About Dr. Joaquin F. Sousa-Poza

 

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.

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 cognitive styles, the late Doctor Herman Witkin PhD.  

 

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 beautiful British Columbia, where I practice, exclusively, psychotherapy -mostly for abused women in my home office on Galiano Island. I also teach once a year as a Visiting Professor at the 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 (appropriately 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 website. I'm at the moment getting ready to publish 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.

Existential Dialogue

"Here they come again... "
Illustration by Michel bourque

THIS IS THE PICTURE OF CHRIST AFTER THE HUMAN
BUFFALOES TRAMPLED HIM UNDERFOOT BEFORE HIS TIME.

PAX TECUM BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

 

"The Dusk of the Cross"
(and at that time all suffering shall cease.)

 

A second "Furtiva Lacrima"
yes, the child is still there...

Amazing Grace in Cherokee

 

 

" Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
and how you suffered for your sanity
and how you tried to set them free
they would not listen, they did not know how,
perhaps they never will... "
Adaptive lyrics from the song 'Starry, Starry Night' by Don McLean, sung by Julio Iglesias.

 

 

Thank you to the following people for their contributions. Joaquin F. Sousa-Poza, M.D., D.(M.)Sc, F.R.C.P.(C)