A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY: GETTING PSYCHOLOGY BACK!
A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY: GETTING PSYCHOLOGY BACK!
After decades of “Giving Psychology Away” as part of the Public Education Committee, this year I came to a wonderful and unexpected realization – I have also been “Getting Psychology Back!” This spring my husband and I set out on a cross-country road trip along with our dog Earl. Our plans included stopping along the way to visit family and friends, mostly to see folks we haven't seen for the past couple of years and to meet the newer and younger ones that have been born since COVID. We've traveled a lot, both of us, beginning as Army brats and then just as adults with families to raise and jobs to pursue. This time, although we didn't know it at first, we were on a mission of discovery. We needed to see for ourselves how everyone was really doing after living with the pandemic, and we needed to find out how we were doing psychologically and emotionally. There were no special life cycle events to attend like weddings, birthdays, or graduations. Instead we spent a lot of time sharing meals, hanging out, visiting dog parks and, mostly, just talking and listening. We heard about health issues, job situations, and relationship ups and downs. We heard about retirement dilemmas and exciting new volunteer efforts. People talked about their families – elderly parents, children leaving the nest, adult children with struggles – and also successes and school situations impacted by the pandemic. Everyone was glad to see us and talk, as all of us have been doing for the past couple of years about the ways our lives have changed and adapted to living with COVID. For the most part, everyone was managing, and often thriving, despite all the challenges. As we were traveling and immersed in all these rich and complex lives, I didn't really have the time to think about it and process what was happening to me. It wasn't until we returned home, exhausted and overwhelmed by the experience, that I started to understand what really happened.
For so many years, I have been a psychologist, a helper, a listener, a person focused on caring for others. Many years ago, Dr. Tony Farrenkopf of the PEC shared the phrase, “Giving Psychology Away,” borrowing from George Miller (Banyard & Hulme, 2015). We psychologists have spent years speaking and writing and offering our skills and expertise to the public, both in our professional jobs and as volunteers committed to sharing with the larger community. What I discovered this year during my 10,400 mile trip across America is that communicating and giving have been a reciprocal process all along. I have been enriched and enlightened by all those interactions. I have taken in the strengths and insights of all those other people. I have been privy to so many stories and examples of great heart and caring, amazing resilience in the face of challenges and adversity. Even as folks have looked to me for wisdom and guidance, I've been learning all the ways they are already coping and figuring out what to do to fix things and care for themselves and others. As many of you probably already know, we are not the experts, despite our years of education, training, and experience. What you may not always realize is that we still have many things we can learn from others, both about the human experience and also about ourselves. What is really important to us? How do we want to spend our time? With whom do we want to be and why? What are things we still need in life, such as opportunities and adventures to have? In order to get to the place where we can ask these questions and explore possible answers, we have to take the time and really listen to the stories others are telling us. We have to appreciate the gift of psychology being given back to us. I discovered that being a psychologist and being lucky enough to engage with other people on a regular basis has been a truly valued journey.
References
Banyard, P., & Hulme, J. A. (2015). Giving psychology away: How George Miller's vision is being realised by psychological literacy. Psychology Teaching Review, 21(2), 93–101. PTR 21_2 (ed.gov)
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