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.