Dr. Travis Heath on Narrative Therapy

Dr. Travis Heath joins us on this week’s episode of the podcast. Dr. Travis Heath is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver which is also where he attended. He is a licensed psychologist working in private practice in Denver, Colorado, and is the Co-Founder of Rocky Mountain Narrative Therapy Center. He will talk about narrative therapy which focuses on shifting from multi-cultural approach counseling to one of cultural democracy. He really believes in the power of writing and how writing can help people shift their narrative and story, as well as elicit emotions. He is currently in the process of writing a book on narrative therapy. Travis is a psychologist, teacher, writer, and he wears all these different hats which make up a lot of his identity. He is also passionate about sports, but this conversation is mainly about humans and how he feels about the world of psychology. He has run workshops to share his work in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. He is on sabbatical right now, so he’ll talk about that experience, and he is scheduled to teach in Auckland, New Zealand in November, Mumbai, India in January and Ystad, Sweden in 2020.

In this episode, they discuss what life was like for him as a child (5:40), if he does anything to just get lost and go wander (10:15), his family dynamics (11:30), the values his parents passed down to him (14:00), what it was like being an only child (15:35), what it was like when his father passed away (18:40), his psychology background (20:20), why people get scared about envisioning their future 5-10 years out (28:20), what he envisions for his life at 50 years old (30:40), what his book is about (34:40), his thoughts on emotion with performance and psychology (41:30), what it’s like wearing a lot of different hats (46:30), how he transitions from each of his different areas (51:00), the draw to stay in academia vs. going all in on entrepreneurship (54:40), and the meaning behind his tattoos (57:45)

Thank you to Travis for coming on the podcast. We encourage you to check out Travis on twitter @DrTravisHeath, and you can also email him at HeathT@msudenver.edu.

Lastly, if you liked this episode and/or any others, please support us at Patreon or follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian