DR. MEINERS, AS STAFF PSYCHOLOGIST, WHAT ARE YOUR THERAPEUTIC STRENGTHS AT THE COLLECTIVE?

“Two things, I think collaboration and curiosity are the most important things for me when it comes to my work with an individual.” – Dr. Tony Meiners, PsyD

COLLABORATION

I never want to assume that I know someone else’s experience. I think it’s very, it’s taken a lot of work and I think it can be hard for me to not try and assume or guess that I know what someone else is experiencing. So, I really try and go on with a blank state so that I can be able to fully kind of understand their experience. And then we bring our own vices into the room and kind of have these assumptions of like, oh yeah, I know how that feels, but that actually works against me a lot of the time. So, I think that is something that I bring very well. And I think the collaboration piece, like I said, there’s a lot of, I think a lot of times we have an idea of what we think people should and shouldn’t do. And I have to, I had to initially work actively hard to kind of throw that out the room because what I might want for someone else’s life is not what they want. And at the end of the day, all that really matters is kind of their preferences.

CURIOSITY

And then second, I think is curiosity. And I would say then curiosity is the answer to everything. Kind of back to even some of these really shame driven topics. Like, to be able to talk and view them from a curiosity standpoint, I think is what helps propel people forward. You know, ’cause we’re so used to kind of viewing these areas through a shame driven lens or whatever lens. And I think once I get them to a place where they separate from the problem and they can really look at it from a curiosity standpoint and ask different questions that I think is where kind of the switch starts to happen in their head, so yeah.