Lukas Dressler

In this episode of the #TherapistsConnect Podcast Lukas Dressler is interviewed by Dr Peter Blundell about his life and work including the development of his therapeutic game for children and young people called Self-care Pairs.

Promo Code for Self-Care Pairs: TC20
https://www.psychotherapy.plus/selfcarepairs/p/style-01-m5btk

Find out more about the podcast contributors in the links below:

#TherapistsConnect
Twitter: Therapists_C
Insta: TherapistsConnect
Website: www.Therapists-Connect.com

Lukas
Twitter: @LDresslerPlus
Website: www.psychotherapy.plus

Peter
Social Media - @drpeterblundell
Website www.peterblundell.com 

#TherapistsConnect is a platform for connecting therapists.
Website: www.Therapists-Connect.com
Twitter: @Therapists_C
Instagram: @TherapistsConnect
Facebook: @TherConnect

Origins of #TherapistsConnect

Transcript

Opening: 0:01

This episode of Therapists Connect Podcast is sponsored by WebHealer. The number one website provider for private practice therapists, serving the community for 20 years, WebHealer offers a non technical and fully supported online platform, helping therapists use the internet to grow their practice. Whether you need a website, a booking system, or even a secure email address for your practice, WebHealer can help. Contact WebHealer today via www.webhealer.net and use the coupon Therapist Connect for 100 pounds off their do-it-for-me service. Welcome to the Therapist Connect Podcast, a podcast for therapists, by therapists.

Peter Blundell: 0:53

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Therapists Connect Podcast. My name is Dr. Peter Blundell. And today I'm interviewing Lukas Dressler. Lucas is an integrative psychotherapist and registered member of the BACP. He has over 1000 hours of experience in providing short and long term therapy for children, young people and their families. He is also a psychology graduate. And prior to training as a psychotherapist, he worked as a healthcare assistant and assistant psychologist within the NHS in both adult, children and adolescent mental health services. Lucas is also one of the Therapists Connect volunteers and mans our Twitter account every Wednesday. Lucas, it's brilliant to have you on this podcast today. Well, hello, Lucas, thanks very much for coming on the Therapist Connect Podcast. We've got loads of questions to kind of go through today. But the one that I ask everybody or the first question I ask everyone who comes on is "can you tell us a little bit about how you came to be a therapist in the first place?" Kind of, "what drew you to us as a profession?"

Lukas Dressler: 1:59

Yes, of course, certainly. But first of all, just thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here and to record the podcast with you. I'm sure you know, some of the listeners know that I've been volunteering for Therapists Connect for a while. So it's, it's great to volunteer in this capacity now as well, not just on the Twitter account, but also by doing a podcast with you. So thank you, again, for having me.

Peter Blundell: 2:24

"You're very welcome. I'm quite interested to do this. Because obviously, we've known each other for a while, but maybe I don't know the answers to some of these questions. So it's kind of get to know you a little bit better at the same time as doing the podcast. So I'm looking forward to it."

Lukas Dressler: 2:37

Me too. Alright. So yeah, I guess there are multiple reasons for why I became a therapist. I guess, you know, I've been interested in psychology and psychotherapy from a really young age, because when I was around about 12, or so I think, I became really, really interested in my own dreams. And I started a dream journal. And then I found out about Sigmund Freud and his book, The Dream Analysis. And then Jung and the archetypes came up. And I just really dove into reading around this entire topic. And even though I was so young, you know, I guess, part of this response was the fact that a family member of my extended family has a diagnosis of schizophrenia. And, of course, you know, back then I didn't really quite understood what that means. But I think it might have been part of why I was so interested in psychology, at that age. And then fast forward a couple of years to me being a teenager, I felt a little bit out of touch with my environment, I didn't really feel like I fit it in with anyone. So I experienced some mental health difficulties myself when I was a teenager. So I guess it's it's a little bit in line with the concept of the wounded healer, really.

