Do you believe that magic happens every Christmas Eve? Do you trust that there’s an old man who rewards your belief? Well, I’m 48, and I do.

My Father Christmas doesn’t live at the North Pole. He’s from Victorian London and comes to life every Christmas on page, screen and stage around the Western world. Yes, Scrooge, from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, is my Santa.

I’ve wanted to be a psychotherapist since around the time I first saw the Muppet Christmas Carol at the cinema. I was 16, taking my little sister along. We both loved it.

Michael Caine as Scrooge in the Muppet Christmas Carol.Credit:

As my first Ebenezer, Michael Caine’s overnight transformation transfixed me. I still get goosebumps as Christmas morning dawns. There’s still time! It’s not too late! That’s the best Christmas present a pale weedy teen worried about the world could wish for.

I’d learned at school the difference between a tragedy and a comedy – in both the hero realises they’ve messed up, but in the comedy it’s not too late to change. In the tragedy the hero runs out of time. I wanted to believe people can change, that it’s not too late. So I set my sights on psychotherapy as a career.

Do you want to know the secret I’ve learned from 20 years as a therapist? People don’t change. Don’t get me wrong – therapy is the best........

© The Age