Question: what makes you want to be a therapist?

Nathan Hook answered on 5 Nov 2018:

I’ve had my own experience of therapy as a client – I had hypnotherapy as a teenager for a phobia which I’ve since overcome, and seen a normal counsellor to talk things through during difficult times in my life. There is a cliche of the ‘wounded healer,’ that someone who has suffered gains the power to heal powers which is so common it’s a standard thing covered in textbooks.

I suppose I’ve also been inspired by my father, who late in life retrained as a hypnotherapist and has been doing it as a part-time retirement job. Therapy work is often a later life profession, for people how have had a lot of lived experience.

It also relates to my other research interests – some experts think therapy work and/or hypnotherapy is just another form of role-playing.