Peter Blundell: 4:03

So lots of different elements coming together there. So kind of like an interest in that self-discovery, I suppose. And then also your own personal experience, but other other family members kind of seeing the impact of challenges with mental health really, and kind of maybe wanting to know a bit more about that and how to support people with that.

Lukas Dressler: 4:24

Yes, yes, definitely. There was a thirst for knowledge. Just figuring out what's going on. It wasn't necessarily about supporting someone else at that point, because I, myself wasn't in the position to support anyone.

Peter Blundell: 4:42

Yeah, so it was an understanding. Yeah. Yeah,

Lukas Dressler: 4:47

Very much so curiosity, wanting to understand, and I guess the, the understanding really stemmed from the wish to connect as well and really, truly understand And what's going on for that person? And why so many things were so difficult for that person at the time and why we weren't in contact, for example. Yeah.

Peter Blundell: 5:12

So that kind of, your search for understanding, and then how that can then change, especially change the relationships that you're in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. So that was kind of what started you off thinking along the line of possibly therapy. As a training. Can you tell us a little bit then about, like your career so far, like your training? And when you did your original training, what that was like,

Lukas Dressler: 5:43

Okay, yeah. So I'll, I'll give you a little bit more background as well. So I came to the UK when I was 16, to attend boarding school, and I picked psychology for A-Levels. And I realized at that point that I'm actually really good at academic stuff, which wasn't a belief I held about myself beforehand. Nevertheless, the experience at A-Levels really propelled me into the academic career of doing psychology for my Bachelor's at the University of Sussex, I did a master's in Mental Health Studies at King's College. And while studying psychology, I started working for the NHS in adult mental health services as a healthcare systems on a psychiatric intensive care unit. I worked for CAMS, as well as an assistant psychologist. So you know, that's, that's part of the beginning of my career in psychology and psychotherapy. And then, at one point, yes, I wanted to progress and really figure out how I could support those kinds of peoples in a therapeutic way. So I looked into psychotherapy and realized that it's, it's quite confusing how to go about it in the UK, it's quite expensive. clinical psychology training is incredibly competitive. So I kind of went back to my roots and checked out how it works in Germany. And it was much more straightforward, because it's state regulated. So everybody knows exactly how to get where they want to get. I applied and did my training in Germany. And once I had finished with that, I relocated back to Brighton.

Peter Blundell: 7:43

I mean, that's really interesting, that kind of idea of kind of how much kind of experience that you'd had here in kind of different settings, and then going to Germany to train and then kind of coming back, how have you found the training then in Germany and then coming back to the UK? How have you found that in terms of, I suppose, psychotherapy, and maybe the differences or the similarities that might exist?

Lukas Dressler: 8:07

There's so many differences, I think we could do an entire podcast just on that, really. But I guess what's really important to know about the training in Germany is that, firstly, you can choose between whether you want to study psychoanalysis, or what they call depth psychology. And the second option would be behavioral therapy. But at the end of the day, it's really cognitive behavioral therapy, but because it's based on a very old system, they still call it behavioral therapy. Secondly, you choose if you want to work with adults, or if you want to start working with children, adolescents and young people right from the get go. Then, of course, the training that you've chosen follows. And both trainings are very much underpinned by a really strong person centered foundation, you know, considering core conditions, conceptualizing the therapeutic relationship in this way, as well as within the chosen framework of either analysis or CBT. What I found when I came back to the UK and connecting with therapists via Twitter and in person, there's a much larger emphasis on the person centered foundation in the UK, whereas in Germany, it's kind of an unmentioned

foundation. Peter: 9:42

"Okay." Lukas: "You do get taught about it, but there's not a lot of emphasis on it."

Peter Blundell: 9:49

Okay. There's a lot of kind of assumptions that once you've learned about it, it's there. But not necessarily a kind of a focus and an encouragement to constantly kind of bring it in. Both alternating: "Yeah, yeah, explicitly. Yeah."

Lukas Dressler: 10:02

Yeah, exactly.

Peter Blundell: 10:03

That's interesting. Thank you. So then you came back to the UK? And did you... I know you're in private practice now, did you go straight into private practice? Or have you worked in other settings?

