 Where else does a person pay for concern, emotional support, and sensitive insight leading to stability and growth, all the while revealing personal, often shaming aspects of self, and—on top of that—develop a mutual affection and respect with the therapist?
Peculiar, indeed.
Some people think this is reason enough to discredit therapy. Legitimately, patients point out the irony of therapy’s promise to heal within an arrangement framed by the impersonal realities of time and money.
I acknowledge these dichotomies, and try not to shy away from them. To be a therapist, I believe, means to grapple with hard truths. And, one of those truths includes recognizing the connection between the peculiarities of the therapy situation and those of human life itself.
To be a therapist today I believe, also means recognizing that perhaps therapy embodies the best of what human life has to offer. In a culture of alienation, therapy assumes the daunting and awesome responsibility of healing another human being. |