Psychotherapist & Jungian analyst Gary Trosclair explores the perils & potentials of the driven personality for compulsives and their loved ones.

Welcome to The Healthy Compulsive Project.

About Gary Trosclair

I originally trained as a musician, earning a doctorate in music and performing professionally throughout the U.S. and Europe in my twenties and thirties. Most serious musicians are compulsive. You have to be to succeed. I was immersed in, and surrounded by, compulsivity.

But I’ve also always been fascinated by psychology, and when I was 35 and playing in an orchestra in Portugal, I decided to take the leap and train to become a Jungian analyst. I returned to New York City where I earned a masters degree in social work from New York University and then completed training as a Jungian analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York.

That was over 25 years ago and since then I’ve been working as a psychotherapist and Jungian analyst in New York City. Home of the Driven. Again, I’m surrounded by compulsivity.

My understanding of people and how to practice psychotherapy draw from a wide variety of psychoanalytic theorists, but especially that of Carl Jung. I serve on the faculties of the C.G. Jung Institute of New York, the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, and the New York Center for Jungian Studies. I am president of the New York Association for Analytical Psychology, the professional society for Jungian analysts in the New York tri-state area.

Why I’m writing this blog

Of the many things I’ve learned in my experience, perhaps the most important was to look for the original and progressive intention that’s buried in the “symptom.” I’ve learned to understand the purpose, or the teleology, of our struggles. This had lead me to my more positive perspective on the compulsive personality, or, as I prefer to call it, the Driven personality.

While one reason this subject interests me is that I work with Driven people every day in my psychotherapy practice, another is that the theme of “driving” consciously has been at the center of much of my own life. While I like to think that I’ve managed to spend most of my time on the healthy side of the line, I’ve had to work hard, ironically, not to work too hard.

As a psychotherapist I’ve watched people struggle with compulsivity; I’ve watched as people who want so much to do the right thing get pulled into the wrong thing, and I’ve watched as people learned how to use their energy in a more fulfilling way. Helping them has been part of my own fulfillment, and I’d like to share it with more people, both those who struggle with their own compulsivity, and those who are affected by compulsives.

It’s time that we took the stigma out of being compulsive and instead helped people to use this energy in a constructive and fulfilling way. That’s part of The Healthy Compulsive Project.

My First Book

I like to think of my book, I’m Working On It In Therapy, How To Get The Most Out of Psychotherapy (2015 SkyHorse Publishing) as representative of what I see as healthy compulsivity. In it I talk about how we can use psychotherapy consciously and efficiently to achieve our goals, without losing the spontaneity, meaning and soul that are so important to psychological healing and growth. PsychCentral had this to say about it: The book is a fascinating look at self-growth, and one that’s useful whether or not you go to therapy. Trosclair elegantly transforms complex psychological concepts into powerful, understandable tools. You can find it at Amazon.

My Book About The Driven and Compulsive Personality

As part of the Healthy Compulsive Project I’ve written a guidebook: The Healthy Compulsive: Healing Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder and Taking the Wheel of the Driven Personality.  This book is a comprehensive approach to using the potentially healthy aspects of the compulsive personality in a constructive way. It includes sections on understanding the origins of the personality type, steps to change, sections on specific areas of challenges, and many examples of people taking the “disorder” out of obsessive-compulsive personality. It also includes a section for partners of those with OCPD.

My Clinical Practice

I see clients in New York city at 6 East 39th Street, and in Westchester County, New York, in Tuckahoe.  My phone number is 914-319-5049.

You can learn more about me at my main website: www.garytrosclair.com.

You can email me at garytros@aol.com.

You can follow me on Twitter @gary_trosclair

Limitations of This Site

The information published on this site has been written and published strictly for informational purposes. It should be used as a supplement to, and not a substitute for, consultation with a health care professional.