Ever since I qualified as a psychotherapist I have been working to make myself redundant. Even before that, when I was working as a consultant, I was always impatient to be unnecessary. Some of my happiest and most personally productive moments were when someone or some organisation had just got rid of me. My first book (on photography), happened that way and I have many more examples.
As a therapist and coach (Theroach? Coapist?), I have always worked hard to ensure that clients no longer needed me as early as possible after we had started to work together. That’s how it is in Brief Therapy. As soon as the client can manage on their own, the therapist steps out of the picture. At work, I believe that managers should be like that too, and its the same with parenting, though it can be tough to let go.
One of the themes of this blog is about making myself redundant. I’m serious! I set out to broadcast ideas and information in the hope that people could use some it to trigger something useful in themselves. I hope it doesn’t sound arrogant (though, if it does even that is OK if someone finds it useful), but I’ve been told for many years that the topics I speak and write on are valuable to some people. So I keep doing it.
My next move is to give even more away. Of course I never want to feel completely redundant, but I’d like to think that most people are resourceful enough not to need a specialist.
Watch out for new stuff in the New Year, plus a video or two before that, and of course, share this and encourage friends and colleagues to subscribe. The more interested people join us, the more interesting it becomes.
