I was reflecting with a colleague this week on the way that encounters with clients cause me to change and grow. It is noticeable that themes in my own experiencing are reflected back in those of clients, and vice versa. While spooky at times, I’ve come to recognise and respect this deep resonance and synchronicity. They say ‘when the student is ready, the teacher will appear,” I’ve learned to know that I am so often the student, and that being open to personal growth and transformation is a prerequisite to being an effective psychotherapist.
I don’t know yet, and mostly nor do my clients. That is what brings them, not knowing, and wanting to discover. Not knowing the answers, sometimes not even being sure what questions to ask. Being genuinely curious without fear, being willing to look and truly see, and welcoming all that comes are some of the arts of therapy, and they are not easy.
This wonderful job invites a continual deepening of personal awareness and self-knowledge. It asks therapists to be honestly present, and to welcome all and any experience of the clients, however provoking and difficult. We assist healing by standing at the edge of what our clients can currently tolerate, and by helping them find a sense of emotional and physical regulation as they explore. By doing this our client’s window of tolerance expands, and they are more and more able to stay grounded as life’s challenges pass through.
I am continually learning about my own window of tolerance, and what it is that helps and hinders as I journey both with client material and my own. I sense this exploration and growth will never end, and that is good news. For nothing in nature is stagnant, and potential is there to be expressed and inhabited.
For clinical supervision that helps you be the most authentic and present therapist you can be, get in touch.
