Meet Holt
One of the most crucial parts of choosing your therapist is making sure they are someone you can see yourself working with. You should know with confidence that if you’re feeling down, anxious, distressed, or vulnerable, that you’ll be with someone you trust to facilitate and work alongside you in addressing those feelings. With that in mind, I’d like to give you the chance to get to know more about my practice, my experience, my interests and a little about my personal life before we even have our first meeting.
As a Californian who emigrated to Scotland at the age of 17, My personal history is a little bit complicated, so I’ll try to focus on what brings you here in the first place: who I am, and what that has to do with being a psychotherapist. I have always been a person curious about others, and valued difference in approaches to the world. I left home as soon as I could because I was fed up with close-minded attitudes, and a dreadful sense of social stuckness that manifested in others stating there was ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways of being. When I arrived in Scotland, I got more than I could have bargained for – the discovery of more differences and nuances between peoples and cultures than I thought possible, and the joy of being able to share and celebrate those differences. I came to Edinburgh to study because I wanted to write fiction – and every person’s life was a narrative that I wanted to hear. Though this empathic curiosity was always present, it wasn’t until much later that I considered that my craft might be one of listening and hearing other’s stories, and offering my presence, care and support when one’s current chapter looked darkest.
What precipitated my becoming a psychotherapist was an existential questioning. I was a young man just out of university, where I had found myself in a telesales career that offered little more in value than a paycheck and a bonus scheme. While that is enough for many people, after continuing in this role for a few years, I found myself constantly left wondering: ‘Is this it? Is this all I can offer to others? Is this my life’s work – making income for a corporation not even our clients know the name of?’ The questions might sound bleak, but working with them led me to action and realisation: I did not want to simply do something, but rather to be someone, and for that being to be aligned with what I believed and how I acted. I resolved to find a way of using my passion and skill for communication and relationship-building in a manner that would meaningfully help others find purpose and insight through adversity (instead of using it to acquire credit card details). From there, I began training to become a psychotherapist at the University of Edinburgh and, six years ago, I began in psychotherapeutic practice. As a psychotherapist, I have been incredibly privileged to be a part of so many people’s journeys towards self-actualisation and making meaning of their lives, and I hope I will always be able to offer myself and participate in others’ process of growth.
Beginning in psychotherapeutic practice was just the beginning of my involvement in my craft, however. I undertook rigorous study to achieve a Doctorate in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh, demonstrating my commitment to understanding the complexity of the psychotherapeutic field and taking a role in furthering it. My doctoral research focused on traditional games and the therapeutic potential of game-play for adults was published as my doctoral thesis entitled, “Cardstock and Containment: Exploring Therapeutic Affect in Magic: the Gathering for Adults”. Independent research is a passion I still engage with alongside my clinical work; I enjoy exploring psychotherapeutic theory and practice in my writing as well as wondering about the practice of qualitative inquiry more broadly. My extensive clinical and academic experience earned me a permanent teaching fellowship at the University of Edinburgh in 2022, through which I provide training and research supervision to counsellors and psychotherapists newly developing in the field. If you would like to know more about my published work, you are welcome to find out more on my publications page.
Outside of my professional work, it may come as no surprise given my research that I have a great love for games of all shapes and sizes. I am the current reigning Scottish national champion in the collectible card game Magic: the Gathering, enjoy writing for, running and playing in table-top roleplaying game groups, am (slowly) developing as a tennis player, and have an ever growing collection of digital and traditional games on my list to explore and play with others. My joy in playing games is likely no surprise given my profession; notable psychotherapist and theorist D.W. Winnicott famously stated that, “Psychotherapy has to do with two people playing together. The corollary of this is that where playing is not possible then the work done by the therapist is directed towards bringing the patient from a state of not being able to play into a state of being able to play.” In this sense, play is not something I engage with solely in the therapy room, but in all aspects of life – it is the way I am, not a collection of things I do.
When I’m not working with clients or playing games, I enjoy spending time with my wife, Phoebe, and our cat, Dr. Spaghetti, indulging in rich food and drink, reading Westerns, playing music with friends, and learning about classic cinema where I can (with an awareness of how little I’ve seen in the first place!).
Working on your mental health can be a complicated thing to start on – and I understand that you might have plenty of questions on how I work. Feel free to visit the What is Psychotherapy section if you have general questions about the intervention I use. If you would like to find out more of the particulars and fine-print on how our work together would be, feel free to refer to the How I Work page. Or, if you feel you’re ready to get started on your therapeutic work, head over to Booking an Appointment, fill in the form there with your contact details, and I will reach out to arrange a free consultation as soon as possible.