People joke about this topic all the time. I've had people come up to me and
say, "Oh so-and-so could really use you." have you ever wondered seriously what
can a psychologist do for me? When people find out that I'm a psychologist, I get
all kinds of different reactions. Some people want to tell me their whole life
story. Some people don't dare tell me anything
at all. It's just interesting what the perceptions are. You might have been
wondering what can a psychologist do for me. There are different kinds of
psychologists and I can't speak for all of them.
From a basic standpoint, I think my job as a psychologist is to illuminate the
obvious. Which is kind of cool. I get paid to tell people things they
already know. But there's obvious things that are unnoticed. Your clothing for
example. Do you notice it? Can you feel it? Yeah, it's obvious now but before I
mentioned it, it wasn't even noticed. Obvious but unnoticed. The fact that we're
speaking English. Honestly, did you notice? Some of you will say yes to that because
you're not native English speakers. And those are the ones who notice. If you
were raised speaking English primarily, you didn't
notice we were speaking English. It was just obvious but unnoticed. It's obvious
once I call it to your attention. There are processes in our mind that are just
like this they are obvious once they're called to your attention but completely
unnoticed up until that point. One of these processes is called metacognition.
Metacognition is a made-up word. Do we make up words in psychology because we
feel smarter when we can. Breaking it down, cognition means thinking. If we
place cognition right here on this level. metacognition is a higher level.
It's thinking about thinking. And do you notice that you can do this? That's good
news. Because metacognition creates a little space. And in that space, is where
choice exists. Some of the processes that are constantly going on in our own mind
in our cognition are obvious but completely unnoticed up until the time
that they're called to your attention. That's what I do as a psychologist. I
think that's what people in my industry do. We help you to see those processes in
a metacognitive way because once you go to the metacognition level, then we enact
choice. And that's huge. We go through life sometimes not even
seeing that it's a choice. And I can tell you until you see it as a choice, it's
not. You will simply roll with whatever you're programmed, train, taught and
educated to do. And it's not necessarily by choice at that point. It's just your
programming. Programming like English you know, we talked about earlier. I don't
choose to speak English, I'm programmed to speak English. Well, with metacognition,
I can see that, "Wait a minute, English is not the only language, it's not
necessarily the best language. It's just the one that I'm programmed with." Could
we pick another one? Yes, we could. And that brings up all of the issues around...
Well, I'm not used to the other language, I'm not fluent in the other language,
right. So, you enter into a practice process. That's the other thing that I do
with my clients is to create for them opportunities to practice a new language.
A new programming, if you will. Where before, "My life is terrible, horrible,
awful, no good, got stuck in depression, anxiety." Whatever
it is. To speak a new language of, "You know what? My life is awesome. My life
rocks." And I've got the power to improve it from here. Both of those are positions.
But until you see it as a choice, it's not. The world that we work in in
psychology tends to be based around feelings and thoughts and beliefs and
relationships. All of which are affected by our previous programming. Most of
which were not even aware of because we just roll with our programming instead
of experiencing our choice. One of the biggest things that psychologists can do
for you is to help you see the processes that
are going on in your own mind clearly enough that you can get back into a
choice position. And determine for yourself. See, I can't tell you how to
think. I don't have that kind of authority. Plus it would just tick you
off anyway. I just want you to see that you are thinking. That thinking has
predictable results on all of your outcomes. Your relationships, your
finances, your health, your mental health, your happiness. Thoughts have
consequences. I and my other colleagues in the industry of psychology want to
help you get out of your own way. Now, I have to add a little disclaimer here.
Because none of the psychologists that I know, including the one on the screen
right now. None of us have this all figured out. We're just fellow human
beings on the planet. What I've discovered however is that
principles determine all of life's outcomes. And there are certain
principles that by virtue of my practice and what I've been able to do here for a
quarter of a century. I have observed that certain principles determine
certain outcomes with happiness, for example. Positivity. You've heard this.
Forever, right? Just think positive. Does that annoy you too? Probably depends on
who's saying it and why. I've figured out through my practice and what all my
clients have taught me used over these years, why? That is absolutely very
literally true. The positivity is a choice in that it matters and that just
think positive, we'll take the just out of that phrase and it's more accurate.
Think positive. How do you do that? There's 2 processes.
Evaluation and creation. I went over that in another video. And in fact, you know
what? I would be happy to share with you my mini book. In fact, you know what? I
would be willing to share with you a free digital copy of my mini book.
Portable Positivity. I'm not trying to sell this to you. What I'm offering here
is an insight into the principles that I have learned through 24 years
of clinical practice where I've figured out how positivity works and how you can
immediately implement it in your life. I wrote it up as a mini book. There's a
model in here that describes 2 processes in your mind. Evaluation and
creation. You can't turn either one off and your imagination drives both of them.
You can get a free digital copy. Just check down in the description for the
link and enjoy. This is what I do in my work is a psychologist. I've been
speaking specifically about what I do as a psychologist. Other psychologists have
different specialties, different areas of practice. I used to for example do child
custody evaluations for the court. Some of the videos here on the channel are
about that. I don't do that kind of work anymore but I share what I've learned in
these videos so that you can benefit from it. I did a doctoral dissertation on
bedwetting. Who knew? I know more about that than you ever want to know. But you
what? If you want to know what I know, go see the videos that I've done on
bedwetting. Different psychologists have different focuses or areas of practice.
And so, how they can help you might differ from how I can help you. Where I
focus on things like positivity and parenting and relationships and
entrepreneurship and productivity in the workplace. See, those are the things that
light me up. Another psychologist might focus on research or on a particular
educational approach that helps to maximize learning or whatever it might
be. It's just like any other field or industry where there are different
subspecialties. Poked around a little bit and see what you can find out about the
particular areas that you're interested in. Or leave me a comment down below, send
me an email. Engage with me in ways that I can help to answer those questions for
you too. I'd be happy to do that. Hey, Live On Purpose family. I am so
impressed that you're still here. That you're listening to the outro for this
video. And because of that, you get a special bonus. Don't tell anybody else.
But down there in the description is a link where you can get a free copy, a
digital copy of mini eBook. Portable Positivity. Check it out in the
description. Thanks for watching.
again soon