Serendipity

About the Book

Here are practical, easy-to-read essays that portray what one practitioner perceives happens in psychotherapy. He reports his perceptions in a style that is both admittedly subjective and is easy to understand. What Einstein is reported to have said about the universe seems applicable to all of life, and to psychotherapy: "When I stand at the edge of the universe and look out it appears to be more like a great idea than a great machine."

In listening to troubled people he works with every day, he jots down ideas for monographs and eventually writes up some of them. Out of some five hundred of these ideas, here are 65 which he calls "discoveries" or "observations" or "solutions to problems." They are "Serendipitous" in that they appeared unexpectedly along the traveled way. His main reason for writing them is so his children (both of whom are successful psychotherapists), and his students will remember some of his thoughts and his ideas of how therapy works.

About his therapy he says, "I use lots of metaphors in my work, ala Milton Erickson. Central in this book, as in my practice, is an emphasis on Communication. As a Transactional Analyst, first trained in Psychoanalysis, I hold Sigmund FreudÕs two basic ideas sacred: 1) the causative nature of all behavior, and 2) the importance of the unconscious. Hence my interest in Dream Analysis and Body Language. And because I firmly believe 'The way you talk is the way you is,' I place a lot of emphasis on semantics."

About the Author

A practicing psychotherapist for the past 35 years, H. D. Johns holds a Master's degree in Theology from the Iliff School of Theology and a Doctorate in psychology/counseling from International College. A retired chaplain of the U.S. Navy, Johns played an important role in the training of personnel for the Navy's counseling centers. He was a founding member of the International Transactional Analysis Association and has been conducting workshops throughout the United States and Europe for the past 30 years.

Johns' published works include numerous articles in American and Italian Journals and two books: From Fear to Fury (An Analysis of Anger), 1990, and What I Need to Know about Living I Learned from My Dogs (Essays on Living), 1998.

At the present time he is Director of the Greater Washington Institute for Transactional Analysis and continues in the practice of psychotherapy. You are invited to contact him though e-mail at hdj1@erols.com and to visit his web page at www.dogsknow.com.