Sean the Shrink: So, how goes your research study?
Sinead the Shrink: It’s been a long five years, but we’re pretty close to submitting it for peer review. We hope to present our findings to the annual convention in November and have it published in the journal in January.
Sean: How many patient profiles did you end up completing?
Sinead: With help from our colleagues in Canada and the UK, we have about five thousand.
Sean: So you proved your hypothesis after all?
Sinead: Without a doubt. The forward and back buttons that control a car’s sound system from the steering wheel are a reliable predictor of success or failure in a patient’s therapy experience.
Sean: Well, Sinead, as you know I was somewhat skeptical when you first told me about your ideas. But sure enough, I recently asked my kids to survey their fellow classmates in Advanced Placement about which button they pushed more often. Seventy-five percent are go-forwarders.
Sinead: That just about matches our results, Sean. The Forwards are future oriented, proactive, risk takers, change agents, open to new experiences, and explorers. The Backs live in the past, are passive, are arrested developmentally, and just can’t see beyond their present reality.
Sean: Maybe you ought to recommend that automakers remove the back button from their new models altogether. You know what we say, first the action and change in behavior, then the change in attitude.
Sinead: Yep, the mind will always follow the body.
