Friday, July 31, 2009

The Heart of Psychotherapy

I came across a quote this morning from an old book entitled, "The Heart of Psychotherapy" by George Weinberg. The quote refers to a message that Weinberg encourages therapists to continually convey to their clients. The message is:

"You are the central figure. Your journey, which began even before you had power to reflect on it, is a magnificent one. It doesn't matter where you came from. In the chaos you made millions of decisions, learning, interpreting life as you saw it, furthering as best you could that single conscious being, which is you. You were perhaps sidetracked and alone, or defeated yourself. Or you labored pointlessly in the wrong relationship, seemed almost buried alive. But your aspirations, like your heart, kept beating, somewhere. Every stage of the journey was precious, and I admire that."

Each therapist offers a different message to his or her clients. I can only hope that regardless of the particulars of the message, it is one that expresses the strengths, beauty, and sacredness of each individual with whom we have the honor of working with.

Friday, July 10, 2009

This most amazing ordinary day

On the most ordinary and uneventful days I like to remind myself of e.e. cummings celebration and affirmation of the beauty and sacred which exists within the seemingly normal and ordinary. He wrote,

"i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes"

There is so much that is natural and infinite and that says 'yes' contained in each and every day and I often find deep pleasure in creating long lists at the end of my day of all that I encountered that could be considered unremarkable on the one hand and miraculous and beautiful and holy on the other.