Clients coming into therapy can’t see how their life can improve — they wouldn’t be here if they could! They come because they can’t see anything better for themselves and have nowhere else to turn. Because they can’t see what’s ahead, around the obstacles.
Of course they can’t see anything past the obstacles in front of them. No one in their life taught them how to do it. Their existence has been about survival and evolution and the forward movement of life.
Plus, none of us can see that far anyways. Not on our own.
It’s like driving at night when you can only see as far as the headlights will shine. They can only experience what is in their immediate present. And usually it’s pain of some sort. Pain that’s deep enough to prompt them to walk across the threshold and into my office.
Because some desperate part of them wants to believe in something. Have hope in something. So that’s what I try to give them.
I know there are infinite possibilities for how anyone’s life can untangle and unfold. As a therapist, I can be the beacon. I can carry the flame when the person can’t do it for themselves. I believe in them when they can’t believe in themselves. Because there are always possibilities hiding in the darkness, just beyond the obstacles.
Because when people begin to trust in something beyond the beams of their headlights, hope is born. And it becomes far easier to begin to trust in life.