By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people! 
By Rich Simon A thousand years ago, during the palmy days of generous insurance reimbursement, therapists could maintain the illusion that, since therapy was paid for by an unseen hidden hand, clinical practice was somehow untouched by the tacky subject of money. Even the style of therapy reflected this disjunction: 
CE Credits: 2 • Price: $29But what do we do when, as established, successful, therapists, we ourselves experience feelings of dissatisfaction with the same, old routine and yearn to try something new, fulfill an old fantasy, and make risky mid-career changes? This Reading Course follows the lives of three therapists who responded to what Marian Sandmaier calls “the soft tap that comes at the own door,” beckoning them to a different kind of life. Lynn Bruner traded in a steady counseling job in an exhilarating big-city environment for uncertain employment deep in the Allegheny Mountains. At 49, therapist Ken Sharp left his thriving, but staid, private practice to leap into the maelstrom of a mental-health crisis center. Patrick Dougherty, a stressed-out, hyperrational, psychodynamic therapist, became a committed student of a Qigong master, which fundamentally transformed his life in ways he couldn’t have imagined. Indeed, all of these voyagers found that taking the leap into the unknown changed their lives in entirely unexpected ways.
Course Readings
The Road Less Traveled by Marian Sandmaier
Planting Season: A Therapist Searches for a Simpler Life by Lynn Bruner
Hoop Dreams: On the Mean Streets of Dallas, Therapy’s a Whole New Ball Game by Ken Sharp
Breathing Lessons: Unlearning the Mindset of Therapy by Patrick Doherty
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss the necessary steps to making life-changing decisions.
2. List the pros and cons of risk-taking life changes.
3. Describe how spiritual practices can help with life transitions.
4. Discuss the importance of creating a simpler life leading to a richer practice.
© 2013 Psychotherapy Networker