Letters, emails, online comments

LETTER of the MONTH

DUAL IDENTITIES

I enjoyed reading the article (bit.ly/4bNtNnX) on Tanja Roos becoming a psychologist tremendously. I could relate to it on a personal level: being forced to put aside my job during Covid (I’m principal violist of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra), I decided to use that time to enrol in university to study clinical psychology. I am just wrapping up my bachelor’s degree, with a master’s degree being the next step!

The academic studies, but most of all, experiencing therapy in the field through internships in various institutions, have been a wake-up call for me. Psychotherapy – approaching patients with different pathologies from a variety of social backgrounds – requires a lot of knowledge but also intuition, and a set of skills not so distant from the ones musicians have to develop. That includes having open ears, listening to the words but also to what is not being said, and an ability to connect with others on an emotional level.