My journey through the variety of therapeutic approaches has lead me to resist joining any one particular group of like minded therapists. In other areas of my life I can say “This is what I am” but I prefer to leave questions open in my professional journey.
This informative journey has helped me think about the search for definition and answers. I have taken part in workshops and therapeutic settings where people have been encouraged to find “the causes” for their behaviour or their distress. I took part in that period in New Zealand when counsellors pressured people to own up to their past in order to discover answers which would explain their present. I have sat in groups where catharsis has been the focus and where people have struggled to name a cause or reveal an answer. Many times it has been assumed the discovery of an answer or the naming of a cause will provide a cure. Sometimes it does. At other times the cause remains as a life long focus perhaps as destructive as the original distress. I have listened in case conference settings where labels are applied to explain people’s behaviour or disturbance. Once the label has been agreed on there is often a sigh of relief as if that person is now explicable in some way.
These experiences have lead me to ask more questions. Questions such as, “Is the search for an answer or a cause going to reset the person within their complicated universe or is it going to keep them closeted in a partialised state?” “Who is it that needs the answers, therapist or client?” “Once answers have been established what contribution do they make to creativity in people's lives?” Each facet of life can be held up to the light alongside all the others. Once we do that shadows are illuminated which impinge on each other. They move as we move, appearing and disappearing in each moment. To capture them in theory, definition or treatment seems to me to deny the way the universe works. Connection, movement and fascination might be better words to describe successful therapeutic endeavours.
This informative journey has helped me think about the search for definition and answers. I have taken part in workshops and therapeutic settings where people have been encouraged to find “the causes” for their behaviour or their distress. I took part in that period in New Zealand when counsellors pressured people to own up to their past in order to discover answers which would explain their present. I have sat in groups where catharsis has been the focus and where people have struggled to name a cause or reveal an answer. Many times it has been assumed the discovery of an answer or the naming of a cause will provide a cure. Sometimes it does. At other times the cause remains as a life long focus perhaps as destructive as the original distress. I have listened in case conference settings where labels are applied to explain people’s behaviour or disturbance. Once the label has been agreed on there is often a sigh of relief as if that person is now explicable in some way.
These experiences have lead me to ask more questions. Questions such as, “Is the search for an answer or a cause going to reset the person within their complicated universe or is it going to keep them closeted in a partialised state?” “Who is it that needs the answers, therapist or client?” “Once answers have been established what contribution do they make to creativity in people's lives?” Each facet of life can be held up to the light alongside all the others. Once we do that shadows are illuminated which impinge on each other. They move as we move, appearing and disappearing in each moment. To capture them in theory, definition or treatment seems to me to deny the way the universe works. Connection, movement and fascination might be better words to describe successful therapeutic endeavours.
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