The Joy of (Psychotherapy) Blogging

I do declare! I've had much fun writing this blog thus far. So, here are some general thoughts on my experience of blogging. To begin, I've received emails from folks in the UK, France, the Southern United States, Germany and Japan. While this presents problems in terms of maintaining more email relationships, it's fascinating to realize that by simply writing down a few thoughts, I am able to make connections with people, both therapists and non-therapists, in various parts of the globe. I have so much enjoyed hearing from everybody and hearing their opinions (although I also would LOVE it if people would post comments as well as writing emails to me). I love to write and this has satisfied my desires in that direction.

Some people have written to ask me if I find it hard to think up blogs to write about, but the business of thinking up blogs isn't that hard. I am constantly adding to my already long list of wiating-to-be-written blogging topics. A far larger problem is finding time to do this. By the time I get home from my day at the office, the last thing I want to do is sit in a chair and type, when the couch, my ever-growing pile of books, family members and my puppy, Ziggy, are all calling to me loudly. And then of course, there's the Monday through Thursday infusion of Jon Stewart's Daily Show - to my mind the most reliable news source! While purchasing an air conditioner has definitely increased the comfort level in my study, it is my time-management skills that could do with some focus.

My other continuing challenge, as mentioned elsewhere on this blog, is the problem of "audience." For example, an unexpected result of doing this blog is being told that I have current clients reading the blog relieved that they are not "revealed" on the site, and I've had clients reading the blog who tell me they are disappointed that they are not mentioned. (Waving "Hi" to those folks - you know who you are.) I have spent the last couple of weeks writing a blog (not yet published) on how therapists find their "niche" clients, and about a particular niche of mine, which has been working with Attachment Parenting folks. I've taken so much trouble over this blog, that I've tied myself up in knots, compiling huge amounts of text, but not achieving much. It feels a little like wading in molasses as I struggle through it. I hope it will be the next blog I post after this one and then all will be revealed. I realize that the issue of self-disclosure is omni-present. I want there to be enough so that I don't disappear behind a mountain of psycho-babble, and not too much to present clinical dilemmas. It is my hope that everything I reveal about myself is strategically positive.

There is a little of a "should" quality to perpetuating a blog, particularly once you develop regular readers which appears to have happened already judging by the emails I receive. I'm conscious when a few days go by that I haven't written anything new. The last gap of two weeks was a huge challenge - I became fixated on writing the Attachment Parenting blog, and forgot that I could write something a little more lighthearted.

Up until now, I have written nothing about sex. I am after all a sex therapist and a marriage and family therapist. I love writing about sex, reading about sex, and talking to people about sex. However not everybody wants to read a sex blog and I'm trying to be mindful of the dizzying array of blogging possibilities; I'll put my mind to coming up with an interesting sex therapy blog in the near future. What is sex therapy? Who comes to sex therapy? Any suggestions, folks?