Dr. Colman Noctor

If this is helpful, you keep coming and I'll keep seeing you.

And if it's not, we just stop.

And right from the off, it gives them a sense of control over...

I don't, it kind of takes that away.

What brings you here today is kind of an interesting question.

Sometimes I'll say my mom or the bus, but then you try and explain that a little bit further.

But in that story, and then it's just about walk me through a typical day, like when you get up and go to school or what's, and you're asking them how they feel at different pinch points.

But there's one of the things I would do to try and get a sense of their view of the world is a little, is a thing called a story stem, which is kind of like,

I'd say, can you finish this sentence for me?

And I'd say, life is... Love is... Men are... Women are... I am... And I'd get them to answer that question without thinking, just what comes to your mind.

And that can be a really revealing, just a little opener around... And there's always something that comes out of that that you'll be able to say...

You said life was awful.

Talk to me a little bit why that is the case.

And then it leads to a kind of a conversation.

But in many cases, you might not go after...

the emotional stuff for a while because you'll know someone's very reticent about being there.

And so you would tread very carefully.

And some people who want to dive into the emotional stuff, the job might be to pull them back a little bit and say, well, what was happening around that time or what was happening two or three months beforehand or whatever the case may be.

But if you're thinking about going to therapy, I mean, I'm not in every therapy room, but I think it's a fairly...

I don't want to say pleasurable experience, but it can be very comforting.