“There are so many ways to dance in the dark with our dragons. Therapy is an art.”
These words were the conclusion of a training I attended recently with Ana Gomez. They for me encapsulate so much of what is true about psychotherapy. It is indeed an art, at its best it brings into the same space cognition and intuition, it integrates our logical selves with our artistic, sensory, metaphorical selves. It is not only about thought, it offers us the opportunity to know deeply within our bodies, to sense and intuit what it is that is good for us to do, and what it is that we need.
I love the idea of dancing in the dark. For therapy is a place to explore our own inner darkness and dragons. The most troubling darkness is not that out there, it is this within, that we carry as part of our common humanity, and from our life experiences too. When we are stuck, it can seem so heavy, so frightening, and the last thing we are doing is dancing.
Therapy is about bringing freedom and movement into all of our being. It’s about building the trust and safety to come to know and accept our darkness, and to find ways to inhabit it with a lightness of being. We learn to dance, to sing, to celebrate and to know. We discover our own inner wisdom and the coherence of our own intuitive being.
Therapy is about attuning, about dancing together, in sync. It’s about resonance and partnership, equality and respect. Along the way it is of course at times clumsy, discordant and deeply challenging. There are moments of disconnection, and moments of repair. And each take us deeper. Just like learning to dance, we sometimes discover the way forward by finding out what not to do and then coming back into grace and rhythm.
If you are troubled by darkness or dragons within, psychotherapy may be for you. If I sound like the kind of dance partner you’d like to explore it with, then get in touch.
