ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy is generally viewed, in the UK at least, as an eccentric occupation. Most people find it inconceivable that anyone, all day and every day, should choose to listen to stories of distress. Although psychotherapists must be capable of a certain degree of detachment and objectivity, they must also seek to experience and enter into the emotional and irrational. Psychotherapists who guiltily feel that they are not as ‘scientific’ as their colleagues in other medical and scientific specialities can comfort themselves with the reflection that, if they were so, they might not be as good at their job. Good psychotherapists must not only be interested in people, but also possess the capacity for empathy with a wide range of different types of personality. A simple but not often mentioned point is that one has to work hard and long hours in order to make a reasonable living as a full-time psychotherapist.
