Bringing My Counselor with Me
I’ve been watching Tim Jackins and trying to understand what he’s been saying about working on early defeats and isolation. Is it different from how I’ve been using my sessions? And what is going on [happening] in his minimalist demonstrations?
Recently I framed it to myself as going back with my counsellor to the places where I gave up and fighting there for a correct perspective. I use a simple image: my counsellor coming and standing beside me, with their hand on my head, and their (or my) telling the young me that we can now look together at what was going on—at what was being done by others and by me, the sounds, the sights, the smells—and face all of it.
It is key that I bring my counsellor with me, and all they need to do is let me know that they are there, witness the horribleness of it, and remind me that I can face it now, with them. No need for positive directions.
I intend to persist with this work, as I’ve already experienced the profound difference that discharging early distress makes.
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of Jews
(Present Time 198, January 2020)