What is Therapy? Part II

What Is Therapy? Part 2

We as individuals often forget that we are not just experiencing the world in an objective way, but we are living in the world through a particular invisible lens. This lens is our specific mind, which is created through a combination of our unique past experiences, personality traits, moods, and thought patterns. Our mind shapes and alters our experience of reality every waking hour, and yet most times we are not even aware of this filter of reality we are “wearing.” It tells us what is allowed, what is good, what is bad, what is a threat, who is a threat, and more, and yet we are not even aware this is happening.

This filter holds an incredible amount of power and influence, and it is typically the very thing that is getting in the way of the life we want. It is shaping ourselves, our worlds (both internal and external), and our lives.

Therapy creates the environment which allows our invisible lens to come to light. The reason it is so challenging to see this lens is the lens is formed through our most vulnerable parts of ourselves, the parts of us we oftentimes do not want to see, acknowledge, or connect with. We are often trying to hide these parts we are ashamed of, that feel unlovable or “bad.” It is my job as your therapist (with your engagement, participation, and commitment) to facilitate a space which allows us to access the invisible. To access the core structures of how you see the world and yourself. To help you feel like you can look, really look, at what seems intolerable.

So what do we do once we look? The goal is not to destroy our lens (this is impossible) but to first identify and understand the contours and shape of our specific filter. To get acquainted with its existence: Why is it here? Why is it so powerful? So convincing? So alluring? And why might it even be hard to let go of? What I see in my therapy room is that when we can get to these questions, access these parts, we see that our lens, while typically appropriate and functional at an earlier part of our life, is now outdated, misinformed, or no longer serving us. It is coming from a place of understandable fear, shame, anxiety, pride, ego, anger, usually somewhere that is not our Self. That is why we can feel like we are lost, empty, misaligned, unfulfilled, distant, or alone. We are not living from our authentic Self. That is what I specialize in: helping people find and live from their free, confident, trusting, open, vulnerable, honest Self.