I don’t often tend to write private blogposts (it’s a therapist thing) but this week was the 5th anniversary of the founding of Wherapy as a company, so I thought I’d write one celebrating the journey thus far.
(Me enjoying some cake – Yum!)
Those of you who have followed me for longer than five years will know that Wherapy started in 2018 as Cross Culture Therapy. I initially chose the name to reflect my intentions of treating Adult Third Culture Kids and others who had been affected by a multi-cultural upbringing but I changed it because I thought it was a mouthful and that Wherapy sounded cooler.
In truth I also wanted to open up my patient base to include non-tcks but I still focus on Third Culture Kids today and have treated patients in over 70 countries to date.
(View from the balcony in Bologna – where Wherapy began!)
I set up my first website whilst on a prolonged holiday in Bologna, Italy and actually had my first patient whilst there, which I was amazed at!
As you may have guessed, I started my practice because I myself am an Adult Third Culture Kid (more about my upbringing here) and I wanted to help others that were going through the same experience that I had, namely the feeling of belonging to many places and no place simultaneously.
(My house and Wherapy HQ.)
When I moved back to my birth country of Sweden in 2016 I began the long and arduous process of becoming a therapist. I went back to university to take a degree in social-work in order to become a counsellor, then I got my license after two years of working at a children’s psychiatric clinic whilst simultaneously traveling down to Malmö every now and then to take classes in order to become a therapist.
At the beginning it was lonely (I had moved into an old house and was living by myself) but after a while I was joined by my dog Robinson (he’s been lying by my feet during a few of my online sessions), then my girlfriend Linn and her son Melvin and a little over a year ago, my daughter Sigrid joined us as well.
(Sigrid & Robinson going on a road-trip the other day.)
At the time of writing this post, I am still working at the children’s psychiatric clinic but in the next five years I intend to grow Wherapy to become my full-time job and by then I will also have broadened my knowledge-base as a therapist by taking an additional degree in psychotherapy at the nearby university.
After first doing therapy as a side-hustle with Cross Culture Therapy, I decide to go through the proper process of setting up my company Wherapy which was finalized on 1st June 2020.
(My home office.)
I love the idea of being self-sufficient and the sense of independence that comes with it. I also like how it feels to grow a business and don’t mind the process taking time, in fact, I enjoy it even more because it takes time.
I’m taking incremental steps – who knows maybe one day I’ll have an office in town with a sign on the door with my name on it, instead of the home office, even though I love it a lot – I hope you’ll join me on the way!
Philip Andersson
Psychotherapist & Founder
Wherapy
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