I imagine the September evening light to be something of a photographer's delight. So I imagined yesterday whilst sitting in my therapy room, writing my notes whereupon I noticed the difference a floor makes. Just a few stairs perhaps, but a very different view. Viewpoints are important. I was reminded of that this afternoon whilst beginning to re-think the different arguments on the aetiology of sexuality. Essentialist (nature: I was born this way), developmental (nurture: something happened, cause and effect) and social constructionist: does it matter anyway, and why it might.
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.
Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
Marcus Aurelius
As I sit opposite my client (or clients) we literally sit with opposing views. Physically we have different perspectives on the world outside. I face looking in one direction, and they may stare out on the other. There is an overlap, and we may share some aspects of the vista. But still there are things I can see, that they may not; and I am all too aware that their prospect does not resemble mine identically. This is an important reality in therapy.
I may be able to to imagine. I can sometimes guess. I may construe. But these are my realities. If truths, they are my truths. Somehow, in the therapy room, there needs to be space for more than one. Often, there may be several.
"Truth never penetrates an unwilling mind."
J. L. Borges
And breathe... I feel quite at home already in my new room. I hope my clients will also feel able to make themselves 'at home' in a space that may come to accommodate their truths, and in which we might unpack the stories we both hold, in order to uncover their origins, and evaluate their current values. Therapy is itself a space to reflect. The sunlight that currently floods through my windows reminds me that everything changes.
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