((PKG)) CONNECT WITH -- PAULA ELLMAN
((TRT: 03:07))
((Banner: Connect With – Paula Ellman))
((Reporter/Camera: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Locator: Rockville, Maryland))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Paula Ellman, Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst))
I’m Paula Ellman. I am a mother of three children, a new
grandmother and I am a clinical psychologist and a
psychoanalyst. I do depth, long-term work with people who are
looking to make significant changes in their lives due to ongoing
unhappiness.
So, you know, one of the interesting things in my life has been,
you know, oftentimes when you get to be my age, things begin to
slow down in people’s lives. They’re facing retirements, their
retirements and decisions about how to spend their leisure time.
For me, it’s been quite the opposite. You know, it’s a time of my
life where I have, I’m not only practicing, but involved with a lot of
committee work and study and presenting work that’s been very
exciting and enlivening for me.
In the midst of my work and my professional work and my family,
one of the unexpected things that arose a few years ago and I
think these things can come out of the blue as this did, was that I
was suddenly, after a full day of work, I had not been feeling well.
I had gone in to get a throat culture, some blood work, went in to
get my blood work results and was informed by my internist that I
had leukemia.
And that began six months of needing to, kind of, leave the world
behind. But it was successful, and I often had been thinking
about during the process what would that mean to have faced a
life-threatening illness where I could have died and how I would
want to change my life. You know, I had thought that I would
decide to work less. I am working one day less. I do take off
Fridays. But I feel like I’ve brought kind of a renewed vigor back
to my work and to affiliating with colleagues and, you know, I think
I have not pulled back from work. I think I get so much pleasure
from both my professional affiliations and from my practice with
my patients.
I think with facing a life-threatening illness I think, it has entered
me in a way of realizing the impermanence of time. That our time
here is limited and that we never know when it might be stolen
and that there’s a lot of pleasure in life for us, while we’re here.
((NATS))
