Guest of Honor:
Maria Luisa Victoria PhD: Clinical Psychologist
We’ve spoken in this space about workplace bullying, toxic bosses and teammates and #sundayscaries. You can’t always make an immediate job change when your work life makes you miserable. But you can always make an immediate life change. You can find someone to talk to who understands and offers perspective. Maria Luisa Victoria is a wise, warm clinical psychologist with a depth of expertise helping professionals at all levels. What are some reasons we’d turn to a psychologist in a work context? Read on.
HCC: How do you describe what you do?
MLV: I provide clients with a safe space where they can sit with their thoughts and consider alternative ways to respond to them instead of just reacting to them. I help clients clarify what is important to them and how to move towards their values.
Tell us some reasons clients call you for the first time.
People struggling with procrastination, feeling ineffective at work. Also clients trying to figure out how to deal with a demanding or abusive boss or underperforming subordinates.
What issue or idea feeds your work daily?
How to be better at accepting our thoughts and feelings while changing behaviors that get in our way of living the life we want to live.
Describe your office vibe.
I’m in private practice. My office feels like a living room and I love that it gets a lot of light. I have soft fabrics and a fireplace, which makes my space warm and comfortable.
About those #sundayscaries. . .What’s one way you might suggest dealing with being really unhappy/uninspired in your job?
Try to understand what is making you so unhappy. One way to do that is notice the opposite. When do you feel gratified at work? What happened right before you felt uplifted or engaged? Who was with you? What were you doing? What was the setting? Use this information to increase involvement in situations that are replicable. Maybe working with certain people or in specific tasks that are similar.
What is one way you might suggest dealing with a bully at work?
It depends on the situation, of course, but being assertive and letting the person know how you feel when the other is being critical. And requesting a more respectful response.
How about something as vague as just “not knowing” — not knowing what you want to do, how to think about your next career move?
Not knowing is a good place to start; it opens up possibility. Talk to people who are working in things you might be interested in. If possible, shadow them. Notice the tasks, moments in you day to day life when you feel energized, absorbed in what you are doing. Those can be clues to what you love and jobs that have elements of that.
What does it mean to you and your work to be “honorable”?
To give my full attention to the person in front of me, to the moment I am living now.