I was thinking a little about where I live, where anyone lives. I don't mean our house, street and community, I mean the spirit of us. Where do we take ourselves?
Often by the time we have done a few years of being a grown up we find ourselves in roles which have their own requirements and rules, it can be difficult to find space for the person we are to exist outside of these roles.
I had an experience over the summer holidays when one of my teenage daughters was telling me about a problem she was experiencing and I had some experience to offer as her mother which was valuable but the essence of me, Colette, had a different emotional reaction. In that instance it was appropriate to stay in the role of mother but my own reaction had unsettled something in me. This happens multiple times a day we have a required appropriate responses in the environment or role and there isn't always somewhere to take our inner personal responses.
I think this is sometimes when therapy can provide that space. Therapy does not always have to be a response to crisis or big life events, it can be a space to take yourself, safely and without judgement or agenda. I often have people in my clinic who apologise for taking my time in that session as they are not currently experiencing a crisis or a trauma, I gently offer that a
therapy space can be for anything and wouldn't it be great to share some of the wins, the adventures and the hopes from your own perspective, not in role or considering the needs and responses of others. These are often some of the best sessions.
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