Lukas Dressler: 10:15

Yes, I did go straight into private practice. Because again, the way the training in Germany is conceptualized, it basically sets you up to open up your private practice straight after you're done with training. Part of that reasoning is, how the mental health system works in Germany. But also, I think, the training in Germany is incredibly intensive and extensive as well. So there's, let me get this right. There are 1800 hours of clinical placements in different settings, you have to do 600 hours of therapy, those 600 hours have to be supervised with 150 hours. There's self reflection, so you're own therapy, there's additional learning, there's 600 hours of core theory that you have to learn as well as written and oral exams throughout. So it's, it's just a few things to do. Exactly. It's, it's, it's an insane amount of work. And I did the training full time. And that literally meant full time, Monday to Friday, and on a monthly basis, weekend seminars. So there were times where I would work for 10, 14 days straight. Because that was just the way the training was set up.

Peter Blundell: 11:48

A lot of hard work then. I've gotten into that. And so now you're in private practice. And now I mean, you've explained kind of the different routes, I suppose in Germany, and how like the influence has maybe different little, little bit over here in the UK, how would you now define your therapeutic approach? Given those different kinds of experiences, I suppose you've had.

Lukas Dressler: 12:12

I very much define my therapeutic approach as integrative. The Training Institute in Germany define their ethos as integrative even though the certification was in behavioral therapy for children and adolescents. But the reasoning for working integratively with children and adolescents and their families, it's, you know, it's just so important to think about the wider systems that are involved in a young person's mental health. So considering peers, school parenting, the histories, the possibly intergenerational trauma that stems from grandparents as well. Sometimes, you know, especially when the children are younger, by age seven or eight or so you can't really do a lot of cognitive, traditional cognitive work with them. So you have to know how to engage on a play therapy level, on an art therapy level. Some adolescents hate talking because therapy is awful anyway, and they don't want to engage. So you have to think creatively and draw from multiple different schools of thoughts, really, in order to, I guess, provide the most appropriate support for the young person.

Peter Blundell: 13:32

I mean, it sounds very kind of creative, in terms of your approach in terms of how I suppose focused around the young person, you know, and what they need in that in that particular moment. So how long have you been working in private practice now then?

Lukas Dressler: 13:50

So I've been in private practice for roughly one and a half years now.

Peter Blundell: 13:54

And how and how has it been going for you?

Lukas Dressler: 13:57

It's been going really well. I think, well, not I think--the feedback I've received is that my website is incredibly approachable. The way I describe how I work apparently seems very non threatening, very attractive to young people. And additionally, I have the benefit of looking quite young and being male. Because lots of parents and young people have told me that if they had therapy before or when they were looking for therapy, the vast majority of therapists were women. And that just reminded them too much of their mothers and they wanted someone else, someone someone different. So that really, really plays to my advantage, I guess, as well.

Peter Blundell: 14:55

Absolutely. I think it's important kind of being able to have that choice, isn't it? You know, and so we need more male therapists I think within the profession not just for young people, I think but for in all different types of therapy. My next question is kind of shifting the conversation a little bit really away from kind of your practice and thinking maybe a bit about like the wider therapy community. Possibly here in the UK, maybe in Germany, as I don't know how connected you feel to that community. I've just wanted to how connected you feel to other therapists, and that might link in to the fact that you do volunteer on Therapists Connect as well.

Lukas Dressler: 15:34

Yeah, very much. So in, in Germany, it's a big, big, big, big nono to have any presence on social media. So when I initially joined Twitter, while still studying at the University of Sussex, and then throughout my psychotherapy training, I kept myself very much in the background, just following your hashtag and reading about what's going on. But because I moved back during the pandemic, it was incredibly helpful to have Therapists Connect as a platform to connect with other therapists, as it says on the tin. So I guess I do feel very much connected to the wider therapists community, however, that's limited to the UK and US based therapists who engage with with the hashtag on Twitter, really. I still have some connections to some of my colleagues from training back in Germany. But you know, it's very different. It's a very different type of connection.

