Psychotherapy Love

I have just finished another week's worth of therapy. For two and a half days, hour after hour, I listened intently to people in need of accompaniment. I do this week after week. I am now on my eight year of doing this. 

So many people have wondered, "Don't you get affected by what they tell you?" "Do you absorb the energy during the session?" "Don't you get burned out and tired?" "How can you listen to so many people's problems?@!?"

It may be inconceivable for some. But for me and for my fellow therapists in the field, this is the work we love. So although we experience all kinds of feelings, and at times even physical tiredness, this is also where we are most alive and filled with joy...

Personally, I can not think of any other type of work now that I would rather be doing on a longer term basis. Of course I can do other types of work. But when you think of what gives joy, fulfilment... this is it. I realise that perhaps this is gift. This is grace. This is His gift of grace to me. I can recall that as early as college, I already found the area of counselling very interesting. I listened with every word to the subject we had on it. After college, and through my working years in the corporate world, this love was just within, and would come out once in a while when colleagues and co-employees would stir up my interest with their sharings about their journey through life's ups and downs. By the time I was about to leave my job for 25 years, this love became so prominent there was no other direction except to pursue it now more fully via further studies and eventual shift in nature of work.

That seemed like quite some time ago. I remember very clearly a recollection master saying that the years would go by so fast, when I brought up the idea of making a shift. It didn't register much then, but now I see how the years have indeed gone by. He made that remark in 2007. And we are now in 2020! 

Therapy work. The world of entering into one's humanity. Into the world of feelings, of thoughts, of actions and reactions. Of childhood history. Of growing years. Of struggles and triumphs in one's life, of the whole continuum from self-doubt to self-love. Of the continuum from fear to love. From woundedness to wholeness. From unconcsciousness to consciousness. From helplessness to empowerment. From empty to full. What a journey it has been so far, and continues to be.   

My heart is filled with gratitude to Him for giving and leading me to this gift. Yes it is a gift. A precious one. One which I can only hold dearly and try to live out as fully as possible so as to honour the Giver. 

It would be very difficult for me at this point to count exactly how many individuals I have listened to since 2012. Nor can I predict how many more I shall have the privilege to journey with in the future. I do not even know if my journey through life will be long or short. I only have the present moment and what is with me here and now. Some have come and gone, some have been with me for years and continue to be with me. Some are just starting on their therapy journey with me. Some may be ending in the near future. And some will be with me for a long time to come. I take these all in stride. Just valuing each and every moment of the now. Conscious to just be fully present in each moment of each session that I am in, at the moment. 

I also think about all who have been so kind to accompany me on my own journey in the past, and those who continue to do so in the present, the way I accompany others now. It is largely through them that I experienced what it means to receive deep quality, genuine and spirit-led care. I am not one to forget kindness that has been extended to me. As I accompany others, it is as if they too are with me, accompanying with me the other. There is a one-ness from the past that lives on in the present, just as there is a one-ness now that I know will live on in the future. How beautiful, isn't it?

The heart of this gift of psychotherapy is the privilege to be one with Him as His healing grace flows through me and on to the person with me. Not I but you, oh Lord. Not my will, but yours. Not my grace, but yours. And yet I am one with Him. His work is my work. My work is His. His love is my love. My love is His. When I do therapy, we are one. I feel it and I know it. It is where I feel most alive. Not only my life, but yours Lord. This is where I truly love. Not only my love Lord, but OURS. 

One day, I will no longer be able to do this work. I would be too old (if I ever get to live to old age). Perhaps at that time, it would be His other gifts to me that would be more prominent and alive. But because today's therapy work is authentically life and love, in essence, it will never die. Whatever healing grace that is present today, will go on living. Like all energy, His healing grace will just be transformed into one or another form, and will live forever. 

Past, present and future are one. All are one 🙏 💕