Dennis Thoennes, Ph.D., ABPP, Psychologist

Why I'm a Psychologist

I have a childhood memory of being in an appliance store watching a dishwasher. It had a glass front and inside poker chips where whirling around in the tub of turbulent water. If I maintained that kind of amazement of the physical forces at work there I may have become a physicist or engineer. As time progressed that interest focused on people. As we whirl and go on our way, what forces move us to behave, choose, think and feel? In high school, I studied to be a Catholic priest. After a while on that path, I realized it was not what fit me. Then I went to the University of Washington. I learned about behavior modification, positive and negative reinforcers, beliefs and values and their influence on behaviors.

Soon thereafter, Lin and I married and our son joined us. This opened new worlds of intimacy, sexuality, attachment, love, anger, frustrations, joy and depression, dependency, independence and interdependence. These experiences led to further studies followed by personal therapy, further education and training, meditation, retreats and efforts to understand not just why the poker chips whirl, not just why other people behave, believe, think and feel but why do I? These are my ever-present companions, the curiosities that kindle the passion, the wonder and awe that join me in my services to you.

I feel privileged when you allow me into the inner sanctum of you. Some of psychotherapy is learning the skills to make life work. When you or I pause and realize that many of the forces that move our poker chips, that lead us to think, feel and behave as we do are internal, we do a radical thing. When we wonder we initiate a radical experience of sanity. When we wonder we ignite our curiosity not just about the world outside ourselves but the universe inside. This ignition can thrust us into the darkest, deepest places in the human psyche and also lead us to serenity, joy and peace that surpasses all understanding. This is the ignition of vitality, authenticity, creativity, compassion, change, birth and death.