Peter Blundell: 16:40

Yeah. And that's, that's kind of like on a social media level. I was wondering, do you have any kind of in person connections with other therapists?

Lukas Dressler: 16:49

Yeah, I have a couple of friends who are clinical psychologists, couples therapists, there's an addiction counselor in my friendship circle as well. So there's, there's some people around that I can connect with.

Peter Blundell: 17:05

That's good. That's good to hear. Because I think sometimes, and particularly kind of being early on in private practice, actually having other therapists to connect with can be really difficult, and particularly in the last few years, given that we've been in a pandemic, actually, actually having those connections is really important, I think.

Lukas Dressler: 17:23

Definitely, definitely. I remember, in the beginning, when some of those connections hadn't been formed, I was even more grateful for my supervision, connection that I had, because genuinely, you know, supervision, I believe is incredibly important, just to assure quality of your practice for the clients and for yourself, really. But at the same time, I feel that I have a very, very good relationship with my supervisor. And that transcended I think, some of the very practical and work oriented focus that supervision can sometimes have. This is

Peter Blundell: 18:09

Just a short break to have a message from one of our sponsors, so please don't go anywhere. If you'd like to sponsor an episode of the Therapist Connect Podcast, send

us an email for more details: 18:16

info at therapists-connect.com.

Opening: 18:23

This episode of Therapists Connect Podcast is sponsored by WebHealer. The number one website provider for private practice therapists, serving the community for 20 years, WebHealer offers a non technical and fully supported online platform, helping therapists use the internet to grow their practice. Whether you need a website, a booking system, or even a secure email address for your practice, WebHealer can help. Contact WebHealer today via www.webhealer.net and use the coupon Therapist Connect for 100 pounds off their do-it-for-me service.

Peter Blundell: 18:57

We hope you enjoy the rest of this episode. Is there a difference between Germany and the UK in terms of like expectations around supervision? Because obviously in the UK, it's it's, you know, once a month, but it's got to be kind of an hour and a half. I wondered whether there was.

Lukas Dressler: 19:18

Yes. So just throughout training. The supervision ratio needs to be four to one. So every fourth session needs to be supervised for an hour, right? But once you are done with your training and you're fully accredited, there's actually no obligation to continue with supervision.

Peter Blundell: 19:44

I find that fascinating and the same in America, isn't it? You know, it's really intense supervision whilst training and then that's it. You don't ever have to go and I find that qiute scary(laughs).

Lukas Dressler: 19:55

It is, it is scary. And luckily I know that most of the colleagues who I trained with are still utilizing supervision when they feel it's needed. But at the same time, I'm sure you know, there's so many things that we don't know. And unless we engage with supervision or in a space where things like this can be explored and discussed, we'll never find out about the things that we don't know.

Peter Blundell: 20:24

Exactly, you know, we're going to supervision only because we have this particular problem. You know, as you said, there's other stuff that can come up with just by going to supervision when you think there's nothing to talk about, you know, it brings stuff out definitely.

Lukas Dressler: 20:37

100%. I think also, when I go to a supervision session, and in quotation marks,"I don't have anything to talk about." We talk about what's going well, in some of the cases as well. And that's just really reassuring for myself as well, battles impostor syndrome greatly. And I think, just highlighting what goes well, is something that can get lost a little bit in a profession, where we focus on the negatives so much.

Peter Blundell: 21:12

Yeah, just by focusing on the problems. I'm also thinking about, like sustaining a supervisory relationship as well. Like, if you only saw someone once every 12 months or two years, it's quite hard to actually build up a relationship with somebody that way. Yeah.

Lukas Dressler: 21:28

Trust is so important in a supervisory relationship. I've had a supervisor in the past who was insanely good at what they did in practice with the clients. But transferring that to supervisory relationship just doesn't work with myself. It might have worked for other people working together with that supervisor, but we just clashed so much on a personal level. That supervisory relationship wasn't beneficial at all.

