Cass

To start off with, could you please share a little bit about your background as a clinical psychologist and maybe what first motivated you to work in mental health?

Thank you.

That's the thing.

People study psychology.

Some people go into research and that's where those emerging therapies originate from.

But then we also need clinicians like yourself putting the research into practical use to actually help people.

That must be really rewarding, helping people and seeing people progress in their treatment and get results.

Because it's unique for everyone.

I've talked about on here before a label, say I have OCD.

It's just a diagnostic label.

My experience of living with OCD is going to be very different to someone else's experience and the same with depression.

And there's varying degrees to which one suffers with something.

So yeah, you would see the gambit of all of it.

Do some people come in with an awareness of that, that the coping mechanisms they developed are no longer serving them or do they just come in in their pain or does it differ from person to person?

I really wish it was something that...

We got some level of education about early because you don't know what you don't know.

And if you're not brought up in a family where your inner world or your feelings are openly talked about, like, there are people, I mean, all of us to varying degrees, that don't know...

how to name certain emotions or feelings.

And I think it's just really hard for people sometimes when you don't even have the basic understanding, but we're not taught that as a rule.

Yeah.