One Year After

One Year After

It’s been a year since my work with Julie ended. Yet, it feels much longer than that. Much has happened since then…more so than I can detail here. You’d have to read previous blog posts from the past year to catch up. Instead of a list of misfortunes, and minor victories, I’m going to reflect on where I’m at since therapy ended.

I feel that in some ways I’m better. But, there’s still a lot of work to be done. I was under the misapprehension, when I began therapy, that it was a cure all. That one would be completely perfect after the therapist finished their work on the client. Truth be told, that’s not how therapy works. The client does all the work, while the therapist acts as a guide. The client must commit to the work outside of the office. The office itself is a place where ideas are spoken, but the actions of the therapy are committed in the world outside. I have always taken the lessons I’ve learned from therapy into the world around me. Julie would be proud of that.

I may enter therapy again at some point. Another “episode of care” may be needed, but for the time being, I want to continue without a therapist. I want to see what lessons I can learn on my own from the teachers around me. I’ve realized recently that there is much I need to learn. There will always be more to learn. That’s a good thing, even when it seems like I’ll never learn enough.

Perhaps that is also a good thing. One can never learn enough.

There was a lot that happened in my past. But for me, therapy isn’t about the past. It may begin with detangling the past, and working through it. But good therapy is about improving the present, so that one may have a better future. You change old patterns, and make a better version of yourself.

That is a work in progress, one that never ends.

As the cliché says, “A thousand-mile journey begins with one step.”

Let’s walk this journey together. It leads to great things.

Copyright Riley Joyce 2017

Image: Psyche in the Temple of Love--Edwin John Pointer