Phew. I have been writing and studying a lot this week. Yes…it is technically my summer vacation but summer vacation doesn’t really exist when you are a graduate student/therapist.
Writing can be such a tedious process (with the exception of this blog, the one place that I feel I can truly just let the words flow). Writing is tedious because it is a process. We write to a certain point, stop, read what we have just written, and then revise. The end product is sometimes so much different than what we began with.
Right now I am on draft number 8 of a research proposal that I am writing. It is simultaneously rewarding and exhausting to be putting so much work into it. I know that the end result will be rewarding but it is the process that I have to get through first.
Have you figured out where I am going with this?
In many ways, therapy is a lot like writing. We step into a therapy room with the expectation that the end product (person/mindset/outcome) will be different than the beginning product (person/mindset/outcome) that we walk in with. Unfortunately, we often forget that, like writing, therapy is a process. What this means is that it is going to be both rewarding and exhausting.
Therapy is not something that magically changes things for people. Rather, therapy is more of an environment in which we are allowed to engage in the process without judgment or fear. It is a place where we can go through the process all the while knowing that we have someone sitting across from us who is willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work with us.
So, yes the thought of going through the process may be daunting. I promise you, though, that whatever the process is…we are all the better for going through it.
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No Thoughts About Draft #8