303 - How We Relate to the Moment Impacts How We Show Up as Therapists with Santiago Delboy

Nov 19

“I'm not gonna like everything that I find certainly, but maybe I can try to make space for it and to recognize it and to notice it and to understand it.” - Santiago Delboy

I love it when a current conversation recalls and expands upon themes explored in previous episodes. Put a pin in that thought for a second while I introduce you to Santiago Delboy, MBA, LCSW. He’s a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and founder of Fermata Psychotherapy, a psychoanalytic group practice in Chicago.

Santiago is also a husband, author, musician, and, as you can probably tell by the designatory letters accompanying his name, a career changer. Before becoming a clinician, he spent over a decade climbing the corporate ladder in the US and his home country of Peru.

Here’s where we pull that pin. I consider Santiago a true in-betweener (or, n’betweener©, the term coined by previous guest Nora Alwah for those who, like herself, feel suspended between two (or more) identities; not fully inhabiting one or the other).

My assessment isn’t an indictment; it’s an invitation. In addition to discussing the current socio-political entanglements of life in the US, Santiago and I grapple with the complexities of the in-betweener status. How can we transmute the discomfort of the unknown into collective growth?

All of us show up with multiple identities (partner, parent, revolutionary, etc.). How do we, as therapists, get better at existing in discomfort and creating space where everyone can explore without rushing to define themselves?

“I have my days of [thinking] what have I done by creating a group?” Santiago admits. “I appreciate the different ways in which I need to use my brain, but it can also be difficult to transition from one hat to the other.” While Santiago may still consider himself the shy kid from Peru, I like to think of him as the thoughtful risk-taker. I mean, this is someone who left a successful corporate career to follow his curiosity to become a psychotherapist.

“It was a transition I made about 12 years ago just to have some meaning in my life. But, also, it was a very humbling moment coming from ‘I got this figured out’ to ‘I don’t really know,’ he observes. “I think that that humble moment may have stayed with me because I think that's such an important stance for what we do, not knowing.”

Part two of this conversation coming soon!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

The Cost of Neglecting Therapists’ Mental Health

The National Association of Social Workers Press

Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis

Expanded Mental Health Services of Chicago

The Kedzie Center

The Institute for Clinical Social Work

Loyola University

Northwestern University

Shining Path

Projective Identification

RECOMMENDED EPISODES

CWH297 - Global Perspectives on Identity, Mental Health, and Psychology with Nora Alwah Part I

CWH298 - What's Wrong With Me If I'm Not Thriving? with Nora Alwah Part II

GUEST CONTACT & BIO

Fermata Psychotherapy

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Santiago Delboy, MBA, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and founder of Fermata Psychotherapy, a psychoanalytic group practice in Chicago. He has provided clinical supervision and consultation at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, the Institute for Clinical Social Work, and The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Prior to becoming a clinician, he spent over a decade working in the corporate world in Peru, his home country, and the U.S. His publications include essays in Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Revista de la Sociedad Peruana de Psicoanálisis, Aeon, and Psychology Today.

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