Do you know the meaning of Logotherapy?
Is part of the existential analysis, a type of therapy with a strong philosophical character that focuses on the search for vital meaning in the face of existential emptiness, which causes psychological, emotional and physical symptoms.
Viktor Emil Frankl (1905-1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who was born into a Jewish family. In 1944 he, his wife, parents, and brother were sent to concentration camps; when the war ended Frankl was the only one still alive. Frankl developed his psychological theory and therapy from his experiences as a prisoner.
We want you to get into the world of Psychology and know all about it! On this occasion, Ceci Monroy, (Senior Associate, CDMX), shares her passion for this topic. On the other hand, behind this great Senior Associate in MBI Talent Group, there is a psychology graduate, a loving mother, a brave woman, a loyal friend, a transparent human, and more… ❤️
“I am Cecy because I love to leave a mark in the lives of others and I will look for ways to do it.”
What is Logotherapy?
Ceci: It is the third course of psychology. The history of Viktor Frankl, who is the founder of Logotherapy with Freud. Victor was a disciple of Freud and he started psychology or psychoanalytic psychotherapy, that current of conceiving man as this corner, not this one with so many pathologies, with so many and so much need to go to childhood to solve from there what we have here. So he said that it is like a very reductionist vision, it seems to me that I am talking like in the thirties. Having many more alternatives to really find meaning, that is to say, why is he going through certain situations at this moment and why did what might sound painful happen to him?
Why Logotherapy?
The foundation of Logotherapy seems to me, and I say this, that it would be seen from a “Why? Why not, Why is it happening to me, Why am I here, Why did I have to go through it? It is not so that you always have many more alternatives. And the why reduces you only to an answer.
However, also the Logotherapy, this man sees it from psychology or from psychotherapy and gives attention to people who are in a crisis precisely of the existence as part of the existentialist psychology, when someone suddenly is already in apathy, in the I already changed this, I already cut my hair, I already changed boyfriend, I already went on a trip, I already changed job. As in all these crises that generally of course are familiar because we hear them, we have gone through them. And Freud says that this is due to a neurosis that is not foreign, that is to say, like a lack of sense, a void arises that of course we have to go to see what is happening there.
Philosophy of life
And it is where there is the opportunity to acquire awareness, and responsibility for what he is doing. For me, Logotherapy is beyond the fact that I practice it as a therapist, for me it is a philosophy of life.
Precisely because it allows me to have a conscience and responsibility from the system, it means I have possibilities, I can choose and because I have the freedom to do it, when I check this and I transfer it to a work field, the organization really speaking, there are several factors that must be combined so that I put myself in movement so that I am happy and so that my sense of life is not only focused on it. I am a consultant who is in charge of filling positions for our clients at a very high executive level. If I had that vision every day to work with, I would be drowning and surely I would have thrown in the towel more than a year ago because I would only be covering and not thinking about the rest.
How did you arrive at MBI Talent Group?
Ceci: I was involved in the organizational field for 20 years working in Nacional Financiera Banamex. After that, I came to the pharmaceutical industry, which I fell in love with and I think that’s where my contact with Logotherapy also began, without me knowing that it was called Logotherapy, because I have seen it once in college, but I had not focused in this way. When I found that working in the pharmaceutical industry I was doing something more than just being in human resources, my work took another sense and there I was for the next 18 years.
Sometimes there are few corners left to preserve health and free of contamination and safety. I found Querétaro. So I moved to Queretaro. I left my job because at the beginning I was going back and forth to Mexico City, so I had to make decisions and the truth is my former boss told me it’s time to decide either your job or your family. And there was no easier decision, even though I imagined the opposite, but I think when you know completely where the most important thing is, it is easier.
So I came here without a job. I started working as a freelance in consulting, human resources, and diagnostics in different companies. And after a few months, I started working with someone who later connected me with MBI Talent Group.
Just as there are decisions that lead us to paths that we could not even imagine, but this is the path I took and here I am.
How did your love for Logotherapy come about?
Ceci: Suddenly I began to make sense because I have always been very restless in the school field. I checked what else I could do with my time because I am not satisfied. Just now I am studying, I am still in a cycle less which is Human Development with Logotherapy and I am about to undertake another diploma in psychotherapy efficiently with a methodology that complements this, this, and listening to the first classes. Well, before that I found a list to a disciple of Viktor Frankl who lives here, Queretaro. She studied with him, was a student and is a licensed therapist. So, for me to have shared with her in the academic field was magical and wonderful. It has been the turning point and it has been the place where I can be much more spontaneous and much freer to decide what I carry on my shoulders.
Something I really appreciate is the vision that Sergio Larios has: “You can’t do anything that doesn’t make you happy” and it is very true. Or you should do whatever makes you happy and special. So, I embrace more of this territory of Logotherapy, not because it limits me, but because it allows me to be freer and much more congruent, and that undoubtedly makes me happy. Although I am falling down from work, if someone needs help when I can, I say yes, but when I can’t and it is not my time, I also know how to say no.
What do you like most about being inside MBI Talent Group?
Ceci: Freedom. I have always said it, I have always said it with every person who can talk to me. No, you are not judged for being free, which is something that socially I think weighed heavily on me before.
There is professional respect, but it is also a respect that is transferred to a quality of life that is transferred to the family gear where on weekends no one calls me and I appreciate it, where despite not having a schedule, there is a schedule, but where despite not having a schedule it does not bother me if my manager is looking for me at 21:00 at night on a Friday, because I know that for her it is the only time she can connect with me. And I respect and value that.
