My name is Dr. Joaquin
F. Sousa-Poza, of Galiano Island. I was born in Pontevedra,
Spain. The town's name derives from the Latin "ponte" (bridge)
and "veritas" (the truth) because it sits on the "Camino
de Santiago," the route the pilgrims follow to reach Santiago
de Compostela where, it is said, the apostle Saint James lays buried
in its magnificent cathedral. Ernest Hemingway, a well-rounded traveler,
proclaimed the square formed by the cathedral and three other buildings
as "one of the most beautiful in the world." Interestingly,
I make a living by helping people to recover their true self.
Existential Dialogue
Befittingly, I obtained
an MD from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1961, a Diploma
in Psychiatry from McGill University in 1968 and a Doctorate in
Medical Sciences in 1975 from the State University of New York (DMC)
under the direction of the master of cogntive styles, the late Doctor
Herman Witkin PhD.
Santiago
de Compostela,
Galicia
Pontevedra,
Spain
Pontevedra,
Spain
Cesar
Portella
Architect
Pontevedra,
Spain
Cesar
Portella Architect
The coastline of Galicia is
green and rugged, dotted with deserted, sandy coves. But
this enticing landscape was the site of one of Spain's worst
environmental disasters. Click
here to find out more.
I taught psychiatry at McGill
as a Teaching Fellow, at the State University of New York
(DMC) as Assistant Professor, and full time, for fifteen
years, at the Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec as Professeur Agrégé.
In 1989 I moved to the beautiful city of Victoria, British
Columbia, where I practice, exclusively, psychotherapy in
my Victoria office–as well as in my home office on
Galiano Island. I also teach as a Visiting Professor at the
Advanced Program of Psychotherapy training in the Department
of Psychiatry, Autonomous University of Madrid.
I have published in what
I believe to be authoritative journals such as Human Communication
and Research, Psychiatry, Psychosomatic
Medicine, Psiquis
and others.
I also made a primitive effort at poetry. But
the real love affair of my life has always been psychotherapy,
the "via magna" to understand the human self and its considerable
suffering. Paraphrasing my friend, the American anthropologist Edward
T. Hall, I specialize in treating "the psychopathology of every
day life"–"neuroses" that is– that are
much more pathologic than we would like to think. In general, the
emotional and spiritual development of humanity, compared at least
with our techno/scientific achievements, is nothing to write home
about. To deal with that glaring discrepancy we resort to keeping
the sanity threshold insanely low because humanity would look too
bad if it were placed where it belongs. I treat "neuroses"
and, sometimes, severe forms of woundedness so called personality
disorders.
Early in my psychiatric
training, at McGill University in Montreal, I deemed
it to be absolutely necessary to undergo psychotherapy
myself, if ever I was to practice it seriously ("eat from your own cooking" as Warren Buffet,
the "Oracle of Omaha" is fond of saying). I began
with classic psychoanalysis in the mid-sixties with a training
analyst, and ended up undergoing and researching most of
the major therapies up to Primal Therapy at Janov's Primal
Institute in Los Angeles.
I have also done hundreds
of hours of so-called solitudinal research on the phenomena
of regression to early emotionally traumatic experiences.
Solitudinal
Research Photo
Courtesy of Stock.xchng
Given the fact that
infantile trauma happened in the past, "regression," not in its
psychoanalytic meaning of "going back to earlier modes of ego
functioning", but as that of reliving early traumatic
experiences, is the sine qua non to practice emotional trauma
theory. As I was going to discover after traversing the narrow
straights of Primal Therapy, nurturing or retribution has to
be the other basic element of practicing trauma theory.
Briefly, over thirty
years of research led me to develop a theory of neurosis
based on Freud's early "seduction" theory (appropiately relabeled "trauma"
theory by Alice Miller) with attachment and information theory
as its theoretical basis. Eventually, I devised an extremely
simple and well-defined method.
In 2005, I published in
the International Journal of Psychotherapy two papers, theory and
method, which are presented on this webite. I'm at the moment readying
for publication a book on psychospirituality. Eventually I intend
to offer teaching/training and certification in the method as well
as doing consulting work in emotional conflict resolution for business
and institutions.
As my good friend
and financial advisor, Tim Paziuk, of Victoria who follows
a humane approach to his work (can you imagine a financial
advisor with a heart?) said of himself in an article in the
Financial Post:"like
so many evolutionary creatures, I may become extinct before
ever being discovered."
Really,
who cares? I was already handsomely rewarded for my hardships
by brining myself and many of my patients in to closer
contact with the Divinity.
My Hobbies
Sports orientated, I have
been involved through the years in flying small aircraft, motorbiking,
sailing, quarter horse training, cross country skiing, fishing,
camping and other outdoors activities. My greatest achievement in
this field has been to crash a Porsche 911 and a classic black,
1968 BMW motorcycle.
"Here they come again..."
Photo Courtesy of Erwin
and Peggy Bauer
THIS
IS THE PICTURE OF CHRIST AFTER THE HUMAN
BUFFALOES
TRAMPLED HIM UNDERFOOT BEFORE HIS TIME.
