Or human.

Can’t stand all those acronyms either. I went to pot a long time ago.

The state of the psychiatric world being what it is, I’ve come to two conclusions.

One, “life coaching”, which I once ridiculed, is merely doing what we all do anyway, except that most people who do it haven’t got a clue. Not every therapy has to be psychoanalysis. Offering someone a bit of perspective and insight is surprisingly helpful.

Two, it’s 2010. Here we are, in the miracle of the interweb. I have one word: Skype.

Daria.

“We all share a common core of humanity, but I believe that we differ from one another in being more or less skilled in being human. I find myself admiring some individuals who seem to me to be gifted at being human.”

Fuddy duddies among us would call for more details, but I think I understand that paragraph as it stands alone. Unfortunately, there are among us folks who need to follow dots on the page to formulate the how-to’s of DBT, CBT and so forth, and are experts at invoking these therapies superficially, while missing the bigger human picture. There are people who have a “natural” understanding of and affinity for responding humanly and people who will never know. I liken the distinction to people who are called “managers”. They understand how to manage the rules, but are failures as leaders.
Therapists can pass tests in CBT, MBT, etc., and graduate to be licensed. But learning how to be skilled in being human is a whole other issue. POT, then, should be the primary lesson learned through mentors, an experience that precedes application of alphabetized therapies, which are bound to work much better when the therapist is at least aware of what it means to be “gifted at being human.” We can’t all be perfect, in this regard, but understanding what the ideal looks like certainly helps.