Katie-Lee Weille graduated in 1989 from the Smith College School for Social work. Between 1987 and 1995 she worked as a psychotherapist in a range of settings – including inpatient and outpatient psychiatric units, and a prison – with children and ‘multi-problem’ families, victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. In this period she developed an interest in working with parents, as well as a sensitivity to the ubiquity of...
On a regular basis I work with couples, usually parents, who have to split up but want help doing so in a more constructive way–often because of the ongoing need to be parents together. Naturally I try to support couples in working out their difficulties and staying together. However when that is not possible, there is a lot to be gained by splitting up well—both in the sense of continued learning and growth for both parties as individuals, and...
We know a lot about how parents are supposed to raise children but not a lot about what it is to be a parent. What is the parent’s own experience of being a parent, as opposed to their impact on the child? Parenthood is a neglected theoretical domain, and it is missing as a topic in the curricula and policies of academy and clinic alike. My career has included a certain amount of crusading on this issue, and there is much more I want to accomplish.
I work with couples and individuals, providing short and long term therapy for a broad range of problems including depression, anxiety, parenting and relationship problems, loss of meaning or direction in life, and traumatic experiences. I have particular expertise in the psychology of parenthood, couples therapy, non-mainstream sexual orientations, trauma and abuse, cultural complexity and other complex or non-mainstream identities.
The chance to reflect on practice and apply new ideas, theories and methods can be inspiring and help move past impasses and blind spots in clinical work. This is particularly helpful in the case of working with parents as most professionals have not been trained in specialised theories or methods for working with parents, even though parents are one of our most complex kinds of client and pose some of the most difficult dilemmas for us as professionals.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo EmersonTherapist, consultant, and qualitative researcher. Dance enthusiast and mother. After living in four countries and working in several languages, I have gradually come to identify with the term ‘global nomad’, to which I bring a number of overarching personal and professional themes. My ‘identity home’, in both personal and professional senses, is complex and non-traditional. My deepest drive is to dig beneath the surface of established ‘truths’ or norms.
Learn MorePracticing since 1989, my work is permeated by the theme of complex identities and building bridges between unlikely ideas, people, and experiences. Whether helping a couple or a team in conflict to resolve differences, or exploring the experience of parenthood or non-normative sexualities through research, I am intrigued by the rich complexities in people’s sense of who they are, and I seek to discover the surprising links between and within people.
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