Helene Scholtz
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I am interested in providing my services as a narrative therapist to all sectors of the community. I have extensive experience in the human relations field and worked for high profile companies for 45 years. Unheedingly, I have applied narrative therapy to the various levels of staff as a human resources practitioner. Although I have completed an advanced program of two years in narrative therapy through Coram Deo, I am extremely interested in “relationships”, as the majority of problems experienced by people through all sectors of life, many a time unhappiness occurs through broken relationships, or no relationships at all.
Narrative therapy seeks to help people identify their values and the skills of knowledge they have to live these values, so they can effectively confront whatever problems they face. My role is to help the person co-author a new narrative about themselves by investigating the history of these qualities. Narrative therapy claims to be a social justice approach to therapeutic conversations, seeking to challenge dominant discourses that it claims shape people´s lives in destructive ways.
By listening to people, I am able to identify possible areas in their lives that contribute to their unhappiness. At the same time, I can also identify alternative stories that can have a positive influence in their lives. I need to help them to build on the positives and to let go of the negatives. In helping others, I also identify areas in my life that I still struggle with, thereby helping myself to devise coping with strategies. It is therefore a win-win situation for both the client, and me.
People is my passion! I am naturally attracted to people experiencing problems, thereby experiencing a feeling of being helpful. Due to severe back pain, and after undergoing four operations, pain forms part of my daily life. This naturally create an awareness of various emotions associated with chronic pain; I therefore can positively assist people suffering from similar conditions; even people dying from terminal health conditions. I believe this is my greatest gift bestowed upon me.
I value a quote from Sophie Gregoire Trudeau:
“When you share your story and become vulnerable, the ripple effect and the people that you can help along the way is a life lesson”.