" Are you a therapist who would like to expand your repertoire? Do you work in an environment where therapeutic work is needed? That doesn't mean you have to be a psychologist or psychiatrist.
You could, for example, be a medical doctor, a nurse, a social worker, a
homeopath, music, dance or art therapist. Priests, special teachers and similar
professionals who in their work situation are in contact with adults or children
who have difficulties of one kind or another, would benefit from a richer
emotional experience and insight combined with a technique that enables you to
handle people or to help others obtain a better life situation. Do you think that you have to be a psychologist or a psychiatrist to
become a therapist? Not so; you are mistaken. In my experience, people
with other professional backgrounds may become excellent therapists. It depends
on personal maturity, interest and commitment to both their own therapy as well
as their education.
I
know this from my experience with people. The first ten trainees who
have finished a three years’ therapist training at our center have confirmed
it. They all had different professions, different personal backgrounds and
different objectives for starting the course.
Their outcomes have been just as different.
doctors, one work-milieu therapist and, believe it or not, one engineer and one flight attendant. Out of these ten
persons, five today are active therapists, working with clients; another is practicing in a center for
co-counseling; the others are in one way or another moving gradually towards a more therapeutic direction in
their career. The only thing these people had in common when they started their therapeutic training, was an
interest in personal growth - their own and that of others."
"Everything
you never had
The
ideal role figure accommodations represent the principal means of healing. They
give both verbal and physical contact and support. It can be anything, according
to what the situation asks for. Often what is needed is merely confirmation and
approval. Then we may call it a confirming figure. The most general role is the
one named support figure. It is a person who can sit beside you so you do not
have to sit alone, a person who can sit back to back so you feel backed up, one
who can hold your head and keep it from dropping so you can rest yourself, or
maybe someone who can say “Go ahead! That's right!” when you need
encouragement in expressing yourself.
“It took many sessions before I wanted anyone near me on the floor,”
Eva recalls.
person just sitting there, it felt it as a heavy responsibility.” It took Eva even more time to be able to receive
anything from an ideal mother figure. Sometimes only small steps can be taken, while the client is gradually
getting ready to accept the next degree of emotional reality.""
-------------------------
"I do not have a clue about what to work on in this breathing session. I
happened to be placed in a group with a woman and a man not of my choosing. No emotional challenges come to my mind, waiting to be clarified.
“Never mind, there will be other breathings,” I think with
resignation.
I follow Odd's instructions, trying to keep my thoughts from wandering,
concentrating on my body and the air that fills it in a gradually increasing
rhythm. No issue presents itself. Should
I dare to stay like this for the entire 50 minutes? Just let my support persons
sit there, bored and idle? Without presenting any emotions? Should this be the
time to try?
My hands are aching as always. Why not get my support persons to take
care of them. They should manage this much.
The effect is immediate. As soon as I get their support, feelings start
to well up. It is like turning a
key. Energy surges. I want to use my legs. Odd brings a mattress to press them
against. Great. This is life, using the strength in my legs. I ask the support
persons to extend their roles to someone who can receive my strength. I am
impressed they manage, because I use all my body strength to press them down and
to give them a hard time. Once the woman asks to change her position. That
pleases me, because then I know she takes care of herself. In fact I had started
to worry about her.
How wonderful. I feel like having the powers of a horse, and still they
take it! To enjoy it completely, I ask them to say it, one after the other:
“I enjoy meeting your strength!” I laugh in pleasure. I can be as
strong as I want. I am not too much for them; they even enjoy it. I will not
have to keep myself down any more!
I start to wonder how to wind up this activity. Suddenly I know:
“Can you expand your roles to be
the
parents
I needed but didn't have? Let me rest in your lap
and say:
- If we had been your parents when you were little, we would have enjoyed
and encouraged your strength.”
Tears of joy and sadness start streaming as soon as I hear it. The rest
is easy:
“Please stroke my hair, both of you, very gentle and soft because I am
so small, and then say: - If we had been your parents back then we would have
shown you that we loved you and that we enjoyed your strength.”
All the time I am very much aware that the two ideal parents are not the
ones I would have chosen for the roles, and I am amazed that it does not matter.
Everything they do and say goes right into the little girl in their lap. She is
like an empty vessel into which the love and pride from symbolic parents is
pouring. In between I recognize my adult administrator observing and thinking:
“This is crazy. It is all just role-playing. I must be easy to fool.”
And yet the stream of love feels very physical and my emotions are real enough
and receiving everything I have missed and longed for. Suddenly I know:
“ This is repair work.”"
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