Risk Awareness | Identity | Narrative | Self-continuity
Welcome!
RAINS Psychology is an organization focused on providing mental healthcare services for individuals and couples, and research and educational insights for (security) organizations. RAINS focuses on preventative mental healthcare and preventative security.
Come see me in Rotterdam or let’s meet virtually.
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Risk Awareness
Are your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors serving to protect your future self (or organization)?
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Identity
Who are you? Define your perspective, strengths, and limitations. Acknowledge your role in this ever-changing world.
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Narrative
What is your story? How did you come to be? Discover your deeper needs, patterns, and values.
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Self-continuity
Appreciate where you came from and where you are going. Look forward with confidence and hope.
Risk Awareness | Identity | Narrative | Self-continuity
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"Where is home?"
Moving countries or homes can be stressful, especially if your move is unexpected.
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"I can't focus anymore."
Algorithms are designed to affect your mood and steal your attention.
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"Time feels weird now."
Covid lockdowns and isolation have warped our sense of time.
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"I thought my life would turn out different."
Trauma can leave you feeling stuck.
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"I can't cope with all this!"
Paying attention can be heartbreaking.
Find your reason to show up every day. -
"I'm unsure about my role and purpose in life."
Many young people struggle with their identity and relationships.
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"I'm scared of judgment for my beliefs."
Your beliefs and values are special parts of your identity.
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"We are a grief phobic society." - Francis Weller
Loss exists in many forms. Let us re-remember how to grieve.
My perspective and my mission
Mental healthcare is facing a crisis of demand and inability to keep up with changing social problems.
We are living in a time of unprecedented social changes. Technology has complicated human wellbeing and relationships. Trusted institutions are struggling to keep up with growing needs. Waitlists for mental health help can be months or even years long.
Why focus on Risk Awareness in mental health?
You are a person who is impacted by your environment. Many people have faced a multitude of traumatic incidents, loss, and major stressful life changes in the past few years alone. On top of interpersonal stress, many people struggle with concerns around climate change, geopolitical tension, war, economic strain, AI, social isolation, pandemics, relationship problems, loss, failure, and keeping up with rapidly changing norms.
Traditional mental health therapies put emphasis on changing a person’s thoughts and behaviors without giving enough attention to the context of their problems. I choose to focus on risk awareness in my practice because I believe that most mental health problems originate outside of yourself - they are in structures, dynamics, and relationships that are harmful to your health. A bad relationship, unsupportive family, a toxic job, poor financial management, misguided health practices, your online behavior, and other circumstances can all contribute to your long term mental health risks. An aspect of one of the therapeutic modalities I use - Narrative Therapy - uses the idea of externalizing a client’s problems in order to diminish their power. That is, in Narrative Therapy, the client is encouraged to talk and think about their problems and mistakes as separate from their identity, and to consider their relationships with their problems.
The mental health crisis and the explosion of mental health diagnoses are symptoms of the damaged systems we live under.
Society has come a long way in de-stigmatizing mental health problems. However, we live in a world where reactions to trauma, abuse, and grief are pathologized. Society has normalized the use of diagnostic labels to explain very normal human reactions to unfortunate life circumstances. Health insurance companies and mental health institutions often use diagnoses as gatekeeping to prevent or funnel access to care. Social media campaigns and influencers have created a trendiness in diagnostic labelling. Institutions and social media undoubtedly shape the way people see themselves. A diagnosis is not an identity, and a diagnosis should NOT be a requirement to start therapy.
Your story matters. Making sense of your story helps.
Stressful life events such as childhood trauma, relationship breakdown, major illness, death, birth, moving, abuse, job changes, natural disasters, etc., can cause disruptions in your life narrative (e.g., self-discontinuity). Self-discontinuity is a marker of mental illness, and can leave you feeling anxious, burned out, depressed, hopeless, or stuck in life. Self-discontinuity manifests as problems making sense of how your past self relates to your present self (e.g., problems processing trauma) or problems connecting your present self to a hopeful future self (e.g., problems processing grief). Making sense of your story through narrative-based therapies can greatly improve your mental health.
My mission as a psychologist and educator is to promote concepts of RAINS - Risk Awareness, Identity, Narrative, and Self-continuity - as a means for preventative mental healthcare.
Through narrative-based therapies and research-based insights, I help empower clients to develop healthy risk awareness and a coherent self narrative. Narrative-based therapies help address symptoms like intrusive traumatic memories, depression, addictive behaviors, rumination, poor focus, negative thinking patterns, and other reactions to trauma and grief. A positive and stable sense of identity leads to improved self-continuity.
For a copy of my CV, please contact me at:
info@rainspsychology.com
