Terence Watts on the psyche, retrospective embarrassment and what makes a true home
The man behind BrainWorking Recursive Therapy talks about his eclectic background, his body of work, optimising happiness, and what he cherishes.
Terence Watts
Newsflash, March 2022:
Crownhouse Publishing has just released Terence’s self-help book, BWRT®: Reboot Your Life With BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, essentially a consumer version of the BWRT process.
More information at https://www.bwrt.org/pages/self-help
Questions put to Terence:
1. What piqued your interest when you were a child?
Loads of things! Music, art, science, making things (including a guitar that collapsed when I put the strings on it!), pets, reading, storytelling. I was considered ‘odd’ and had a very uncomfortable school life as a result, so I spent a lot of time exploring all sorts of things on my own and got ‘into’ electronics when I was thirteen.
2. On www.terencewatts.com you describe yourself as coming from an eclectic background: “My previous efforts included: TV engineer, electronics design, tailor, carpet-layer, computer programmer, furniture shop assistant, factory hand, salesman (fire extinguishers and alarms) and part time rock ‘n’ roller (lead guitar) … some of those ‘callings’ overlapping with my life as a professional ballroom and Latin-American dancer, running my own school for some thirty years.”
How have some of these “callings” contributed to the development of BWRT®?
TV Engineer, tailor, carpet layer, and computer programmer all required structure and method albeit in different ways, and method is behind the structure of BWRT®, of course. In electronics design, there’s often a need to think ‘outside the box’ and you have to get everything right. Teaching dancing for thirty years taught me a lot about the way people think about all sorts of things. And sales… well, the person who cannot sell their ideas is not going to get very far!
Terence and his wife, Julie.
3. Please tell us about your partnership with clinical psychologist Rafiq Lockhat from Cape Town, South Africa.
I knew Rafiq had bought some of my hypnotherapy books, but I knew nothing about him when he signed up for the first BWRT® training. After it was complete, he asked if we could have a chat via Skype, during which he said he had every respect for my work but that this time he thought I might have lost my marbles! I had no idea that Rafiq was an MA in psychology so I explained the BWRT® process again, very slowly and carefully... There was a sudden and wonderful moment of understanding when he said that if I was right, this was going to turn the world of psychology upside down. When I discovered who Rafiq was, I suffered retrospective embarrassment about my ‘slow and careful’ explanation of the process! From the moment we met, though, we were very comfortable in each other’s company, as if we’d known each other for years, and that feeling remains to this day.
Rafiq and Terence
Listen to clinical psychologist Rafiq Lockhat’s introduction to what BWRT® is and what it can do.
4. If you look at BWRT® and the way it touches lives worldwide, what are your feelings and thoughts?
I am in awe – over and again – of what practitioners do with it. Although I am by nature a creative person, I don’t view myself as the ‘creator’ or ‘inventor’ of BWRT® because it has always felt as if I simply discovered it. It’s as if it’s a natural process that was just waiting for somebody with a particular type of mindset to come along and recognise it, then develop it.
5. Which role has your wife, Julie, played in the success that BWRT® has become?
It took a little while for her to recognise the potential of BWRT® and I do believe she saw that before I did. She has been tireless in the promotion of it, in support of me when my belief in my abilities has sagged, and in ensuring that as many people as possible know about BWRT® and its powers and who developed it!
6. Which of your books, and which of the different processes you have developed, are particularly close to your heart?
It’s difficult to decide between BWRT® and Warriors, Settlers & Nomads, my first published book. They are at opposite ends of the main work of my career, and really, ‘WSN’ was the beginning of my quest to get into the ‘works’ of the psyche. I probably would not have discovered BWRT® if I’d not continued to develop ‘WSN’ and be continually irritated at the fact that I knew it didn’t quite ‘hit the target’. The day I discovered how well the BWRT® process worked, I knew I’d found what I’d been searching for all along. And I did have a flash of pride the day I launched The Terence Watts BWRT Institute!
7. What, in your opinion, is required for people in general - and you in particular - to be happy?
That’s a difficult question to answer because it’s so subjective. The biggest problem for many is that they expect to be happy all the time and this is just not possible without finding ‘new stuff’ and new stimuli all the time. ‘Happy’ is a response, in my opinion, rather than a set state, and it doesn’t take long for the happy inducing stimuli to become ‘normal’ and then the happy response fades. But one of the best ways to maintain something like it is to have a goal that you’re actively working towards, the fulfilment of which is within reach even if some way off. Once the goal is achieved, you must set another before the exultation fades! That’s what works for me…
Terence with Bertie Wooster
8. Which elements are essential to maintaining good health?
Always looking for what is rather than what is not. And searching for what you want, not what you fear. Those two concepts keep the psyche healthy and that, in my opinion, goes a long way to maintaining good health.
Terence in the greenhouse
9. Please tell us your views on a fulfilling love relationship.
Well, what works for me and Julie is that we don’t have any ‘boundaries’, no ‘lines that must not be crossed’. This is coupled with a recognition that things shouted in an argument are definitely meant – but only in the argument! So, we sometimes yell ‘stuff’ at each other we would prefer others didn’t hear, but just a few minutes later might be discussing something else with no remnants of animosity. It takes practice but it works. We’ve been together for thirty-five years now. Still yelling at each other sometimes!
10. What turns a house into a home?
Julie would probably say “Dogs and cushions. And dogs”! For me, it’s Julie. Oh, and the dogs. Not so fussed about the cushions.
‘The dogs’ refer to Bertie Wooster and Pansy Blossom (above) as well as Monty, Ollie, Ziggy and Saffy.
About Terence Watts
Terence Watts is a writer, innovator and trainer from Essex in the United Kingdom, CEO at The Terence Watts BWRT Institute, The Essex Institute of Complementary Health, Member of the City & Guilds Institute, Freeman of the City of London and Fellow with the Royal Society of Medicine.
He has immersed himself in the world of therapy since 1989 and is the author of 24 books and training manuals and the creator of more than 20 advanced training courses for professional therapists: read this short summary.
Websites: http://www.bwrt.org/
https://www.bwrt-professionals.com/
Thumbnail image: Unsplash
Personal photographs: supplied