|
Psychologist
has unique specialty areas
(April 2005
Issue)
If you believe in fate, destiny or divine providence, then you
would have to believe that we are all exactly where we should be
in life. Somehow, as long as we are open to divine intervention,
we are guided towards the life we should be living.
With Stephanie Machell, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist who practices
in Belmont, Mass., a seemingly disparate group of specialties might
lead one to think that the Fates have been a bit confused. On the
other hand, maybe there is more in common with medical trauma, post-polio
syndrome, giftedness and highly sensitive people than meets the
eye.
Machell spoke with New England Psychologist's Catherine
Robertson Souter about her practice and the serendipitous career
path her life has taken.
Q: First, can you tell us about your practice?
A: Well, I have a couple of different specialty areas but they all
seem to show up in the same person. It's never just one thing with
people who come to see me. I work with people with severe trauma
including dissociative disorders, with people with physical disabilities
and chronic illness and I also work with gifted and talented people
and with highly sensitive people, (HSP).
It's amazing how all those things tend to interrelate. An amazing
number of polio survivors have high sensitivity. HSP also tends
to coexist with giftedness of different kinds. Not every gifted
person is an HSP, but I have yet to meet an HSP who wasn't gifted.
I also do some continuing ed and give talks. If you do something
that people need to know about, I just think that it's your responsibility
to get out there and teach it.
Q: What is post-polio syndrome?
A: Because of the damage that the body sustains from polio, the
remaining neurons wear out more quickly. Years later, you end up
getting new pain and new fatigue and weakness. It sort of starts
all over again.
There are issues of identity and a lot of trauma work with polio
survivors. When a child was brought into a hospital, very sick and
not always sure what was happening to them, the child would be whisked
away from the parent and put in isolation. Even on the rehab ward,
they were kept away from their families and not a lot was explained
to them.
When these children came back home, there was a lot of stigma and
isolation and body image problems.
There are not many mental health people working with post-polio.
In New England, I may be the only person. At least I am the only
person I have identified.
Q: So, it's a very small niche?
A: I don't think it is at all. There would be a real demand if there
were more people to meet it. My practice is full and there are people
whom I am not able to see. There are rehabilitation psychologists,
but certainly nobody specifically working with post-polio. It's
a larger niche than you would think or it could be.
Q: How did you end up working with polio patients?
A: You could say I was born into it. My father had polio in one
of the last epidemics, [when he was in his early 30s]. So, I grew
up around polio and disability and then around post-polio syndrome.
I didn't exactly decide that was what I was going to do when I went
into mental health.
With all my specialties, I say that the clients that needed me
found me and the specialties found me. When I was doing my doctorate
I took an internship on the spinal cord and then got interested
in doing rehab psych. Then I discovered that we had this polio clinic
here in Boston (at Spaulding) and I wrote a letter to the medical
director and asked if she would like to have a psychologist who
is familiar with polio.
There really isn't any formal training for this. The fact that
I have a parent is my biggest credential for this work.
Q: Okay, so what is HSP?
A: It stands for Highly Sensitive Person, which sounds sort of jargony.
Basically, Elaine Aron, a psychologist, did some research with her
husband and they wrote a book called "The Highly Sensitive Person."
They put the concept out there. It's not very well known in New
England, interestingly enough.
The trait of high sensitivity affects about 15-20 percent of the
population. These are people born with a particular kind of nervous
system. They process at a deeper level so things have more impact
on them. This is the kind of person who as a child was called 'too
sensitive.' But they are actually picking up on more subtleties.
They are more alert and their senses take in more information. They
can become over stimulated rather quickly.
The problem is that in this culture this is something people get
penalized for having, for needing more time to reflect on things
before they respond or for needing more time for themselves rather
than being outgoing and the life of the party. This is just a trait,
not a disorder. It can be positive or negative; it all depends on
what you do with it.
Q: Is there a range in people as to how sensitive to outside
stimuli one is?
A: There isn't really a range with HSP. In her research, Elaine
Aron expected to find a continuum or a bell curve. What she found
was that 15-20% of the population have high sensitivity. Then there
is a group that falls in the mid range - about 25 to 30% of the
population. But the rest of population doesn't have it at all.
Q: You either are sensitive or you are not?
A: Exactly.
One group that is disproportionately represented in the midrange
is psychotherapists. I would say maybe 30% of psychotherapists fall
into the HSP category - slightly higher than in the population over
all. But I think that a higher number than that fall into that midrange.
Maybe another 60 %.
Q: If this affects such a high percentage of the population,
you would think it would be better known.
A: It should be at least in the medical and mental health professions.
I heard a medical doctor once say that there are a disproportionate
number of HSPs who show up for medical appointments. I think that's
true in mental health practice as well. The problem is that it becomes
a differential diagnosis issue. People can end up with very pejorative
labels when they don't have a pathology, they have a trait.
Q: What would you recommend for a psychologist to learn more
about HSP?
A: Unfortunately, there is not a lot out there. Start with the Elaine
Aron book. There is another book called "Making Work Work for the
Highly Sensitive Person" by Barrie Jaeger. It's a relatively new
concept so there are not as many people writing about it. Also,
check out Aron's Web site at www.hsperson.com.
Q: How would someone get more information on post-polio syndrome?
A: There are a couple of very good articles online if you search
for post-polio syndrome.
Rhoda Olkin is a psychologist with post-polio syndrome who wrote
the book "What Psychologists Should Know About Disability." Our
medical director, Julie Silver, wrote a book called "Post-Polio
Syndrome." There are a lot of polio survivor narratives. It's one
of those things if you read what patients have said, that's the
best education, always.
I also encourage people to get in touch with me. I would like to
know if there are people out there who want to do this stuff (stmachell@mindspring.
com.)
There is a lot of opportunity out there in the field. People tend
to forget to think outside the box but there are lots of ways people
can do that.
|
