I’ve been in a 3-day Comparative Psychotherapies training since Friday and after our last practice session this afternoon, I was feeling a bit shaken. Something had come up during one of the sessions where I was in the role the client that I wasn’t expecting at all. I’m smiling now as I think about it because isn’t that how it often is? That stuff comes up in therapy that we might not have been conscious of? It can really catch us off guard. We don’t have to label it as good or bad, even if it feels super uncomfortable.
Can we allow ourselves to be open? To resist the urge to judge? Can we just notice? Maybe even find a way to be with the feeling in a way that doesn’t overwhelm us? For me, the heaviness needed to be held and it felt like more than I could take on in the moment, so I picked up a pice of Play-Doh (which is often my go-to) to start processing some of what was coming up. I didn’t have a plan. I just had some a big feeling that shaped its way into a tiny flower.
I placed the flower onto a white piece of paper and then found myself wanting to reach for something else. It was spontaneous and felt pretty random, but I found comfort in choosing object after object and then placing each one on the paper. This surprised me. I hadn’t really explored why that might be, but in retrospect, I’m curious if it has to do with agency? If having the ability to make a choice over and over again returned to me a sense of safety that felt like it had been overshadowed during that practice therapy session. There’s so much we can learn about ourselves in our moments of discomfort, especially if we give ourselves the chance to be present with it. It’s not easy but wh. 💛