Describe your very unique interest/passion

One of mine is science communication. I first got into it while I was at university, after seeing a talk given by an academic who spoke about the relative risks of recreational drugs versus various sports. There was also the Bad Science column by Dr Ben Goldacre in the Guardian at the time.

I actually got into the field myself to some extent, as I started working in a healthcare-related industry and ended up working as a medical writer. The things I write are technical reports rather than news articles or anything fun, but they do need to be seen and understood by people outside the field, so being able to explain scientific concepts to anybody at all is still really important. I actually did a part-time Masters degree in science communication which I finished in 2018.

Of course since it's work now there are lots of other tasks to do, so I don't end up writing for the whole time I'm contracted to work. I do get some time every weekday to do it though, usually in the afternoons. On top of that, I like watching science documentaries and listening to podcasts because I really enjoy other people's sci-comms work. Some of my favourite science communicators are Hank Green, Brian Cox, and Sydnee McElroy.

Your work would fascinate me. Part of my research job was to write easy-to-understand reports about the effects of drugs and the research about drug use as part of drug prevention work with children.

Bad Science is brilliant. I spent (wasted) a lot of time in my job dealing with employees across the UK who were teachers but seemed to think they could do complex research evaluating drug prevention programmes. The number of appallingly inaccurate "studies" from invalid questionnaires to incorrect sampling made my head spin! I stopped every single "study". Ironically, much of my job was supposed to be helping them design valid research - listening to what they wanted to study and then designing proper research to meet their goals. I was not dictatorial, I was meant to work with them.

I liked to say "Research is a science not an art".

Do you practice psychology or psychotherapy? I was intrigued because you are one the few people who upticks my comments on here.  Maybe that could have been an alternative lifepath for me. I've only read a couple of books on that.  By R.D Laing and Victor Frankl.

Do you practice psychology or psychotherapy? I was intrigued because you are one the few people who upticks my comments on here.  Maybe that could have been an alternative lifepath for me. I've only read a couple of books on that.  By R.D Laing and Victor Frankl.

I think i would argue with a therapist also.  I'd want to know why they were saying what they were saying all the time. I'd get affronted when they challenged me.

You're welcome. Thanks for the compliment. A lot of the success of psychotherapy comes from the (positive) relationship between the client and therapist, there needs to be a good match. I don't connect or communicate well with people. Also, if I went to a psychotherapist I'd be too busy critiquing their technique(s) and not focusing on myself

I researched a little bit of Skinner as i had an old friend who liked him. He was an academic in the field. We would debate and disagree a lot but not about psychology.  It left me with a feeling i would not agree with Skinner either.

I think i need psychotherapy but i am stubborn.

Thankyou for your well written and interesting responses.

P.S. I like to leave upticks when I agree or sympathise with what someone writes. I don't see any upticks sometimes and I wonder why, especially when so many contributions are good or helpful. I guess I like positive reinforcement

Yes, I'm a trained Psychotherapist. My psychology training at university included all schools of thought at the time (early 1980s). Professors expected us to figure out what would work out best for us to use with clients. I went with client-centred (Carl Rogers) and objective-based psychotherapy with structure that didn't drag on for years and years. I adapted Rogers' approach to allow me to include important issues I assessed in clients that they did not mention. I did so sensitively and respectfully for them to reach their best potential.

I liked Laing's theories and I was also influenced by Behaviourism - but not in the work of Skinner! Freud's theories were taught as history but we were not expected to use his methods, this was way before they were formally debunked.

I enjoyed working directly with children and training post-graduate psychotherapy students for universities, but I could not cope with colleagues or bosses. I didn't want to go into private practice because, in America, I'd have to pay for expensive malpractice insurance as well as rent an office space. Therefore, I worked for two organisations with dreadful people.

I then switched to research because I'd rather work with numbers than people. The first job was great but the second was soul-destroying because nobody understood the complexity of my work or respected me as a person.  

I would also like to know if you practice psychology or psychotherapy. 

How powerful is such treatment to beat isolation?