A Quiet Voice--Home

 

ABOUT THIS SITE

 

This section is where I’m supposed to tell visitors about AQuietVoice.com. What can I say? I’ve been working on this site for years, promising for years that it was “almost ready,” and “just needed a few finishing touches.” Now, finally, it’s almost true. I wanted this site to be as close to perfect as I could make it. Enough is enough, however, so here it comes. I promise to keep working on it, correcting errors and adding new ideas as they come.

Why, one might ask, have I done all this work? There are several reasons, of course, and probably some I’m not aware of. [Freud on overdetermination: There are always more reasons for a behavior than are needed to explain it.] One reason is business related. I wanted  those who might refer patients/clients to me to have some idea of what I do. I wanted to be a presence on the web for whomever might be searching. I appreciate being able to end letters with something like “For more information, please visit my website at aquietvoice.com.”  It's easier than imparting the same information to one person at a time.

Obviously, I wanted to provide information on a assortment of subjects, all related to mental health and therapy. My hope would be that the information presented here encourages some people to find help, and supports others wherever they are in the process of finding help. For some, the website will hopefully provide tools for doing personal work.

A more personal reason has to do with something I heard at a weekend workshop years ago with Salvador Minuchin, an awe-inspiring therapist, author, and founder of  Structural Family Therapy. He said to us at that conference “To be a good therapist, one must have the voices of many other therapists in one’s head” [or words to that effect—it’s been decades.] This website is my attempt to add my thoughts and words, my therapist voice to what is available. I hope that my voice may help others to grow, and encourage professionals to increase by one the voices they hear while doing their work.

There are too many voices, too many people who have inspired me for me to list them all. Dr. Minuchin, of course. My first professional supervisors: Jean Gilmore ACSW [before I made a commitment to this work and sought a graduate degree], and Rose Goodman, LCSW, a warm, wise, and nurturing woman whose voice I will never stop hearing, because she laughed so much and made such great sense.

I’m thankful for the encouragement of Leonard Press, DSW, whom I encountered at University of  Maryland School of Social Work, and many other faculty there. There, I first learned family therapy theory and technique from Roger Friedman, PhD. Sheepishly, I admit that it was graduate school that disabused me of the notion that I knew everything I needed to know. One of the few things I’m sure of now is that I will never know it all, at least not in this lifetime.

So many others, either through classes, conferences, meetings, and those I encountered only through their written words, were crucial to forming me as the therapist I’ve become.

I also acknowledge those from “a previous lifetime.” F. R. Leavis, the great literary critic whose challenging style helped shape my own. Tom McFarland, PhD, who taught me to really read Shakespearean tragedy, and again, a host of others.

AQuietVoice.com will be a continually evolving source of help, information, and support for those who choose to spend time here. The contributions of my patients/clients to my skill, knowledge, and maturity [such as it is] is gratefully and humbly acknowledged. I look forward to hearing thoughts, comments, and other responses from my visitors and colleagues.

 

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Jonathan P. Levine, CSW
2300 West Ridge Rd.
Rochester, NY  14626
(585) 225-0330
jonathan@aquietvoice.com

Updated on 6/22/2002
© 2002, Jonathan P. Levine, CSW