It allows me to empathize with others when they can empathize with me. I love how we have formed or can form work cells that fall apart and after months we put ourselves back together with a few other members and do wonderful things.
I love today because even though we have a high sense of urgency for me, to be resolute, it doesn’t create anxiety. So what I could tell you is that of freedom, it doesn’t even make me happy to have a fixed salary. It makes me happy to go out, to go after a commission because I had never worked like that before. And this knowing literally that I don’t belong to anybody, it makes me happy.
How is Ceci outside of work?
Ceci: I am a very transparent person. The truth is that sometimes my body language speaks faster than my verbal language. So, if something pleases me, you will notice it because my look or my smile interrupts everything. Now with a glance cover, you will know it. If something doesn’t please me, if something saddens me that something moves me.
Sometimes I am very, very, very, very sensitive, not emotional. I seem to be more sensitive when I see a child alone in the street and then I start to turn around. I seem to be more alert to that kind of situation of a dog and I see if I suddenly bring something in the car that can satisfy his hunger, his thirst. I’m a very close mom, I’m also a friend of a few friends but I’m a good listener. I stay away from people who do not listen to me because sometimes I also need to be listened to.
It’s not that I always want to keep quiet, sometimes I also need to talk, and if I can’t find someone else. The truth is that I don’t invest much time anymore and I am a person who chooses his battles. It’s not him, I don’t wear myself out, I don’t burn my eyelashes, and I’m no longer interested in being in the showcase. The first spotlights I already did for many years for me, maybe for someone else.
Tips for starts:
She shared with us some tips for people who want to start with Logotherapy:
“Reading is a wonderful passport to really and truly identify if what you want resonates with you.”
Ceci: Let’s say the possibility that you have to feel this peace or to alleviate that restlessness. And it’s not that I’m from the optimistic club. I think the positive part is even the pain and you have to find the meaning in it to be able to transcend it and to be able to really do something with what you’re experiencing. So my advice would be to approach the reading and take note of this resource and then set out on the path that will satisfy that restlessness.
From the person who joined MBI until now, have you noticed any changes?
Ceci: I think I feel much more emotionally mature, I feel more grateful to the people around me. I have in my head names of people today who have been my mentors without them knowing it, and it has been a real richness to observe how they conduct themselves. It’s the communication and how they endured that even I tell them it’s not what you’re telling me. It doesn’t make me happy or this thing you’re doing doesn’t resonate with me. So I can’t carry that project anymore. And weave conversations on another level.
Logotherapy and personal life
When asked if she would give a tip to a younger Ceci, she told us that she could give her several, but she wouldn’t because every mistake, every fall forged the woman she is now. About how she applies Logotherapy on a personal level, she told us:
Ceci: It is not about going through life analyzing people or personalities. It’s understanding that each person is different and we will not or will not respond differently to the same stimulus. I apply it as a philosophy of life. With this possibility of conceiving the other as a source of learning, I apply it daily knowing. I am not the point of reference to give advice, but perhaps to generate awareness from my place and knowing with great respect that the other is not obliged to follow me.
I apply it daily when I have decided not to go for a coffee when I am not emotionally ready to listen to someone. In other words, I apply it daily when I need to be heard and I walk away from someone who only wants to talk about himself. I just say this door is not the one I can open at this moment, and I apply it daily with my children because there is no better reference.
Technique to connect
To get closer to our emotions, Ceci, as a psychologist, shares a technique to connect:
- Logodiary: Fill the notebook with emotions, significant people in life, and the meaning the day has. It serves as a granary of meaning, because on difficult days, on those days where you need to draw strength, strength, resilience, no, that is only acquired with the passage of time. There is what is really important for you, not what you are going through to limit you but to remind you.
“And that is what the past is for, to remind you that you are much more than that instant, that moment, that circumstance and that the best news is that everything passes, everything passes, but does not remain static.”
Logotherapy and pandemic
The pandemic that affected the whole world a couple of years ago changed many aspects of people, in this sense, she shared with us her perceptions from the Logotherapy perspective:
Ceci: There were many relationships, as we know, that transformed and others that separated. Because it was the one moment when the clock somehow stopped, where the rush was put aside. To really have this work of self-observation and really say this is what every day drives me forward? Or is it just that I am accompanying my loneliness? Or is it just that I’m just here to socially fulfill a precept and be accepted out there, but it doesn’t make me happy… There were those who narrowed their gender, who narrowed their sexuality or who expressed their spiritual need. And I think it was a conscious shock. Irrefutable. I really don’t think there’s ever been an individual who hasn’t made a change. And there’s a phrase from Derek’s therapy that’s different, but it says “The slightest significant change in the system will produce just that.”
A psychologist’s point of view
From the point of view of a psychologist and like personal advice, she shares a piece of recommendation for people who have not found their purpose in life…
“I think we should think about what you have today because many people tell me that. I don’t know what I want and what if you know. And what if you know, because generally, we are so busy in the I don’t know and I don’t have, that then you don’t realize what is there and what you do know? And starting from there, then I think there is an immediate possibility of recognizing that you are not disarmed. That what happens is that sometimes you are distracted and that maybe that need, which can be emotional, is rather a need for self-fulfillment.”
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Did you like to learn more about Ceci Monroy. Stay tuned because soon we will continue to discover more new things about our colleagues.
