I am a therapist. Maybe I’m your therapist. Who am I and what do I do? I am the person inviting you into a space where you can sit and talk freely about any struggle and challenge you are facing. I will sit with you in grief. I will sit with you in your pain. I will hold space for you to unload whatever feelings you’ve been carrying with you all week. I will watch you cry. I will hand you a tissue. I will be in awe of you as I watch you be your most vulnerable self. I like you. If I didn’t, this never would have worked. I like you because I know you. Like really know you. I don’t know everything about you, only the version that you want me to know. But that version is genuine and real. How could someone not like you when you show this side of yourself? You are so brave.
And here I sit, across from you every week. Sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months, sometimes years. I am in such a unique position because I will not always know you. At some point, our work will be complete. But just know that however we come to leave one another; because you were scared and left, or because our time together as therapist and client came to a natural ending, I will always wonder about you. Not in a creepy way, but in a “wow, I really wonder where life took them” kinda way. I hope they figured out how great they are.
And here I’ll sit. You won’t know much about me. You won’t know who I was in my family of origin. You won’t know my deepest fears, worries or daily stressors. I won’t cry when you’re crying. At least most of the time I won’t. There’s that 5% of the time that I will because I’m human. But 95% of the time, you can feel what you need to feel and focus only on that. I will give you a space to heal if you allow yourself that gift. I’ll try not to offer my opinion or advice. But sometimes I accidentally may. I will show up for you in the same way I show up for anyone I care about.
As I end, I reflect on Randy Pausch and The Last Lecture because I just had a moment where I now see that if I substitute the words therapist and client, I can also apply the words mother and children. I wrote this for my clients, but it’s also for my children. If you’re a parent, read this again from that perspective. This is what our children need. This is what my clients need. I am a therapist. I am also a mother.