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It sounds like the start to a bad joke… "What do you get when you
cross a psychologist with a violin maker?" But, all kidding aside,
in real life what you get is someone like Bob Childs, M.Ed., Psy.D.,
a Cambridge-based clinician who doubles as a violin maker, or, maybe,
a violin maker who doubles as a psychologist.
Where many psychologists have discovered the benefits of having
a hobby as an outlet for their own creativity, this master of two
trades found himself at a crossroads some 14 years ago when he realized
that it may be possible to commit himself to two full-focus professions
at once. These days, Childs splits his time almost evenly between
seeing clients in his private practice where he specializes in working
with adoption issues, and seeing various artists and making some
very high quality violins. He spoke with New England Psychologist's
Catherine Robertson Souter about his dual identity and how he
keeps himself from asking his violins about their childhood or his
patients about their tonal quality.
Q: How does a psychologist come to make violins or a violin
maker do psychotherapy?
A: In the mid-70s, after college, I got trained to do emergency
psychiatric work in a hospital in Waterville, Maine, basically doing
crisis intervention.
I had been working there for two years and in one day I had seen
three very suicidal people in a row. It had gone on for hours and
hours and when finally I was finished my working day, I left the
hospital and got in my '65 VW Bug and about 600 yards from the hospital
I was pulled over by the police. The guy came up to me and he said,
"Do you know how fast you were going?" I said, "No, sir, I have
no idea." He told me that I was doing 60 in a 25-mile per hour zone.
I went in the next day and resigned my position. That's when I decided
to become a violin maker.
I had already started working with a [craftsman] before I left
the hospital but I didn't really imagine it as a career. Once I'd
worked at the hospital for two years, I realized that I wanted to
do something else.
I came back to psychology 14 years later when I started to look
for my own birth parents. It was really just a question of reflecting
on my own circumstances and myself. It helped me to look inward
again and gave me an opportunity to explore where I was in life.
I think when I started out I wasn't really ready to do psychology,
not mature enough. At this point in my life it's nice to have both
things together.
Q: A lot of people wouldn't consider as a violin maker going
back to school and becoming a psychologist. Or as a psychologist
going off and learning how to make violins. They are both very intensive
as far as study.
A: Yes, they are both crafts and when you get deeply involved in
a craft you realize that there's a lot to know about it. You can't
make violins halfway and you can't do psychology half way. You have
to know a whole body of knowledge and you have to learn how to apply
that knowledge.
Q: How do these two seemingly disparate fields intersect? You've
said that you use your psychology training to help violin clients
verbalize the type of instrument they want. But does it work the
other way as well?
A: Many psychologists have already figured out that it's great to
have another vehicle for your own processing, in addition to therapy,
obviously. Violin making gives me a way of processing things.
And violin making teaches me how to be present in the moment. As
a violin maker you have to be absolutely present because you'll
make a mistake otherwise. Learning how to be present is a huge part
of the process of becoming a therapist.
Another thread between the two fields is that for me, there's a
sort of mystery to the violin. There's a great mystery to why they
sound the way they sound and what goes into creating that sound.
And I think working in therapy, working with people, there's a similar
connection. There's a great mystery to the whole psychological process
and what makes people get better and what led them to be in the
position they are in.
Q: Do you play the violin yourself?
A: Yes, we have a band, called ChildsPlay. It's a group of people
from all over the world who play on violins that I've made over
the past 28 years. The group is primarily fiddle players (I play
Irish fiddle music), although there are people from the Boston Symphony
and things like that.
This year, there are going to be two concerts in the Boston area
in December. That's all on the Web site (www.childsplay.org). I
also play more informal sessions around town and I get hired to
play at festivals.
Q: What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin?
A: It's just the way it's played, actually. A good fiddle is the
same thing as a good violin. Historically, it was more of a class
difference because fiddle players generally came from poorer families
and couldn't afford good instruments. But in this day and age, really,
a good instrument is a good instrument whether a fiddle player or
a classical player plays it.
Q: People who know you as the musician and violin maker, are
they surprised that you are also a psychologist? And vice versa,
would patients who see you in your office be surprised to know that
you have this whole other side?
A: For many years I didn't tell people. I kept it secret. There's
a sense in the classical music world that how could anyone possibly
do anything else? Making a violin is such a complicated thing. In
terms of my psychology practice, I think that the more experienced
that I got, and the more that I learned how to use my own experience
in therapy, there were times when it felt appropriate to share something
I learned in the process of becoming a violin maker.
I don't deliberately keep them separate any more.
Q: But your sign outside doesn't say "master violin maker and
therapist."
A: Right.
Q: I understand that you are a world-class violin maker and
that some of your instruments are played in the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. What does something like this go for?
A: I usually make six per year and charge $14,000 for each commission.
It takes nearly 200 hours to make one. And, you know, come to think
of it, there's another cross between the two professions - neither
violin making nor psychotherapy is exactly a quick process.
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