Peter Blundell: 22:04

And that's any more challenging if you're not seeing each other on a regular a regular basis? Yeah, it's interesting. It's quite a big question this one, but what do you think is the biggest challenge that the profession faces right now from your perspective?

Lukas Dressler: 22:23

So since since I'm on Twitter, and since I volunteer with Therapists Connect, I'm very much aware of a number of very divisive topics.

Peter Blundell: 22:35

The never ending divisive topics, I think just the ghost on Twitter. Yeah.

Lukas Dressler: 22:41

Yeah, that exactly. But there's, there's two in particular that I'm thinking of right now. Very, very pressing on Twitter, and they're incredibly divisive. And I think the biggest challenge for the therapists community is to stay connected and to stay respectful. To really think about how much of an impact our voices have, whether intended or unintended, it's, we have to be really mindful how we have those debates, because these debates are incredibly important to have. But it's so important to consider how we do that. And I think that's a big challenge.

Peter Blundell: 23:28

I mean, I think that's really important point. Sometimes I wonder if if we think, I'll speak broadly, that we're just having conversations between us. And actually, you know, on Twitter specifically, you know, there's a whole world out there kind of observing and watching some of those discussions. And there can be serious kind of consequences and impact on people through some of those discussions. So I think I think that's a really important point. Definitely.

Lukas Dressler: 23:57

Exactly. Thank you.

Peter Blundell: 23:59

Yeah. Talking then about volunteering on Therapists Connect accounts, how have you, you've done that for quite a while now. So how do you find that? How have you been managing it?

Lukas Dressler: 24:11

Yes, I think I joined in March, April last year. And since then, it's, it's been real fun. I think, you know, the Therapists Connect community is a very diverse bunch. There's so many different people using the hashtag there from many different walks of life with lots of different experiences and opinions. And, you know, I really believe that this breadth and wealth of expertise can provide an incredible value to anyone who joins in, or kind of arching back to what we just said. It's really important that we are mindful of how we have those those conversations. Yeah, volunteering on the account is fun, it's engaging. There's not too much work. And there's also not too little work.

Peter Blundell: 25:12

Yeah, you have to say that didn't you?

Lukas Dressler: 25:14

Yes, exactly. It's just a nice way of engaging with with the community, I think. And sometimes Twitter can become quite overwhelming. But within the structure that we have as the volunteering team, I feel very held, I feel very seen and supported by you guys. So I'm, I'm happy to still log on to Twitter, even when it can get overwhelming because I still see the benefit of it. And I want to be part of this benefit. Just like you guys basically supported me when I first came back to the UK to open up my private practice.

Peter Blundell: 26:00

I mean, that's, that's lovely to hear. I mean, I think it's, it's such a challenging space, Twitter. And I think you're right, I love the diversity myself, and just actually hearing so many different viewpoints and learning something new about therapy or someone's perspective, which you think, oh, gosh, I hadn't thought about it that way or, or understood it from that point of view before. But at the same time, those challenges where, you know, it can be really difficult and challenging, and tense, and all of that kind of thing. So I think as volunteers, you all do an amazing job to kind of navigate that actually, I think over time, we've kind of built up a good sense of how to deal with it and things and what we share and what we won't share on the account now. So get a thank you for all your hard work on there. Because it wouldn't it, wouldn't be able to continue if if you and the other volunteers weren't there doing that work for us. So thanks very much.

Lukas Dressler: 26:53

It's a pleasure, honestly, it's always fun to sign on. Again, you know, if at some point I need a holiday or so because there's lots of other stuff going on in private practice or in personal life, everyone's always so supportive to accommodate for that. Yeah. So I think it's, it's, it's a great platform to volunteer for. Great.

Peter Blundell: 27:17

Thank you. Now, I want to talk a little bit now about the--I've called it like a therapeutic tool. But I don't know if that's the right phrase to use, that you've designed and are using, which is called self-care pairs. And just wanted to want to tell the listeners a little bit about that, like where the idea came from and what what it is.

