On Being a therapist

 Therapy

A client comes to you with some problems.

You make a warm and welcoming space for them to allow them to be with their problems.

In doing this together you may explore their problems which can make new sense of them

In engaging with their problems in a different way, they will move.

 

As you are doing this, if it feels right you may offer some ideas, of other people who have had such problems. This might be helpful, for this client as they can take something, or it might not be as this is their problem and no one else has had it

You might at times offer something that has been helpful  to other clients with a similar problem.

This might be helpful, for this client as they can take something, or it might not be as this is their problem and no one else has had it.

 

So the essence then is to be with the client to allow them to explore their living, so they have more awareness of it and so allow them to take choices that best suit them.  Within this there can also be the offering of ideas and techniques to help this process.

Some clients at some times, offer passivity to the therapist where they want to be fixed by the other. They may lay down with their feet in the air like a cat wanting a pat to let the therapist do therapy to them to make them feel better. Other clients as some times may sit very still and demand that the therapist do therapy to them to make them feel better.

In both instances it I guess to be useful to notice this, and to explore and offer therapy as above, so the topic changes from the problem brought, to the desires in bringing problems