Without knowing what I wanted to do, I was told to study finance so I would have a stable life. I decided against that, took a leap, and decided to become a therapist. While I was studying psychology, I fell in love with continental philosophy, and found revelation in the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. However, it left me at odds with the medical language of therapy. Without a practiced tradition, I went off to study politics and interned at a policy institute which had a curious part-time editor. Three years later, I had truly lost my way, wandered into the dark woods. I remembered that the editor ran a philosophical practice shaped by her apprenticeship with Andrew Feldmar, whose own practice was inspired by Levinas and RD Laing. She became my therapist and saved my life. During our first year of therapy, her husband interrupted one of our sessions, because he thought he’d heard people singing. Two years after that, she gave me a letter Andrew had written to her, and said, “Welcome.” Now I have my own practice: https://member.psychologytoday.com/za/profile
One of these days, I will have to sing my gratitude to Helen.