A few good Sherpa


	Alan Bodnar, Ph.D. is the Co-Director of Psychology Training at Westborough State Hospital, Mass. and a consultant in the field of leadership development.

By Alan Bodnar, Ph.D.

January, as always, brings a new group of bright and hopeful students to interview for psychology internships throughout the region. The training year has its seasons and standardization of the application process has ensured that each step along the way from recruitment through the final matching of applicants and programs passes in an orderly sequence. By now the applications have all been read; decisions about interviews have been made; and it's time to enjoy the always rewarding experience of meeting the men and women who believe that we can help them get a good start on their careers in psychology.

We all have our lists of criteria that we think important for success in our internships and we look for those characteristics in our applicants. Numbers of hours of various kinds of clinical experience, writing samples, letters of recommendation and presentation during the interview provide a wealth of data and every program has its own ideas about what is most important.

Even within programs, in spite of agreement on the importance of certain core abilities and perspectives, each supervising psychologist has his or her own slant on what makes a successful intern. This year, I am looking for a few good Sherpa. The way I see it, any group of people with such an excellent record of bringing climbers up and safely down the mountains of the Himalayas must have something to teach us psychologists about leading others through the hazardous terrain of personal discovery.

A little research on these remarkable people first taught me the difference between the upper-case and lower-case "S" versions of sherpa. Upper-case Sherpa refers to the ethnic group who migrated from Tibet to the most mountainous regions of Nepal in the last 500 years. They speak their own language, which is like a dialect of Tibetan and are traditionally traders and farmers, cultivating their crops at high altitudes. Sherpa, however, are best known for the role many of them play as guides and porters for mountaineering expeditions throughout the world.

The lower-case sherpa refers to any of the local people in Nepal and elsewhere who make their living exclusively as guides and porters for climbing parties. They are highly regarded as experts in mountaineering, know their local terrain well, and are known for their endurance and resilience at high altitudes. Sherpa with a capital S often insist on making the distinction between themselves and their lower-case cousins, who typically serve more in support roles such as porters. The ethnic Sherpa, by contrast, assume more guiding and advising functions with their clients, command higher salaries and enjoy greater prestige in the mountaineering community. They may also have a genetically greater lung capacity that enhances their climbing ability.

The parallel between guiding a climber to the highest altitudes of a treacherous mountain and accompanying a client on an expedition of self-discovery is inescapable. Both require a combination of technical skill and personal capacities, either genetic or acquired that endow the guide with a sense of familiarity and respect for the journey. The successful therapist, like the good Sherpa, will have the know-how to cover the terrain safely. He will know the techniques of therapy the way the Sherpa knows how to string a guide rope, test the footing and predict conditions on the mountain.

While Sherpa and therapist are both masters of technique, they also know that technique can never substitute for discernment, judgment, adaptability and respect for the uniqueness of every expedition. The best route to the summit for one group of climbers in a particular year may not meet the needs of another group at a different time under different conditions.

As clinical psychology recognizes the benefits and challenges of Evidence Based Therapy and proponents line up on both sides of the issue, the Sherpa among us will welcome new tools that have been proven to work without fear that the climb will become routine. Sherpa know that the mountain's inscrutability always demands humility, respect, openness to surprise and the willingness to learn something unexpected. Sherpa are the people of the mountain, suited to their inhospitable niche through centuries of genetically mediated adaptations and as well as quicker physiological accommodations to thin air. Do the best therapists have something analogous to the Sherpa's greater lung capacity and more highly oxygenated blood that enables them to sit with pain and uncertainty until a sudden gale uncovers the entrance to a hidden path to the summit? Do we require extraordinary challenges in our lives to become good therapists or is it enough to scan the changing face of the mountain from a safe distance?

Very soon, four new interns will have been selected to join our training program in the summer. I hope there will be something of the Sherpa in each of them.

A few good Sherpa (January 2007 Issue)

By Alan Bodnar, Ph.D.

A few good Sherpa
(January 2007 Issue)