Reflections
From Nomadic Reflections of an Existential-Humanistic Psychotherapist
in Unearthing the Moment, Edited by Myrtle Heery and published by Tonglen Press, 2014.
To honor the work the client is doing in therapy also means honoring the work that brought us both to this point
Joining practice and identity pulls me more and more into presence. Being present to existential questions is to wear a seamless garment, where past and future are knitted into the present. To spend too much time in the past is to wear only half the garment. To focus only the future is also to be half dressed. The present is where we are fully dressed--fully in the moment where we fully endorse the experiences of the other person.
I opened my original essay with the words from Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Where Go The Boats? I recalled the childhood poem as I was walking along the canal that stretches across Phoenix, channeling water through the desert-bound city. The boats are metaphors for life and for the work we do as psychotherapists. I see in the boats an image of purposeful coming together in therapy. While they retain the original material, be it paper, wood or fabric, these boats have undergone a metamorphosis just as Mary Barnes underwent a metamorphosis from psychiatric patient to productive artist. That to me is the transpersonal work of therapy. The client has become more than the elements that brought him or her to therapy. Whatever the client calls it--skills or tools, insight or presence--that quality is now integral to his or identity.
in Unearthing the Moment, Edited by Myrtle Heery and published by Tonglen Press, 2014.
To honor the work the client is doing in therapy also means honoring the work that brought us both to this point
Joining practice and identity pulls me more and more into presence. Being present to existential questions is to wear a seamless garment, where past and future are knitted into the present. To spend too much time in the past is to wear only half the garment. To focus only the future is also to be half dressed. The present is where we are fully dressed--fully in the moment where we fully endorse the experiences of the other person.
I opened my original essay with the words from Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Where Go The Boats? I recalled the childhood poem as I was walking along the canal that stretches across Phoenix, channeling water through the desert-bound city. The boats are metaphors for life and for the work we do as psychotherapists. I see in the boats an image of purposeful coming together in therapy. While they retain the original material, be it paper, wood or fabric, these boats have undergone a metamorphosis just as Mary Barnes underwent a metamorphosis from psychiatric patient to productive artist. That to me is the transpersonal work of therapy. The client has become more than the elements that brought him or her to therapy. Whatever the client calls it--skills or tools, insight or presence--that quality is now integral to his or identity.