Kathleen Sullivan, M.S.W., M.F.A.

Having worked as a psychotherapist for almost forty years, Kathleen Sullivan began writing poems ten years ago in an effort to address her own experience of inner silence. While earning an MFA in poetry, she became determined to find a way to speak about her day to day work with her patients—about the interrelationship between her patients’ story and her own story.

While doing the research for this work, Kathleen began studying a new field of psychoanalysis called Relational Psychoanalysis which is exploring the importance of the therapist’s conscious and unconscious processes for the outcome of the therapy. Relational Psychoanalysis is expanding the boundaries of self-revelation on the part of the therapist and dovetails nicely with Kathleen’s work.

Kathleen wrote her MFA thesis on the conflict between ethics and loss of personal voice and ultimately found a way to speak about both the client’s story and her own which, she believes, not only does no harm to the patient but also fulfills the highest ethical consideration of ‘doing good.’