Are you ready for a journey?

“I thought I found an answer when I was older, meditation, yoga, channeling. A way of making use of a talent, a gift. And now it's back worse than ever. No, not worse than ever, but it feels like that because I've been OK so long. It's like unfinished business has come back to haunt me.”  “The gate that opens and closes can't close.”“Two years ago I began medication and it helped, not completely, but relief. Then the sleeplessness started and my doctor suggested I speak with you.”  “Are you ready for a therapy journey?”               Michael Eigen,  Under the Totem: In Search of a Path.So writes Eigen of his beginning work with a patient he calls Rose.Are you ready for a therapy journey? I want to remember this question, hold it in mind for the next time I begin with someone new. Describing therapy as a journey isn ’t unique to Eigen, but I don’t think we say it out loud all that often and not at the beginning.People come to therapy looking for answers, for solutions to problems in their lives. In an era of “evidence based” medicine, they expect there to be some formula, some evidence based set of things they can do to make themselves feel better. They want assignments, suggestions, techniques — mindfulness, journal writing, drawing all of which are useful tools but do not carry magic. It is hard not to respond to this desire for a solution, a fix. Hard not to make suggestions, not to offer something to soothe the longing expressed for...
Source: Jung At Heart - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs