This is a guest article from Amita Patel: www.alignedholistics.com
When I meet new people, I usually get asked one (or more) of the following:
1. How do I pronounce/spell your name?
2. What caste are you?
3. How is what you do different than a therapist?
The first two questions annoy me, while the third gives me an opportunity to talk about my 2nd favorite topic (the first being my dog, Ollie, of course!)
So here it goes: One of the (many) differences between “traditional” therapists and the work I do is that I come from a strengths-based perspective. That means that sessions are less about you bitching about what’s not working, why life sucks, and why everyone else is to blame. Partly because that’s a downer and I don’t want to hear it, but more than that, it’s because that isn’t going to fix shit.
Not surprisingly, in a strengths-based approach we discuss…wait for it…your strengths!
Ok, that wasn’t much of a surprise.
What is a surprise though is how difficult this conversation is for most people...
