Pat Orchard

I am 65 years old and received my social work degree (MSW/LCSW) at 40. I have an MFA in creative writing (published) which I received at 36. I have an adult child whom I raised. Good therapists helped me throughout my challenging life; I feel that, if both people are engaged, real change can occur. This is based on my own experience and informed by my 20 years in NYC working, not only with many clients, but with those forming new ideas and theories of what facilitates personal change. Deeper emotional (trust, commitment) work in therapy sessions, foments deeper personal experience. I have read and written all my life; writing (and creative endeavors) involve thinking in different ways, bypassing "conventional wisdom" and fear-based solutions, and imagining what might be. As a clinician, I found psychoanalytic practice and theory to be very compatible with creative thought, imagination and deep personal change. Because my clinical work is positioned between narrative (fiction/theory) and practice (why to live, and how), these psychoanalytic, two -person and interpersonal ideas, offer an opportunity for learning, relearning, new education and, with both parties engaged, provides more and better life choices, and deeper, personal, transformational self-experiences.