Dominic Westbrook is the Counsellor at Gifted Minds. He has a Bachelor of Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Counselling and is registered with PACFA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia). His role is to work with gifted children, adolescents and adults in resilience-based training to help with any negative aspects of intensity and high ability. Growing up as a gifted student himself, he has a clear understanding of the frustration and boredom that can be a factor in some academic institutions. Dominic works with his clients in person or via zoom to help them create balance between the intellectual, emotional and social spheres using person-centred and cognitive behavioural therapy techniques.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light: An examination of the journey towards death.
Dylan Thomas provokes us with his words “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” and demands that we “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”. But I am more inclined towards “… go gentle into that good night” turning the negative around and embracing the journey through the latter years of life towards a well-crafted death, if that is possible. This presentation is based on both lived and clinical experience and aims to examine our pathways into dying through a Dabrowskian lens. An understanding of Positive Disintegration can help the gifted elder go through phases of grieving as physical and mental faculties are progressively deteriorating.