Welcome to fantastically psychotic emotionally crazy mind twisting world of therapy. Throughout my first year of mental health counseling I have found that I do more work on my own brain than 99% of my clientele. My dad continually encourages me to document a memoir of my personal development as a therapist and turn it into this amazing New York Times Best Seller book. Unfortunately I get so caught up in each stage that I can't remember where I've come from up to this point. So, to assist in documenting each step I figure I should start now. Who knows, maybe at the end of this all I'll have to do is print off each post and slap 'em together.. DONEZO!
Life Lesson #1
The world is Black and White and also Grayscale. A.K.A., there is no answer. Ever. Congratulations, I just saved you a million dollars. I work with teenagers ranging in age from 13-18. Every single one of them asks.."What should I do?" Best part about my job...I get to say "I don't know." My job is not to give you the answer but help you find it within yourself. It's there! It's just covered up with layers of fear, confusion, judgement of others, judgement of self or just lack of confidence. Not only is the answer there, but it's different from anyone else's answer. Hence, the grayscale. Hence why I don't have the answer. Whatever answer I give you or anyone else gives you (therapist or not) it's not YOUR answer. So, you can either go to a therapist and have them assist you in stripping through all the crap and finding the golden ticket or you can sit and meditate and say....Yeah! What was I thinking! I know EXACTLY what I want/need to do. It's all a matter of stripping away the fear or judgement or finding that level of confidence in yourself that you actually know yourself better than anyone else. You might say, well I'm confused and I can't find it and I'm just getting frustrated! To quote my mother "Sit in it for a minute and really soak in how you're feeling." You have to dig through the all the crap to get to the bottom. Sometimes that dive is uncomfortable and scary and you get FRUSTRATED! But, you have to keep pushing through. And to quote my father, "It's character building." Damn, he was right. Because on the other side, you'll be stronger.
All we can do is keep breathing ... and in the mean time...work on finding your own answer.
I have always wondered if the phase “Black and White” came from old TV shows where all the characters accepted their predetermined roles and conflicts, and their respective resolutions, fit nicely into 1 hour time periods. That phrase probably came from somewhere else, but it makes me feel smart and insightful to have my own theory. I think that you are onto something great with capturing your personal and professional growth, I hope you don’t mind me hitching a ride too. One last thought…I like to think of the world as not black, white and lots of grays, but rather a dynamic-multicolored-fireworks-display-extravaganza plethora of people, ideas and choices. I guess that I’d rather choose a crayon from Crayola’s 500 box than 1-100% gray.
ReplyDelete1) I love your comparison of the Black and White interpretation of 1950's culture. Crazy intuitive and thought provoking...Bravo. 2) I also love the thought of seeing the world in a "dynamic-multicolored-fireworks-display-extravaganza". You just might have inspired some future blog posts :D
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