The Davis Health Centre, 1st Floor, 756 Pacific Highway, Gordon NSW 2072, (Cnr St Johns Ave. Entrance in St Johns Ave.), (02) 9498 1997

Richard practices as a psychotherapy/counsellor which simply means that he works with personal and emotional concerns in your life. Psychotherapy is simply the use of a therapeutic process to help overcome psychological difficulties.

The practice follows the new tradition of Positive Psychology with the unique addition of Richard's work on 'creative re-visioning' (see below). This simply means that we take the troubles and difficulties you have and use them to create a better experience and better understanding in your life.

Richard has a broad knowledge of the neurological basis of behaviour and is able to assess whether referral to more specialised treatment is required. He also has a solid understanding of the various prescription drugs (Richard does not prescribe) and herbal supplements that are used and can, therefore, work sensitively with whatever other treatment you may be utilising.

Consultations are by appointment and usually run between 60 - 90 minutes depending on need.

CREATIVE RE-VISIONING

Creative Re-Visioning is a unique philosophy and style of treatment developed by Richard over the past 10 years. It is based on the ideas of philosophers like Plato, Epicurus, Descarte, great modern thinkers like Edward De Bono, James Hillman, Daniel Goleman, The Dalai Lama and neuroscientists like Joseph Le Doux, Steven Pinker, Daniel Siegel and Ernest Rossi. It is vital in our understanding of the human experience to know how the mind works, how it evolved and what place language has in the equation of life. Forms of therapy are all applications of this knowledge.

Creative Re-Visioning is, therefore, open to all and any form of treatment that is best suited to the needs of the time. Creativity is central to the idea because it is central to the nature of human behaviour and development.

Mental Perception
Our mind has two main perceptions: * conscious awareness and * non-conscious process The single, most obvious difference between these two mental perceptions is language.

Communication between these perceptions is neither simple or clear. Because of this we suffer two major frustrations:

Getting what we feel and 'feel we know',(in the non-conscious) into conscious awareness so that we can act on it. The key is to 'get it into words'.
Applying what you know into a 'world' that may not allow you to can certainly makes it difficult.

The World - society/culture
Our society/culture is a system of rules and behaviours designed to manage groups and is based on the most common and powerful characteristics of the people within it. This results in restrictions to our behaviour by the design of the culture.

I see our society as a winner/loser system. We are principally driven by the ideas of success, being the best, winning the game, not being a loser. This has focussed our natural creativity into one, limited outcome. Creative re-visioning breaks you out of this limitation.

A Metaphor Please...
Imagine our social world as a volume of water where we all try to stay afloat, but when trouble comes we begin to struggle, panic and drown.

We have developed many practices that help us to swim, but even swimming is no guarantee against drowning. The answer is get out of the water and go swimming when and how you choose.

The Matrix.
The winner/loser world is like the film "The Matrix" where it is impossible to truly escape until you take the 'red pill' and see the system for what it really is. For example, do we have to 'think outside the square' or is there, in truth, no square.

And so...
The winner/loser world does not cause the pain of criticism, the issue of self-esteem, the guilt of fault and blame, the disappointment of what is lost - the winner/loser world is made out of these things. That is why these problems persist even after we've done the workshop or the seminar. In the 'creative world' many of these problems just cease to exist.

We experience the 'creative world', ever so briefly, in moments of love, connecting with others and in play or having fun. These feelings can be 'everyday' not just your escape.

A Final Word...
The point is that there is no winning in a fight for the corner of a round table. Creative Re-Visioning takes away the fight and replaces it with a fulfilling participation of life.