words and ending up with over a thousand $. lol That's the new steemit trend it appears.
Welcome Caroline! @thisisbenbrick is a cool dude was just talking to him. Hit us up on Steem.chat :)
He is! Will check out the Steem chat. Thanks!
Young and beautiful
i imagine there must be a lot of psychologists who do this work because of their own suffering! upvoting
I think so too! Thank you. I wonder how they are dealing with that or using it in any way.
Yes, all the best in your work!
Thank you! Same to you.
Welcome Caroline!
Thanks Arnold!
There is a going to be a booming business for counselling Steem addiction. I sense your arrival is timely...
Haha maybe i'll need it soon as well!
Welcome to Steemit! Hope we have a good time
Welcome to steemit. You are right I think to be a true ambassador for anything you have to have experienced it yourself. There is nothing quite the same as knowing first hand what something feels like. I was in Amsterdam in 2005 and loved the city:). ..Followed
Thank you!
Great to see you hear!
How much did @thisisbenbrick give you to come here and post?
Eh? Why would I pay someone to post?
A lot of posts here are due to kickbacks given to people to post.
technically they are ALL based on kickbacks... isn't that why steem exists? do you know what the definition of kickback is?
A lot of posts here are due to kickbacks given to people to post.
He gave me some good advice. Thanks for reading my post!
Welcome, Caroline. Looking forward to your posts.
Thanks!
Hi and welcome to Steemit :D
I stopped having problems with my mind when I completely lost it no time ago hehehe I'm glad I have not found it again, the mind can be rather troublesome I hear...
Thank you! Yes I hear that too...
Welcome to Steemit, @carolinemarie! Wishing lots of @happiness to you!
Thank you! And the same to you.
Welcome to Steemit @carolinemarie! Glad to have you here!
Thanks!
Welcome Caroline!
I look forward to your writing on that subject.
A kind-of related thought: A friend relayed an interesting discussion with their therapist to me in which he described the importance of therapists working out their own issues before offering help to their clients. In his view, too many therapists haven't adequately gone through this process. One effect of this, he described, can be therapists deliberately steering conversation with their clients to avoid certain topics that they find painful to explore for personal reasons. Certainly not a perspective I'd considered before.
Good to hear. And an interesting thought you mention... Because when has that therapist gone through such a process enough? Do all of their issues have to be worked out before they can help others? Or maybe they don't even realize they have anything important to work through. It sounds like avoiding certain topics for personal reasons would definitely be something to look into. Thanks for your comment!
I think determining when this hasn't been adequately done is easier: I can imagine that paying attention to their own emotional in response to certain topics can reveal signs of that.
I agree!
welcome Caroline,
I love the line: ‘You have to have experienced mental illness in order to help others"with their mental illness.’
I love picture by the amazing Jung Yeon Min
Thank you!
Hi there, thanks for the post. I just got back from Amsterdam and have to say its a beautiful city.
best of luck with Steem and your work.
Thanks!
Welcome to Steemit Caroline, it's great to have you here!
Thanks! Good to be here.
Hey Caroline! Welcome here and I must mention, you're a beautiful personality! :)
Following!
Since I'm new to Steemit, I'm wondering why this post garnered over $900? Seriously, I'm not putting it down. I'm inquiring. What's here? A few words, a few pictures, mention of a few cities and referral of a songwriter. Perhaps, Steemit users really connect with psychological problems? I look forward to useful analysis of what makes a post successful. Thanks and best to author
Hey @Petertahoe it can be frustrating. The bigger the user the more their vote is worth. This post was voted by several large users (whales) which gives it a bigger payout.
I read your introducing post - to gain more attention I'd suggest adding images to your post (posting the link to the image), linking with hyperlinks (e.g to your website, and to your social media). You could have also added the Peter Gabriel track with the YouTube embed. Lastly if you really wanted to go to town you could have actually recorded a voiceover and embedded it on YouTube in the post.
Good luck!
Thank you @thisisbenbrick
I am trying to figure it out. I still don't really get it to be honest... I put up a new post last night and it hardly seems to have any readers, even though it has more content I think. Maybe it's like thisisbenbrick said below that I should have put more images and links and such.
Good thoughts. Love it!
Thank you! I just posted a new one :)
I`m not a trained psychologist myself but this is to me the most fascinating real time around the world around the clock social experiment of all times. It imho actually enhances your capabilities of understanding others and yourself, if you allow yourself to get drawn in the community, because it rewards cooperation and open mindedness and self-reflection so much. To me this is a life changing experience I am even happy to pay for because I like upvoting stuff so much and I wanna see bang for my click :D
Awww Amsterdam, one of my favorite cities on the planet. I lived on Hartenstraat close to the centrum from 1987 through 1991 and loved every minute of it. I realize it was a different time of course but what a beautiful and historic place. I had a recording studio there at the time and a small boat I traveled around the canals with. Also this is the only place I have ever witnessed a 9 bicycle pile up!! With 2 people seriously hurt!
Thank you for your article on mental health, I have oft wondered how do you even begin to treat someone who's outlook on life is so vastly, radically different that what would be considered the "norm"?
Please continue writing about this I will follow your work.
Hartenstraat is a wonderful street! Yeah lots of bicycle chaos there..
Thanks for your comment. I find that most people that I treat have a different way of thinking from me, sometimes different than the 'norm' indeed, but I find everyone wants to feel content I try to find out how they can get there while keeping their own outlook.
I just posted a new article that relates to what a lot of people seem to find difficult to do: thinking less. :)
The pieces of the broken mind can never be put back...
A Mind with integrated darkness is not always broken!
That reminds me of the Japanese tradition of fixing broken things by making the cracks golden and not hiding them away: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi
I started off in psychology, it is an interesting subject to study. I now am studying pharmacology which I find even more interesting. Obligatory welcome to steemit and plugging of blog @thealexander. Which psychological studies of recent have peaked your interest?
Thanks! I'm currently fascinated by the many studies that have linked depression to (other?) inflammatory illnesses. There's an interesting line of research looking at the epidemic of depression from evolutionary perspective, mostly related to our modern lifestyle. (check out Steve Ilardi's TedTalk on YouTube!)
It is also fascinating how cognitive decline associated with neurological disorders can be improved by the administration of SSRI's for example Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease, though this is mainly due to treating Depression that is co-morbid with the disease.
Welcome. I'm sure your insight will be very valuable here:)
Thank you! Just posted a new piece as well :)
Welcome Caroline. Followed and looking forward to your posts!
Thanks! Just posted a new one :)
Hi @carolinemarie, nice post again, thank you! Up-voted of course ;-)
Alrighty