Lukas Dressler: 27:38

Yes. So self-care pairs is--I call it a resource for mental health professionals, but also for parents. And it's basically based on the common children's game called memory or pairs. So the cards have pictures of potential self-care activities on the one side, and each picture appears on on two cards. So the game, of course, starts with all of the cards laid out, facedown, and you have to find a match a pair. And once you find the pair, you can keep it and you can have a conversation about the images that are on the cards. So for example, the therapist or the parent could ask the young person "so what activity do you think this shows?" because there's some ambiguous pictures there as well just to facilitate conversation. And then you could ask, "so do you like this activity? Would this be a self care activity for you? When was the last time you did this activity? Would you like to do more of it?" So there's there's endless possibilities of how you can engage. Using those cards, really, it's not limited to just talking about self-care. Could also be used as an icebreaker in the first couple of sessions to find out about likes and dislikes of your client.

Peter Blundell: 29:00

I think it's brilliant. And they're really kind of fun and colorful kind of pictures on all of the different cards. If anyone's interested in getting some of those, where can they get them from. Thanks for that Lukas. That sounds really interesting here and about the self care pairs, can you tell our listeners where they might be able to get ahold of those

Lukas Dressler: 29:20

guests of course. So there is an Instagram page @selfcarepairs. And there's also a space on my website,#selfcarepairs where you can find out more about the game read about its development, how the idea came about, find out about different uses of the game as well. And just really dive into what self care pairs is all about. Also, I'd just like to mention, when this episode is released, I'll have a discount code available for self-care pairs. It's going to be TC 20. So the listeners can get 20% off their own version of self-care pairs.

Peter Blundell: 30:04

That's brilliant, that's very generous of you. What we can do is we can put the link in our description, and maybe post the discount code up on our Instagram and Twitter accounts as well. Yeah, we'll know about that. That's great. So if you're listening, go get yourself a set of self care pairs. That's brilliant is there, the first specific age range I wanted to cover cover quite a broad age range?

Lukas Dressler: 30:31

So there are two suggested age ranges There's a yellow set, which is suggested for 6 to 12 years old. And there's a green set suggested for 13 and above. But it's been suggested to me that you can really mix both sets together, you can completely disregard the age recommendations, because you could, for example, do some inner child work if you use it with an adult, or some younger children might seem very mature for their age, and they like to engage with the green cards. So at the end of the day, there's room for exploration there.

Peter Blundell: 31:10

I think they were all my kind of main questions. I suppose my last one was kind of about, have you, what else have you kind of got planned? Because I feel like we, it took us a while to kind of arrange this podcast recording. So I feel like you're really busy all the time. So I was wondering whether you had other things kind of planned coming up in the future.

Lukas Dressler: 31:32

There's a lot of stuff going on in the background. That's very true. I'm currently aiming to specialize further in working with the LGBTQ+ community. I've got a second professional engagement that's related to that as well. Working with members of the trans community as well. And yeah, I think, you know, the developing the self care pairs has just taken up a lot of time in the past. That's now calmed down a little bit. But I'm already on the next thing, which is the specialization.

Peter Blundell: 32:15

That's brilliant. Well, I wish you all the luck with all of that, because it seems to be really very exciting. So I'll just mention your website again, in case anyone's interested find out more about any of that stuff, which is psychotherapy dot plus is that, correct. Yeah, correct. Brilliant. Oh, that's fantastic. Lucas, thanks so much for coming on the podcast today. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Lukas Dressler: 32:35

Thank you for having me. I love that. Take care. You too. Bye.

Opening: 32:41

Thank you for listening to the therapist Connect Podcast. Go to www.therapists-connect.com for more discussions, and debates. This episode of Therapists Connect Podcast is sponsored by WebHealer. The number one website provider for private practice therapists, serving the community for 20 years, WebHealer offers a non technical and fully supported online platform, helping therapists use the internet to grow their practice. Whether you need a website, a booking system, or even a secure email address for your practice, WebHealer can help. Contact WebHealer today via www.webhealer.net and use the coupon Therapist Connect for 100 pounds off their do-it-for-me service.