One question I receive from clients – maybe above all other questions is this: “So how does this whole therapy thing work?”
There’s no one single “right” way to answer this question, “How does therapy work?” Each therapist will have their own answer to it. But, personally as a relational, humanistic therapist, I like to think that therapy is a journey that both client and therapist make together in a quest to help you experience greater wholeness and aliveness. I believe that by entering therapy, you as a client inherently become an emotional pioneer and a soul adventurer of sorts. And I, as the therapist, receive the privilege of accompanying you along the way as a guide and companion.
As we embark on the journey together from the very first consult call to the intake session and beyond - we begin a process of deep, curious exploration together, exploring the terrain and topography of your life, of your unique challenges, your dreams, wishes, life narratives, and more.
Like with any journey, we may set off thinking we know where we want to go.
While that may very well be the destination you end up at along the way, we may also encounter unexpected matters which, when faced and explored in the spirit of curiosity, can sometimes be the greatest gifts of the journey. Together, in the safe and sacred container of the therapy room, we hold a mindset of constant curiosity for all we encounter together – the expected and unexpected - and a willingness to return to this exploration week after week to deepen and enrich our work together.
It’s important to note that, on this journey, I am not the expert of you. As a client, you are the expert of you; as the therapist, I’m the expert in helping you get more in touch with you and, yes, in helping you develop the awareness and tools you may need along the way. But make no mistake no one, not I or anyone else is as much of an expert on you as you are.
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The therapeutic part of therapy happens in the relationship between client and therapist.
I believe this is so because our patterns, beliefs, and conditioning are put down early in relationship and it is only through relationship that these patterns and wounds can be illuminated and then (within the context of a reparative relationship) be healed and transformed, a process which resultingly leads to an increased sense of aliveness and wholeness.
The journey of therapy is absolutely about gaining new awareness and aha’s about your life. It’s also about cultivating tools, skills, and new behaviors that you can employ in the therapy room and beyond. But most importantly, I believe, therapy is the chance to develop a profoundly special and unique type of relationship that can help you experience yourself and your life in a different and deeply transformative way, the effects of which may last for the rest of your life.
Here’s to healing relational trauma and creating thriving lives on solid foundations.
Warmly,
Annie
