What is psychotherapy?

The rabbit hole of this!  Oh!

Every day/month/year more opening up….

In some ways I am more present, more effective, more engaged.

And in other ways the concept of psychotherapy seems more contrived, more artificial, more confusing...

Do trees have jobs?

Trees do things.

But we don’t label one tree as the shade tree and another as the CO2 producer….  

Trees grow.  

Their growth is impacted by what is around them - sun, water, soil, other trees, plants, human and animal interaction….  It starts with the information contained in the seed and the life of the tree is determined by so much more than that…

We are not labels.

We are not concepts.

Labels and concepts are useful.  They are tools.

They gather us together in one place to explore and learn and practice something with others who also feel the draw to this energy.

Yes I am a Registered Psychotherapist as defined by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.  

And in the therapeutic conversations I have I am acting in accordance with the requirements of the College.

And if I identify with this tightly I miss something.

I miss that I am a tree and you are a tree and we are going to see how we grow together.

There isn’t a predetermined way this is going to go - our lives are going to interact and it will impact both of us.

Every year I hold clinical work more broadly.  I hold my clients and readers more broadly. As I am coming to hold myself.

There is terror, and sadness, and joy in expanding beyond the categories.

And expand I will.

Feeling into the opportunities to grow that people are seeking as we engage with this construct called therapy.

It’s like loosening the bolts.

Everything is flowing better.  The stakes are lower. Anxiety must be teaching us something.  And I am sure that what we are here to learn is not contained in the stories we repeat.